Changing the Windows C: Drive to Any Letter
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- Опубліковано 2 сер 2024
- They said it couldn't be done 😤😤😤
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There is virtually no information out there about how to change the main Windows drive letter to something other than C. It is easy to do for other drives using the disk manager, but the main drive is another story. But, I figured out a method on how to do it in case anyone wants to. I wouldn't say it's recommended because you might run into some strange behavior from the occasional program, but some people might want to do this for the cool factor.
▼ Time Stamps: ▼
0:00 - Intro
1:26 - How to Do It
5:20 - Reasons You Might Not Want To
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▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬ - Наука та технологія
I would advise app makers to use the environment variable %homedrive%:\ instead of C:\
Yeah, 1st thing I thought of is how most apps will have to be tweaked during install
But that makes too much sense!
Isn't that the %ProgramFiles% variable the same?
@@Energobytes That points to %homedrive%:\Program Files\. Some programs may create a folder inside %homedrive%:\, like MinGW is %homedrive%:\msys64
btw it might make more sense for %systemdrive%:\
Has science gone too far?
Yep
Tooo Far 🏎️
yeeep
Bro I Am From Pakistan Make A Video On How To Make Windows Into Macbook In Cloest Look
Yeah.
I am a software developer, and most of my apps use predefined path locations(since it's more convenient). But as soon as I watched this video, I rushed to quickly change all my libraries to work with %systemdrive% instead
Nice
it's never a good idea to use absolute paths
Well... I suggest to let the user install it on any path and use system varibles for windows and programfiles folder. In an industrial enviroment usually we install everything with default setting because we know that most industrial software was never properly tested.... Many of them does not have a software tester and never heard of such.
@D Tibor I set up my apps to work wherever they are (as long as they have all the required Dlls which are installed automatically), the default path being %programfiles%. And their installer allows for custom paths.
The primary issue I found after watching this video was that when I wanted to get the program data, I would just use "C:\Users\" + Username + "\Appdata". And a few other functions that worked with paths had this issue.
Now I have a function that checks for 2 % simbols and replaces it with its respective enviroment path variabile. Same for shell: paths.
Not sure why you needed to watch this video - bunch of people have Windows on disc D - that's easy to achieve via Windows setup itself.
U can always make a small C drive and fill it up with symbolic links to the A drive. That way the programs using C drive by default will be redirected to A
Just do subst C: A:\ to redirect the C drive to the A drive
I think you can also mount the drive as both A: and C: at the same time
That a really genius idea! :D
Not sure, though, how it would deal with the space.
As I understand, when working with symbolic links, the space is taken from the destination (aka A drive).
There are also special versions of Windows where the default letter for the installation volume is A.
Back in the MS-DOS days, the most popular series of PCs in Japan was NEC's PC-9800 series of PCs. These computers were not compatible with standard MS-DOS and had a special version of DOS that was compatible with those computets, but where the boot drive would always be the A drive (so it didn't matter if you installed DOS on a hard drive or if you booted from a floppy disk, the boot drive was always A). Eventually, versions of Windows would be ported to PC-9800 series computers, and the PC-9800 editions of Windows would also by default use A as the letter for the installation volume
that's a very interesting PC-98 fact...
Thats Interesting
This could potentially bypass some malware also that might be hard coded to use C: or assume the O/S is there.
👍
But that again can easily be bypassed if they use the environment variable %homedrive% or %systemdrive% instead of C:\
Finally a good tutorial thats not outdated
@@catcanhack I tried using Linux but it's too manual for my preference.
(Ubuntu, Arch and some of its forks)
when it comes to windows ,honestly you are the very best, hands down..please keep this stuff up because it is great to know these things. thank you
3:34 (idk if you know this) but pro tip, to save time instead of doing "list volume" or "list partition", do "lis vol", or "lis par", it still works, and saves time, this applies to other commands in diskpart
What a time to come across this vid. I'm at the moment using the free version of 'AOMEI' Partition Assistant' (Standard Edition.) I'm a bit blown away by it. One of the options is to 'letter' the partitions. A-Z is available and takes about 5 seconds. I'd suggest downloading it just for a look.
A fun fact is that most viruses are hardcoded to use C: drive as System, so if you do that stuff, you will get fewer problems with viruses
I wouldn't rely on it tbf.
