Changing a drive letter

Hi,
I'd like to change a partition drive letter in Windows Vista.

I tried using "Disk Management", but I received the following error:
"Windows cannot modify the drive letter of your volume. This may happen if
your volume is a system or boot volume, or has page files."

The partition is marked as: Healthy (System, Active, Primary Partition)

It doesn't have anything on this partition, except a file called: BOOTSECT.BAK

I'm not sure if this is relevant, but I have a dual-boot system with Ubuntu.

Please help

Hi Jonathan,

> The partition is marked as: Healthy (System, Active, Primary Partition)

You can't change it because of the "Active" designation. Windows (any
version, not just Vista) will not allow for a drive letter change to any
volume designated as active/boot/system. In this case, the active volume is
the one first loaded by the pc prior to choosing the OS to load. Until the
bootloader is moved and a different volume is designated as the active one,
the ability to change the drive letter will not be available.

--
Best of Luck,

Rick Rogers, aka "Nutcase" - Microsoft MVP
http://mvp.support.microsoft.com/
Windows help - www.rickrogers.org
My thoughts http://rick-mvp.blogspot.com

"Jonathan Livni" <> wrote in message
news:69C0A7AF-042D-47F6-AD80-...
> Hi,
> I'd like to change a partition drive letter in Windows Vista.
>
> I tried using "Disk Management", but I received the following error:
> "Windows cannot modify the drive letter of your volume. This may happen if
> your volume is a system or boot volume, or has page files."
>
> The partition is marked as: Healthy (System, Active, Primary Partition)
>
> It doesn't have anything on this partition, except a file called:
> BOOTSECT.BAK
>
> I'm not sure if this is relevant, but I have a dual-boot system with
> Ubuntu.
>
> Please help

"Rick Rogers" <> wrote in message
news:...
> Hi Jonathan,
>
>> The partition is marked as: Healthy (System, Active, Primary Partition)
>
> You can't change it because of the "Active" designation. Windows (any
> version, not just Vista) will not allow for a drive letter change to any
> volume designated as active/boot/system. In this case, the active volume
> is the one first loaded by the pc prior to choosing the OS to load. Until
> the bootloader is moved and a different volume is designated as the active
> one, the ability to change the drive letter will not be available.


If he's only using Vista, he would not need any BOOTSECT files. It must be
a remnant of an old XP installation. Also, its only a .BAK file, and would
be safe to delete. It should be safe to make into a primary partition.
It's easy using something like Acronis Disk Director.

ss.

"Warp 10" <> wrote in message
news:...
> is it the first partition of that drive?????

It would not have to be, to be a System partition.

> how many drives do you have?
>
> is this IDE or SATA????

????

ss.

He is also booting Ubuntu!

--

Richard Urban
Microsoft MVP
Windows Desktop Experience


"Synapse Syndrome" <> wrote in message
news:ep6$...
> "Rick Rogers" <> wrote in message
> news:...
>> Hi Jonathan,
>>
>>> The partition is marked as: Healthy (System, Active, Primary Partition)
>>
>> You can't change it because of the "Active" designation. Windows (any
>> version, not just Vista) will not allow for a drive letter change to any
>> volume designated as active/boot/system. In this case, the active volume
>> is the one first loaded by the pc prior to choosing the OS to load. Until
>> the bootloader is moved and a different volume is designated as the
>> active one, the ability to change the drive letter will not be available.
>
>
> If he's only using Vista, he would not need any BOOTSECT files. It must
> be a remnant of an old XP installation. Also, its only a .BAK file, and
> would be safe to delete. It should be safe to make into a primary
> partition. It's easy using something like Acronis Disk Director.
>
> ss.
>

"Richard Urban" <> wrote in message
news:...
>>
>> If he's only using Vista, he would not need any BOOTSECT files. It must
>> be a remnant of an old XP installation. Also, its only a .BAK file, and
>> would be safe to delete. It should be safe to make into a primary
>> partition. It's easy using something like Acronis Disk Director.
>
> He is also booting Ubuntu!
>

BOOTSECT.DOS is not a Linux file either. It may have been created for some
reason by the Linux multi-booter on the NTFS partition, but I doubt it, and
in any case, this is a .BAK file, which just has to be made by Windows, and
can be deleted with no problem at all.

ss.

