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changing label from E: to C: in the primary boot partition (windows XP). How?

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Darwin:
There are some utilities (the used to be one in Partition Magic) that can help but the whole process is non-trivial and prone to probems - even with utilities. Personally I would leave well alone or reinstall Windows from scratch - probably quicker in the long run.
--- End quote ---

Very true. Even at the most superficial level (for from the perspective of annoyance), whicl while PM will offer to change all references to a changed partition (so F:\My Documets becomes E:\My Documents for example), in practice it misses lots of them. I spent three months uncovering problems and longer than that fixing them!

Be careful...

EDIT: corrected typos...

tomos:
looks confusing alright ..

I know you can actually install OS to logical drive but from what I've read there has to be one primary drive in computer - sounds like it wont/shouldnt even work without it

can you double check with some other app - or with windows itself
see Carols post in "other" partitioning thread
https://www.donationcoder.com/forum/index.php?topic=9232.msg72561#msg72561

Carol Haynes:
(see attachment in previous post)Well, it looks like it's inside the extended partition. I have attached a picture using paragon partition manager. I haven't been able to find a way to change this ext partition into a primary. But maybe there's one?
-urlwolf (August 19, 2007, 10:52 AM)
--- End quote ---

Yep - it is inside the extended partition - but it is a "Logical Partition" not a "Primary Partition" - it's just terminology. The difference arose because the original partitioning methods (typically using FDISK under MSDOS) only allowed 4 primary partitions on a disc (there were no other kinds of partition). To get round this limitation as disks grew in size and people demanded more flexibility extended partitions (a form of Primary partition) were developed. An extended partition can contain "Logical Partitions" - so that you can effectively break the 4 partition rule. Logical partitions aren't true partitions they are just a way of breaking up a large primary partition into what look like partitions. You still can't have more than 4 primary partitions on a drive - it is just that one of those primary partitions can be an extended partition which can contain more 'virtual' partitions. It is a typical MS fudge - rather than fix the original problem they cobbled a solution and it has remained until today.

I am surprised if Paragon can't convert between logical and primary partitions (check the help files). Otherwise try Acronis Disk Director - there is a free trial version - though whether it will let you do that during a trial I don't know.

As with ALL partition alterations a backup is recommended before doing anything radical.

There is a whole page of partition tools at http://www.thefreecountry.com/utilities/partitioneditors.shtml - though you use them at your own risk!

Partition Magic can do the job - there is a free 15 day demo version: see http://www.click-now.net/html/PartitionMagic.htm


PS: Looking again at your image I think Paragon have clouded the image somewhat. Drives C and D are what everyone else in the industry would call Primary partitions. Why Paragon call them logical is beyond me - and very confusing.

urlwolf:
@biox
More advantages of having different partitions:
3. defragging is faster

4. If you share files over a network, you can restrict access by only allowing sharing on one partition.
@carol
Thanks a lot for the pointer. It seems I'm wrong: I have converted the extended partition to a primary one; E: still doesn't show up in the dropdown list!
I wonder where E: is. It's certainly not used by any partition or CD/DVD (at least it doesn't show!).
Maybe there's a hidden partition?

Carol Haynes:
Does paragon not show hidden partitions?

You should be able to see a hidden partition using windows disk management console (Start > RUN > diskmgmt.msc)

Any partitions not appearing in windows will appear as partitions without letters.

What happens if you open a command windows (START > RUN > CMD.EXE) and type E: (press return) DIR (press return) ?

Actually if you only have drives C: D: and G: in windows (open START > My computer) then the letter assignment G: must have been done manually at some time (unless you have used an external drive of some kind - ext. hard disc, flash disc, pen disk or similar and that was assigned E: when it was first used - if so E: would be reserved for that use in future within the registry). Is your optical drives F: ?

Looking back at your original post I think you will find that if you run Windows from Drive E: then program installers should (and most will) automatically choose E:\Program Files to do any installations. You should check as a matter of course when you install programs but it is usually automatic (it is a good idea to check locations where ever you have windows installed).

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