Hey... how do you know that?
@@gammaboost
Just read the script attached with those virus files😂
@@gammaboostthey don't, they are just basing it on the fact that it's common for most programs to incorrectly do it that way and viruses are just programs that you don't want running
yea but nothing else works
I think enderman made a video in which he showed that any Unicode Charakter is valid as a drive letter in Windows. Would be interesting to see if you can install Windows to a drive thats called 1: or something...
The Video is called "Weird drive letters in Windows"
Interesting
@@ThioJoe wait, can colon be a letter?
::/
Enderman also removed the driver letter
I opened the comments section just to see if someone said ahout Enderman's video, i don't remember but i think he used Linux and it is mindblowing the thing he did.
This would be an interesting experiment to see how much hard coding of windows path programs have done. Also some virus may not work if it is hard coded to assume c drive.
It's been a long time since I watched you man, you're still kicking🔥
Back in the day, the A and B drives were for the two floppy (the real kind) drives were assigned to them by default as they came before hard drives (IIRC). So by default, the C drive then represented the primary hard drive going forward and as an industry, everyone stayed with that for compatibility.
He made a video about that.
The installer for XP and earlier used the MS-DOS rules for assigning drive letters. So if you tried to install XP on, for example, a logical drive in an extended partition, you’d end up with it installed on D: or E:. Only in Vista did they start using the selected install partition as C: no matter what.
Well now I have another idea of how I can confuse my friends. First I made it look like my computer somehow "downgraded" from Windows 10 to 7 (it was a windows 7 vm that was in full screen mode that I made for fun). Now I can't imagine how they'll react to not seeing a different drive letter on a vm.
Woahhhh! They said it was impossible to install Windows in a drive set in a different letter. Anyways, you finally made the right choice for the thumbnail. The thumbnail made it more intriguing. And I was impressed!
Good video Thio, I didn't know that was possible! Btw can you make a video of "What if you eject and delete the ENTIRE C: drive?", It would be hella cool
How would you 'eject' a hard disk? Do you mean just pull it out while its running? You'd just get a blue screen or the PC would lock up. Fail to see how that would be 'cool'.
You copied me
Desktop background go black.
Only recycle bin icon shows up
Only programs loaded in the ram work
Error message do not display text
When you restart windows 11 it will fix itself.
Do not know what happens if you delete it tho ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Just search that on youtube, you will find a whole bunch of videos doing it and the best one is from Enderman channel .
@@mackie219 I didn't and I didn't even saw your comment
I changed the main drive to my work system to the "D" drive, an external drive about 8 years ago. I also installed an internal SSD for the boot drive. The boot drive was still designated as "C" and contained ONLY the OS. All other functions, programs, apps and data took place on the "D" drive. It did require a little more work and attention to detail but for my situation at the time, it was needed and worked.
Thanks I’ve always wanted to have my system installed on a floppy drive
There are very common-sense reasons for doing this: Anybody who wants to install multiple OSs for a multi-boot system needs it. I have a Win7 partition that I'm still rockin', but decided too many devs have moved to the spyware-laden 11. Yet, installing it from a USB kept insisting on calling the drive it was on "C:". This hack works, and allowed me to install on E:. Working on Win11 22H2. Some software manufacturer. How many OSs in history made you get an expensive Server edition in order to install anywhere else than C:??? Epic hack, for those who need it, ThioJoe!
Back in the 1990's playing around I figured out how to change the drive letter in Windows, they thought to myself this probably isn't a good idea - and it wasn't.
Yes i was waiting so long
I had WinNT on D: a long while ago. Win98 on C: (because of an early MP3-player that needed Win98 to be loaded through a parallel port, which couldnt'd be done in NT).
When I removed C: a bit later, I ended up with D: for the OS, and E: for the data. I had a virtual C: mounted somewhere on D:, so programs that insisted on C: did even work...
Thanks for the video dude! You're the GOAT
No one:
Not a single sole:
Literally not human ever:
ThioJoe: Today I'm going to show you how to change your C: Drive to another letter
🤣
Amazing Video nice i was wondering doing this and you readed my mind
Back when Windows was a graphical shell running on DOS I always installed DOS on C and Windows on D. It just seemed to run better and it kept the two operating systems separate.
