I'm running Windows XP. When my nephew built my computer, he installed my old hard drive in addition to my new one. The computer changed the drive assignments at that time with the old hard drive becoming "C:" and the new becoming "F:". Since that time we've removed the old "C:" hard drive and the only hard drive remains as "F:". Now, some downloads won't install because they want a C: path, and various other functions trying to utilize drive C: have problems. Drive Management will not let me reassign my F Drive to C because it is the main boot drive. What can I do?
Most people don't realize that using "C:" as the primary drive on your computer is fairly arbitrary. It's a good practice, if only to avoid the problems you're running into, but as you've seen you don't need to have it that way. You can build a system that boots from a drive of a different letter - in your case "F:".
Unfortunately, some software packages don't realize it either. They assume that there'll always be a "C:".
So we need to get tricky.
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First of all, reassigning the drive letter of your existing boot drive - changing the F: to C: - wouldn't work anyway. The problem is that all the software you have installed so far has been installed on F:. As a result, all the settings for that software assume (correctly) that F: exists, and that's where the programs can find what they need.
One of those programs, by the way, is Windows itself.
So if you simply renamed F: to C:, it's likely that the system wouldn't even boot, because Windows would still be looking for things on F: - the F: that was no longer there. Even if Windows did boot, most of the applications you have installed would also no longer work, for much the same reason.
What I'm going to suggest is that we create a new C: drive, a "virtual" C: drive, on your existing hard disk. We'll use a fairly obscure tool that a lot of folks don't even know about, called "SUBST".
First we'll fire up a Command Prompt. Click on Start, All Programs, Accessories, Command Prompt. That should open up something that looks like this:
Except that you'll see your user name instead of mine, LeoN, and the drive will be F: instead of the C:..
In that Window, type the following commands:
mkdir \Virtual_C
subst C: \Virtual_CYou should now have an empty C: drive. It just happens to also be the contents of the directory f:\Virtual_C.
Try some of the applications that you're having trouble with, and see if they now work, or at least behave differently. They may still fail, because our C: is empty - they might expect more than just the drive - but it's a start.
The C: drive that we created will disappear when you reboot. (The contents will still be there as F:\Virtual_C, but the C: drive will no longer exist.) To make it automatic, we need to add a command to your startup group.
Right-click on the Start menu, and click on Explore All Users. In the resulting Explorer window, expand Programs and click on Startup. Right click anywhere in the right-hand pane, and select New and then Shortcut:
In the resulting dialog box, enter the "Subst" command we used earlier: "SUBST C: F:\Virtual_C".
Click Next, and click Finish, and now each time you login, the virtual drive C: will be mapped to the F:\Virtual_C directory.
As a final note, this entire scenario results simply because the old drive was added to the system and allowed to be "C:". As I said, drive letters are arbitrary, but by now you can see that "C:" is kinda special, even though it really shouldn't be. If you can, it's safest to install your operating system and boot from "C:". Typically that means when you add a new drive that you expect to boot from, make it "C:", and give the OLD drive a new drive letter. This allows you to safely copy data off of the old drive, and eventually remove it without any ill effect.
Related:
Article C2431 - October 9, 2005
i have the same problem the disk c is full because of the old aol and I can't seem to get back to it so I can delete and have some space left on my disk c I need help me also this is a brand new computer. We were trying to download the Ipod of the ITUNE and its messes everything up everything was great before and now its terrible
Posted by: Jen at October 5, 2007 9:10 AMThis is due to the USB multi-media reader, just unplug it then reinstall Windows XP, you will get C: drive as normal then reconnect the USB media multi-reader cable and you will get the four extra drives but will start at E: ;-)
Posted by: Phil at October 29, 2007 4:05 AMWhat is the correct solution to this man's problem?
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Hope but it does not work for me.
I just bought a brand new PC.
I installed windows XP SP 2 and he made the following drive letter assignment
C: Removable disk
D: Removable disk
E: Removable disk
F: Removable disk
G: DVD drive
H: Hard disk !!!
Now I frequently have the message : Insert a disk into the drive \Device\Harddisk1\DR3.
I think this happens when some program tries to access the C:
Worst, when I launch the disk manager, I have an error : Cannot connect to logical disk manager. File not found.
With your tip, I'm not allowed to assign the virtual drive to the C leter because it already exist.
Can you help me ? Thanks
Patrick
Posted by: Bob Lambrecht at April 21, 2008 8:37 PMPosted by: Patrick at April 24, 2007 01:20 PM
I have a similar problem.I have just formated my pc, and now when I insert a usb into the pc, in my computer it says invalid f which chould say removable f and show me the contents of my usb, when I click on it it tells me F is inaccesible and a long message. Can anyone help me out please?
Posted by: Moe at October 4, 2008 11:18 AMThanks! That solved my problem! I ran into one little snag that I was able to figure out on my own, though. My computer had assigned "C" to a removable disk drive, which kept me from making a virtual C drive. So I just re-assigned the "C" drive to some other letter, and then I was able to create that virtual C drive. Anyway, thanks a bunch for your advice!
Posted by: John at November 4, 2008 2:25 PMSOLUTION FOR "Invalid parameter C:".
Do this for the Removable Media (C:) that is hosing you from creating the virtual C: :
1. Open the Control Panel
Posted by: Shane at January 2, 2009 8:48 AM2. Select Classic View (if not already setup that way)
3. Click Administrative Tools Folder
4. Double-click the Computer Management icon
5. Computer Management window will open. Click storage in the left page.
6. Double-click Disk Management
7. Right-click the drive you want to change
8. Select Change Drive Letter and Paths
9. Click the Change Button
10. Select the drive letter to which you want to assign it
11. Note the warning and agree if you accept the risks
12. Close out the disk management
thanks
Posted by: ola at April 19, 2009 2:38 PMthis really help me
God bless u
This may help my situation, but I want to ask something before I try it...
My old system had two hard drives, both attached with a ribbon. Well, my boot drive died, so I got a new sata drive to replace it. The sata drive is far bigger than the ribbon drive that remains, so I installed Windows XP Home on it. Well, everything worked great, but the drive defaults to E: and the old ribbon drive is C:. Well, all of my games refer to E:, like they are supposed to, for install. But then when I try to run them they crash. I'm assuming because they can't find the C: drive path they need to work.
So I have two questions: 1) Will creating this "Virtual C" help my problem? and 2) What do I do about the existing C: drive, since it reads as a System drive and windows won't let me change the path name of it.
22-Apr-2009
I have a new Garmin GPS CD I need to install a program to a virtual C: drive. Garmin does not allow you to pick a drive they assumed everyone has a C: drive. Mine is not there,
I got a little further with your outline above (the one with the screen shots)however, even though it starts to read the CD it stops and states: "The specified path it too long C:\Garmin"
It just asks if I want to cancel or retry. Retry does not work.
Then I tried Shane's 12 point step but when I try and change my I: drive to C: I get this message:
"Windows can not modify the drive letter of your system volume or boot volume".
Any suggestions??
Thanks.
Posted by: Flinty76 at April 26, 2009 7:21 PMAnother way to alter the drive letter designation is to disconnect all drives except the one you wish to designate as 'C', this includes any other hard drive, usb, cd rom etc and not forgeting the printer and usb hub. Then clear the on-board memory by moving the clearRTC jumper to its alternate position for 5 - 10 seconds, return it to it's normal position and reboot with only the drive you've selected connected. The drive should now be designated 'C'. Shut down and re-connect all the other drives the system should now be as you wish.
Posted by: Peter Thomas at October 20, 2009 8:29 AM