Re-Map drive letters on Windows 7 in bootcamp...

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Re-Map drive letters on Windows 7 in bootcamp...

Hello computer geniuses....

I have an early 2008 macbook pro running Mountain Lion and Windows 7 via bootcamp.

My problem: My job requires that I constantly conect to dropbox to share projects with co-workers. Recently we changed the drive path for dropbox from the c: drive to the d: drive.

So... Is there a way to create a D: drive in a windows 7 bootcamp partition? Or, is there a way to install windows 7 via bootcamp with D: as the drive letter instead of C:

Thanks everyone

MacBook Pro, Windows 7

Posted on Mar 20, 2013 12:02 PM

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Answer 1

Best reply

rtheb

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140 points

Mar 20, 2013 12:48 PM in response to x-tian

This is how to do it but read the CAUTION below before proceeding!!!!

In Windows you need to go to

Control Panel

then open

Administrative Tools

In Administrative Tools select

Computer Management..

You now need to go to Storage and open

Disk Management

After Disk Management opens you'll be able to see all your Drives represented.

Find Your C: Drive and Right Click the C: Drive

A Submenu will now open up.

Select Change Drive Letter and Path

You now can select the Change Button in that window.

Another window opens and select

Assign The Following Drive Letter, click the arrow key and select D: as the new drive letter.

OK everything and when you reboot the C: Drive will now be Drive D:.

CAUTION

BE AWARE THAT IF YOU HAVE INSTALLED ANY APPLICATIONS ON THE C: DRIVE WINDOWS WILL BE LOOKING TO FIND THEM ON DRIVE C: WHICH NO LONGER EXISTS.

Window will display an error message about the Program being MIA and ask you to locate it for Windows.

You will have to browse to the program so Windows can find it.

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Answer 2

x-tian Author

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Mar 20, 2013 12:54 PM in response to rtheb

Rtheb,

Thanks for the help.

I'm going to look into remapping my c: to d:. I did this same procedure to remap my disc drive form D: to H: . It's not the best solution, as you say, because I will maybe have to re-install several programs. (I have about a dozen large CAD programs running).

Personally I would just partition part of the existing C: Drive, Name it Drive D: and install Drop Box on the new D: Drive.

I tried doing this once. Once I patitioned my mac side was no longer accessable. This however is the ideal situation. One where I have both a C: and a D: drive in my bootcamp partition. How does one go about partition their windows ... partition inside of bootcamp without crashing the whole thing? Have you had any success doing this?

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Answer 3

rtheb

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140 points

Mar 20, 2013 1:01 PM in response to x-tian

No I edited the reply to remove the partion idea when I realized you were talking about a BootCamp installation but you had already responded.

Boot Camp only supports two drives so partitioning is a NO GO and hence the deletion in the edited response.

You shouldn't have to reinstall most applications if you direct Windows to the Application it is searching to find.

Probably most will be found in the new D:/Program Files directory.

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Answer 4

x-tian Author

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Mar 20, 2013 3:13 PM in response to rtheb

rtheb,

So, I tried to change my drive letter from C: to D: but it wouldn't let me. I seem to remember this happening before. My first attempt at solving this problem was to do what you just said. Seemed pretty simple. Just tell the drive to answer to a different letter. Once I saw that this didn't work I looked around the web and was told that I would actually need a seperate partition.

Were you able to change your drive letter from C: to D: ?

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Answer 5

rtheb

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140 points

Mar 20, 2013 4:48 PM in response to x-tian

What I have read is not very clear due to the BootCamp HFS Partition and whether or not Windows has access to HFS.

Why don't you just use a USB NTFS Formated external drive and rename it Drive D: in Windows: as above.

Then install DropBox there.

Sorry I can't provide the answer as I am really unhappy with the way Apple is handling the whole BootCamp issues.

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Answer 6

Mar 20, 2013 7:28 PM in response to x-tian

Have you considered purchasing a third party app like Paragon HFS+ for Windows? If you purchase that, then you can make your MacOS drive your D: drive under Windows, and have full read/write access to it, so you could place your DropBox folder on that drive and have what you want.

Also keep in mind that if your optical drive is currently your D: drive in Windows, then you might also have problems with some installed software as it won't like not having the optical drive as D: in the future...

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Answer 7

x-tian Author

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Mar 22, 2013 2:51 PM in response to rtheb

Thank you for your reply.

Unfortunatley it's not possible to have Dropbox run from external media. Any attempt to do so gives an error message. That is unless you know of a way to do this.....

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Answer 8

rtheb

Level 1

140 points

Mar 22, 2013 3:03 PM in response to x-tian

Perhaps

https://www.dropbox.com/help/89/en

This moves the location of your DropBox Folder and apparently as long as your external drive is attached to the computer upon boot you should be able to run the Dropbox Application from your C Drive but everything should be stored on your External D: Drive.

Worth a try! 😕

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Answer 9

CFS88

Level 1

14 points

Mar 24, 2013 9:42 AM in response to x-tian

I'd talk to your workplace, which never should have done something so stupid. Having your Windows loaded anywhere other than on C: is risky in about 50 different ways. I've never seen that work for most purposes and doing it usually results in more problems than it solves. For whatever reason Microsoft has always insisted on C: as the boot drive, which is why when you install Windowns via Bootcamp it always turns up C:. And I'd not even attempt a change in drive letters with respect to C: in Windows Disk Manager. Other drives, yes, but not C: Maybe newer versions of Windows are more flexible but XP and prior are not.

Be very careful and ask your question at Windows forums too, even if most there don't know much about Mac.

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Answer 10

x-tian Author

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Mar 24, 2013 9:53 AM in response to x-tian

EVERYONE !

I solved it! Thank you for your help.

Here is what I did:

1. Deleted bootcamp partition

2. Deleted "Recovery Disc" (Had to do this by enabling debuging privilages for disc utility through terminal.)

3. Began install of new bootcamp partition

4. Turned computer off when it restart to begin installing Win 7

5. Booted back into Mountain Lion

6. Created 3rd partion as MSfat

7. Restarted and installed WIN 7 on boot camp partition

See this link for a MUCH more detailed explaination.

http://www.techparaiso.com/90-steven-paul-jobs-apple-inc/apple-mac-osx/apple-mac -devices/100-best-way-to-setup-osx-mountain-lion-windows-8-data-partition-on-mac book-air-pro-tutorial

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