If you're looking for ideas of tutorial videos, like you do so well. Maybe a video on how to rename your User "name" folder under the Users folder. Even though you can do it as the owner, it doesn't rename the actual folder under the user folder. Keep up the great videos. Thanks.
I once accidentally set the system driver letter to E while cloning a drive to an ssd. It booted after some registry edits. many apps failed to run so I added the C as a 2nd letter for the osdisk and it was fine.
Thio is a legend
I already knew how to set drive letters to A/B, not the system drive, sheesh. This is pretty cool
I used to have Windows 9x and NT family (2000 or XP). When you already have a Windows installed and start installing a newer version from Windows rather than booting from CD/DVD/USB, the new installation would use D: drive. I may still work with newer versions. Although it's not an arbitrary drive letter in that case compared to what Thio demonstrated.
Thanks Thio!
LOL That intro though.... very alien-documentary-like. 😂😂
Never knew that was even possible and never actually thought anything of it
Cool!
I wanted to know answer, now I know the answer! :D
Thanks for the video!
hah, always fun to do those kind of work arounds, love em.
Now, what happens if you plug a floppy drive into a Windows machine thats installed to a:? Will it automaticly show up as the B: drive?
Probably
@@ThioJoe ok it seems you dont have to use the remove on the diskpart. just the changing of the mounted thing in the mounted hive.
Yes. Tried it in my machine and indeed it shows up as B.
If B is already taken as well, then it will just take the next letter of the alphabet available like anything else does. Yes, that includes C: if it happens to be an unassigned drive letter.
Fun fact: you can install windows to any directory on C volume by manually applying the image (even C:\con)
This is MAD science!
Since first Windows appears i had installed it onto not C: for testing purposes, it is easy as clear water, no special tricks needed, it can be done natively just by a personal partitioning at install booting process, with multi-patition, just to ensure C: is in use while install runs from the ISO... so it uses other letter .. and with diskpart i force it to be whatever i wish.
That is from more than 20 years ago... and all versiones, including Windows 11.
Add: I did publish it the first time i used, also i did publish how to boot every Windows without any physical Primary partition on any physical storage (using Grub2, Grub, Memdisk, VHD (to hold the boot primary partition), etc...only having one Extended partition for each Windows .. and at boot time be able to choose what Windows to boot ... having only one physical disk/storage.
I did this to every clients computer back in the 98-xp days since many viruses were hard coded for c and couldnt infect without it, if any apps that failed without it, i just changed the shortcut to run a script with subst temporarily and was never a problem after that
I can't wait for the calls from my clients asking me to repair their systems. You're making me money! Thanks.
I remember attempting to modify this when Windows was installed on D: instead of C: on a server. Drove me nuts. Wish MS would abandon drive letters that date back 40 yrs ago.
Finally you changed the wallpaper lol
As an aside, the last time I used diskpart, I accidentally deleted a volume and diskpart did not give me a warning or any chance to cancel the operation. I had to use recovery software to get my data back. Bear that in mind if you use diskpart on a system where there is important data being stored
@ThioJoe is it possible to download windows 11 on an unsupported pc that is over 6 years?
Thanks, TJ~
Hey guys and ThioJoe, I use my PC mainly for gaming (both native games and emulators), has Windows 11 reached a point where I should upgrade to it instead of sticking to 10 until the end of its support ?
Btw, I really like videos like this where you show us how to do stuff that normally we wouldn't be able to do just to goof around.
Personally, I like Windows 11 a lot more than Windows 10, so I would advise you to update. But that's your decision and you should probably first wait for others to respond
they added more features to notepad and right click menus are different D:
havent really had an issue with anything else though
I'd love to know how it can happen that bcdedit does not show the "correct" drive letter if you did *not* resize or move the partition. Also, I'd like to know what happens if you do *not* fix that (does it boot into recovery and change the letter back to C:?) In the BCD file, usually (at least when doing a clean install) there is not stored any drive letters, but instead partition IDs and partition offsets, and bcdedit will convert to the actual drive letter once you view it (you can test this by booting WinPE (or Windows Setup), change drive letters (they won't persist across reboot) and look at bcdedit and the drive letters will appear differently.