Hi,
Thanks for so many replies so fast.
All hard drives are SATA.
Here is a map of my drives and partitions:

== Disk 0 - 250GB ==
--- 10GB - Unallocated ---
wanted to allocate for Ubuntu swap, but never did.
--- 10GB - D: - Video Scratch ---
System, Active, Primary Partition
Used for scratch files of video editing progs
--- 230GB - F: - Documents ---
Primary Partition
My Vista Documents partition

== Disk 1 - 250GB ==
--- 70GB - C: - Vista ---
Boot, Page File, Active, Crash Dump, Primary Partition
Vista and program installation partition
--- 180GB - V: - Video ---
Primary Partition
Used as video editing space

== Disk 2 - 250GB ==
--- 10GB - E: - Vista Swap ---
Primary Partition
Was used for windows page file up until I reinstalled Vista. Didn't
get
to move it there yet, but I intend to.
--- 50GB - Ubuntu ---
Primary Partition
Ubuntu installation
--- 190GB - H: P2P ---
Primary Partition
Used for downloaded and P2P files


Basicly what I want is to change drive F: (Documents) to D: which is
currently taken by the Video Scratch partition. This is important for me as
to allow Photoshop Elements (PE) recognize my pictures which reside in the
documents partition. PE thinks it should be on D: ...

What should I do?
How do I make the partition not active?
Does Acronis do that?

Rick wrote: "the active volume is
the one first loaded by the pc prior to choosing the OS to load. Until the
bootloader is moved and a different volume is designated as the active one,
the ability to change the drive letter will not be available."

How then do I move the "Active" to a different partition?

Thanks
Jonathan

On Wed, 17 Sep 2008 12:49:02 -0700, Jonathan Livni
<> wrote:

>Basicly what I want is to change drive F: (Documents) to D: which is
>currently taken by the Video Scratch partition. This is important for me as
>to allow Photoshop Elements (PE) recognize my pictures which reside in the
>documents partition. PE thinks it should be on D: ...

Simple:

First change "D" to another available letter.

Change "F" to "D". Might have to restart to make the first change
effective, but probably won't.

No assign whatever drive letter you wish to the former "D"

"Paul Montgomery" <> wrote in message
news:...
>
>>Basicly what I want is to change drive F: (Documents) to D: which is
>>currently taken by the Video Scratch partition. This is important for me
>>as
>>to allow Photoshop Elements (PE) recognize my pictures which reside in the
>>documents partition. PE thinks it should be on D: ...
>
> Simple:
>
> First change "D" to another available letter.
>
> Change "F" to "D". Might have to restart to make the first change
> effective, but probably won't.
>
> No assign whatever drive letter you wish to the former "D"

He can't unless change D: to anything as long as it is Active.

ss.

"Jonathan Livni" <> wrote in message
news:0FAB9876-EFD3-4599-8617-...
> --- 10GB - D: - Video Scratch ---
> System, Active, Primary Partition
> Used for scratch files of video editing progs
> --- 230GB - F: - Documents ---
> Primary Partition
> My Vista Documents partition

<snip>

> Basicly what I want is to change drive F: (Documents) to D: which is
> currently taken by the Video Scratch partition. This is important for me
> as
> to allow Photoshop Elements (PE) recognize my pictures which reside in the
> documents partition. PE thinks it should be on D: ...
>
> What should I do?
> How do I make the partition not active?
> Does Acronis do that?

Acronis is a company. One of their products, Disk Director Suite, is able
to do it. The trial only deals with very small partitions, but it may be
able to do this - not sure. Have you tried formatting the partition? That
should do it.

> Rick wrote: "the active volume is
> the one first loaded by the pc prior to choosing the OS to load. Until the
> bootloader is moved and a different volume is designated as the active
> one,
> the ability to change the drive letter will not be available."
>
> How then do I move the "Active" to a different partition?

You do not need to move it anywhere as long as you are sure there is nothing
on it other than temporary scratch files and that BOOTSECT.BAK file. Check
for hidden and system files.

ss.