RE: "Invalid Drive X:\" install errors tip...

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Level 10

272,755 points

RE: "Invalid Drive X:\" install errors tip...

A suggestion for the "Invalid Drive X:\" install errors tip in Installing & Upgrading iTunes for Windows.

An easier way to create the missing drive X:

Open a Windows Command prompt, e.g. Hit *Start > Run*, type in CMD and press OK.
Type in *SUBST X: C:\<enter>*

This will map X: to C: until the machine is restarted or you enter *SUBST X: /D* at the command prompt.

tt2

Message was edited by: turingtest2

Various PCs, Windows XP Pro, iPhone3GS 3.1.3, 160Gb 1.1.2/2.0.4, 30Gb 1.3, Nano 1.4 - iTunes 9.1.1.11

Posted on Jun 4, 2010 9:17 AM

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Answer 1

turingtest2 Author

Level 10

272,755 points

Jun 17, 2010 10:55 AM in response to turingtest2

So.... What is the mechanism to suggest an ammendment or addendum to a user tip? The post is locked so I can't reply to it myself.

tt2

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Answer 2

b noir

Level 9

72,324 points

Jun 21, 2010 4:53 PM in response to turingtest2

Sorry Steve. Haven't had a chance to get round to checking in with you on this.

I suspect that the hosts may have been waiting for feedback from me on this? (Not sure ... haven't had to deal with this before myself either.) I'm inclined to go Wikipedia-style on ownership of user tips (in other words, even though I wrote the original tip, I don't own the tip). But I'm not sure how that would work out in practice either ...

Doublechecking something. The SUBST command is the same one that Wikipedia talks about here?

[subst|http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Subst]

How does it behave under Vista or 7? Do we need to run it from an elevated command prompt, or does a standard one work?

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Answer 3

turingtest2 Author

Level 10

272,755 points

Jun 22, 2010 1:15 AM in response to b noir

b noir wrote:
Doublechecking something. The SUBST command is the same one that Wikipedia talks about here?

[subst| http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Subst ]

Yes

How does it behave under Vista or 7? Do we need to run it from an elevated command prompt, or does a standard one work?

Ah, probably needs to be run from an elevated prompt. A quick Google does suggest there might be some issues with SUBST & Windows 7. I'm afraid I can't tolerate the grief of operating my computer as anything other than an administrator and as for for User Access Control or all the other hinderances Vista gave birth to...

On the other hand it may not matter if the files on the SUBST drive can't be accessed as long as the drive letter itself becomes visible as I suspect this is all that is tripping up the installer.

tt2

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Answer 4

turingtest2 Author

Level 10

272,755 points

Aug 10, 2010 5:38 AM in response to turingtest2

Making as solved to remove from my outstanding questions... Still not sure how we'd go about adding the alternate workaround to the original tip but there we go...

tt2

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Answer 5

Nubz N.

Community Moderator

Aug 12, 2010 9:56 AM in response to turingtest2

Hi turingtest2 & b noir,

Sorry about the delay in getting this out. Has this been tested then? Is there even a good way to test it when the user doesn't have admin privileges?

How would you like it integrated into the tip? How does this look?

1. Temporarily add an X:\ drive to your system.

So long as you actually have an X:\ drive on your system, your Windows Installer will typically remain relatively calm during the uninstall of the existing software (even if it can't find the component it was looking for on the drive in question). So one way of getting past an "Invalid drive X:\" message is to temporarily add an X:\ drive to your system.

An easy way to create the missing drive X:

Open a Windows Command prompt, e.g. Hit Start > Run, type in CMD and press OK.
Type in SUBST X: C:\<enter>

This will map X: to C: until the machine is restarted or you enter SUBST X: /D at the command prompt.

Otherwise, you will need an external hard drive, a thumb drive, an iPod in manual mode, or any other storage device that appears as a hard drive in "My Computer" (on Windows XP) or "Computer" (on Windows Vista or Windows 7).
...

Thanks,
Nubz

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Answer 6

turingtest2 Author

Level 10

272,755 points

Aug 25, 2010 10:08 AM in response to Nubz N.

My turn to apologise, I've only just been able to confirm that the SUBST command with unchanged syntax is available on Windows 7 and must therefore surely be there on Vista also. Short of recreating the exact circumstances of the problem, and I'm not even sure how to, I can't says it's tested to the point where I can confirm it will cure the installer issue, but yes it reliably creates a DRIVE X: at will without any extra hardware. It can also be run under a standard (i.e. restricted) user account, at least on XP. I forgot to test that while I had access to the Win7 machine.

As far as I an tell the proposed edit works well enough though it might not be clear that after issuing the SUBST command the next step the user needs to take is this one.

(9) Try uninstalling or upgrading the software again. (If upgrading the software, install the software in the default location, not on the X:\ drive.)

tt2

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Answer 7

Nubz N.

Community Moderator

Aug 26, 2010 7:33 AM in response to turingtest2

Hi turingtest2,

Thanks for the update.

So does this work for y'all?

Nubz

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Answer 8

turingtest2 Author

Level 10

272,755 points

Aug 26, 2010 11:36 AM in response to Nubz N.

Looks good to me.

tt2

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Answer 9

b noir

Level 9

72,324 points

Sep 1, 2010 6:56 AM in response to turingtest2

Thank you both kindly, gentlemen. Just saw the new tip out in the wild. (I've been dreadfully remiss in keeping track of this over the past few months.)

That looks a really nice amendment to the tip ,,, very useful since the CleanUp alternative has become problematic in recent times.

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Answer 10

rccharles

Level 6

12,957 points

Sep 2, 2010 11:21 AM in response to turingtest2

turingtest2 wrote:
I've only just been able to confirm that the SUBST command with unchanged syntax is available on Windows 7 and must therefore surely be there on Vista also.

Allows you to substitute a folder on your computer for another drive letter.

This command has been available since DOS 3.1.
http://www.computerhope.com/substhlp.htm#02

Robert

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Answer 11

turingtest2 Author

Level 10

272,755 points

Sep 2, 2010 1:49 PM in response to rccharles

rccharles wrote:
This command has been available since DOS 3.1.
http://www.computerhope.com/substhlp.htm#02

Robert

Thanks... I know it has been there forever but since it goes back to the days of DOS there was always a danger that it may have been left behind as being obsolete, or required elevated permissions to make use of in more recent versions. I wanted to exclude either possibility before promoting my suggestion as "easier" than b noir's original.
🙂

tt2

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