But yes, I did not know this method, but like it better than running X:\sources\setup from inside an already installed Windows (which, up to at least Win10, also results into a changed drive letter). I often have to edit DosDevices when cloning your disk to a different media type/size, so I understand why this works.
I also fear that these kind of hacks might not survive a version upgrade (or cause problems during settings migration). But for a nice test machine (or some "Windows To Go"), I'd totally go for it.
This path "mounted devices" on registry was helpfull when my cloned (dd tool used ) install didnt want to go to desktop ( black screen only loading icon stuck) . the solution was to erase all things inside there with remote registry , and re-create an EFi folder .
Maybe you can use the subst command for the programs that need the c drive
Thats pretty cool :D
I changed disk letter to another with some utility which replace letter in registry. But it works only in clean system.
I can confirm that adobe lightroom shows A: drive with the latest version of Lightroom. I have the letter A set to my ssd which has my lr catalog and all the photos.
Lightroom or Lightroom Classic? The screenshot shows a Lightroom Classic problem
@@raulgalets Lightroom Classic
@@ridethefog I see. nice to see it is fixed
I literally thinking about the same and searched for the same on UA-cam today, and here ur
Isn't this possible by simply installing windows to an existing empty partition that already assigned with alternate letter? because i'm sure when I did that in the past, it kept the original drive letter that I assigned to that partition. Which in this case was not "C".
Yes, if you launch the Installer from an existing install the drive letter will be whatever it was in the original install.
The official way of doing this is using an unattended install. The unattened install script allows you to setup all the drive letters of your partiion. It requires that you repartition the dtive in the unattended setup so is not suitable for everyone. There is a website that will generate an unattended script file that you place on a windows install usb stick which means the drive will auto install windows erasing everything on any machine that boots it so you need to be extra careful with a usb stick configured for unattended install
That doesn't work with A: and B:, but it will work with D: though Z:
Unattented install scripts will error out and fail if A or B is selected as the drive letter.
Quick question why theres no other way to change letter? also why my hard drive dont let me erase all partitions? like dont let me install in the 18tb partition only in the 2 tb partition like why?
What virtual machine system do you use?
My assumption was that, even in Win10+, it was _intended_ to be hardcoded (for backward compatibility reasons) that C: _must_ be the OS drive, A: and B: are reserved for floppy drives (good luck finding one these days), D: _must_ be either a CD or DVD drive or a mounted .iso file (I play a lot of older games that have CD-required DRM, and they won't run unless the disc-in-drive is mounted to D:, or I've created an iso of the CD, reassigned the physical drive to a different letter, and powershelled Mount-DiskImage to have the iso mount to D:...), and E: through Z: could be whatever you want them to be. (I believe X: is also a system-reserved mount point, but who would fill up E: through W: and _need_ X:?)
Been there done that (ish), one of my x-wifes computers were divided to an extremely small C: and a huge D: "for data" as the support said, however there were no room to install programs to C, so I had to try to D:, and run into the same kind of problems as adobe lightroom. Don't actually recall which program, but I gave up and wiped, clean installed onto all disc is C:
Did this once back in the XP days, one thing to add regarding A: and B: drives is that they get excluded completely from windows search indexes, at least up to Windows 7, I didn't try any further. So avoid them unless you want this to happen. :D
Windows 10 and 11 include the system drive in the index by default regardless of drive letter, even A or B.
I can't speak for 8 or 8.1, though.
what if you use a 3rd party program to change D: to A: then use one of those programs specialized in moving content from a drive to another one, you move the content of C: drive to the A: drive then you can just change the name of C: to D: or any other letter
Long long ago I installed DOS to netboot. Some PCs had a local hard drive with C and D partitions, some not. So everything from the OS went into E.
Way back in the day I did a brute force change. Think I did it later with some version during setup.
Doing the lord's work
I once did a dualboot of "Windows XP X64" and "Windows XP" and X64 version used E: Drive for main installation automatically
Thanx for the video. When I installed Win 11 on a second partition it haves it's self drive i: rather than drive C:
Interesting video
Can you do this on the current installation:insert media>boot media>repair boot>cmd>registry editor >change name>restart
I'm fine with it using C: as the system drive, but I would still want to use A: and B: as USB drives.
You can, you just have to manually assign those drives to A: and B: in disk management, as Windows will outright refuse to assign anything to A or B unless they are the only letters left (or the device is a floppy drive).
You can't read minds bruh? Obviously the guy is on another level for the setting a letter part.
How do I switch C and D drives at the same time or merge both drives into C using command prompt?
After the last windows 10 update somehow C and D drives were switched so now Windows cannot boot up because it is trying to boot from C drive Volume 1 which is the Recovery drive but now my Windows is on D drive volume 0.
I've tried selecting C drive in command prompt booting from USB drive and assigning it a different letter like Z and Diskpart says that it successfully assigned the letter but when I go to list volume it still has Recovery listed as C and main partition listed as D.
For some reason it is refusing to change C drive to something else even though it says that it is changed. All partitions are listed as healthy. Bootrec /scanos = 0 total identified windows installations.
How do I reverse those 2 for good in command prompt?
I haven't been able to find a good article or video on it.
If you boot the recovery or installation environment and the system drive is D there, you can try running "bcdboot d:\windows". This should work for you if the problem is with the bootloader settings.
Does it work if you don't take out the installation media?
What is this vm software?
came into this video with a Jim quote "I'm gonna skip the how and go straight to the 'why?'"
I have done this by accident because sometimes I install Windows from inside Windows via /sources/setup.exe. Windows just sets up with the drive letter as mounted on the running system. So when I need to install Windows to a partrition, set as D:, it will setup as D:
This has sometimes caused problems, and sometimes just been cool to see. I really advise program makers to install to %systemdrive% instead of C:\
A: should be a norm today for the main OS partition since almost nobody have floppy disk readers
the fact that you can say "ass" letter a in diskpart as well lol
You can use this same method with the install disk to sign into a passworded PC that someone has forgotten the password or a found laptop. To change the password to whatever you want. windows security is more of a suggestion than a rule.
@thiojoe how to fix not enough memory in system to boot virtual machi although my pc is 8gb of r.a.m
I remember an old PC bios I had that could do, set the boot drive C: E: F: G: (I think it was a award-bios), didn't use it much, the one think a very liked, I never seen on any of my later PC's was your could set password as the boot on power key, so the PC would play completely dead until the right key presses for the password where pressed, I realy miss that, not so much for the security, you could power up the box only pressing key on the keyboard, no stretching to down find the PC boxes power button?
I was able to do this on Windows 7 by running the installer on an existing windows installation and targetting an already formatted ntfs partition. But this doesn't work with the windows 10 installer anymore
I did the same thing with Windows 10 once and ended up with the new install coming up as D. At least I tihnk it was 10. It might have been 7.
Does it work on VirtualBox vms too?
I wanted to try it after installing windows in a vm (tried with 7 because I had it ready) and it broke a lot of stuff (can't even open explorer)
"You are always vulnerale to viruses". Windows on A letter which would make the path the virus targets change and so would make a lot of scripts unvalid:
Mine boots from an X drive with pre scripted admin in command loading 32 when its a 64 ,also ive found monitoring that was so invasive from keylogger to 1 every choice i had
I use A: to mount a removable drive and B: to mount a network drive.
Where did you get the 126GB floppy disk from?
I want to see a Part 2 where you add a floppy drive to this system! 🙂
Just Plug An Floppy Drive
Whenever I do it it says: Virtual disk service error: Assigning or removing drive letters on the current boot or page file volume is not allowed. How do I fix this error
@Enixmy Thank you!
It's very very interesting
I have an question is 100% disk will slow your pc and if that disk is an hdd can it slow down the hole pc
Sometimes if it's using always 100%, but most of the time it happens because of a Windows issue that can be fixed easily, though it's complicated.
What if you set it to Z instead?
Numbers overflow and loop around but I don't know about letters
Yes, you can set it to Z. Or any letter of the alphabet.
What happened to the ai voice translations? I watch all videos in English but still it was fun to change the audio on your videos
You can't make a simple user that has administrator permissions without being an actual administrator
I think you can do this by having an already-formatted drive, selecting that in the windows installer instead of a clean partition.
PS: I have accidentally done this before, MS support told me I had to reinstall
PPS: This is probably why the person said to "set the letter", It's assumed you aren't using clean drives