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#21
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Program that changes drive letter D: to G: for example.
"mm" wrote in message ... Program that changes drive letter D: to G: for example. Five or ten years ago I had a freeware program that would scan the harddisk and find every place where a drive letter of your choosing was used, like C: or D:, display a list of them, and give you the opportunity to change some or all of them to some other drive letter. Does anyone remember the name of that program? Or part of the name. Or the author's name? It would look in the registry and all the .bat files and shortcuts and some other places that didn't come to my mind years ago until I saw the author had thought of them (and don't come to my mind today either.) It had a simple gui, nothing fancy, but did have white squares, probably with scroll bars where the names of the files appeared each with a check box probably. I have a great need for something like this now. My suggestion would be to 'google' for it. H. Thanks. |
#22
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Program that changes drive letter D: to G: for example.
On Sun, 3 Oct 2010 12:10:50 -0600, "Bill in Co"
wrote: Then I found Drive Mapper as part of Partition Magic, but when I went either to download it or buy it, they switched to Partition Wizard, for 113 dollars no less. This is the second time I've found a 3rd party webpage doing this sort of thing. And Easus had a page about Partition Magic, didn't figure out why. ( I also don't know if even PM8 will be able to read the XP registry. Do you think that woudl be a problem? If so, it's a shame Norton bought it and stopped selling it, when it might have take only small changes. I could put a phony entry in the registry, for a phony partition, like M:\test\test, and then see if Drive Mapper finds it and changes it. ) I've got Norton Partition Magic 8.0 installed on this XP computer, and have used it on occasion for some partition work, but nothing else. Not sure what you meant by it's "ability or inability to read the registry", 23 hours after I posted, I couldn't figure out what I meant either. Rafters's post explained it to me. I should have said "I also don't know if Drive Mapper of PM8 will be able to read the XP registry, because that is where most of the references to file names are located. per se (i.e., it's reading the drive, but using the registry, like any program does), but it does work on Win XP, if that's what you meant, even with this 250 GB drive, which has several partitions (but no one partition is anywhere near 160 GB here, though). My biggest is 90 gigs and that holds file backups (not images) for 4 computers. Even if one saved a lot of video and audio, he should put that in a data partition, which if done right likely won't have any file names or drive letters anyhow. (Its files will have names, but there won't *be* filenames inside the files.) He seems to want a particular drive manager application (he can't remember the program or the program author's name) that can change drive letter assignment and all references to a particular drive in the registry *and elsewhere* so that changing drive letters won't break *any* functionality - for Win98 and legacy programs (ini files for instance). Oh, I see. I don't know if such a program exists, although maybe the old COA "Change Of Address" freebie utility from PC Magazine could have handled it. (I haven't used COA in ages, like back in the Win95 era). COA was definitely what I had in mind. I probably used COA2. I haven't had time to test it yet on XP, but one person here iirc and one on the web said it worked with XP. Then there is Drive Mapper of Partition Manager 8. They still usually have one copy of PM8 on ebay, but new copies aren't for sale and later versions dont' exist. I couldnt' find Drive Mapper for sale separately (sometimes products are sold in pieces), OTOH, Drive Mapper doesn't have to manipulate the partition, only read read files (searching the registry, .bat files, shortcuts and maybe some place else) so even the PM4's version of Drive Mapper might be work fine, if it can read the XP registry, and maybe it can. I don't remember what the manual said about NTFS, but come to think of it, why should that matter? The OS takes care of reading the files I'm sure now that testing both COA and Drive Mapper will be easy. I'll just make a new dummy line in the registry with M:\test\test in it and then tell each program to go find it and change it. (Then I'll delete the line, but if I make the line right, it won't matter if there is an extra line that does nothing.) Thanks to all for all the suggestions. |
#23
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Program that changes drive letter D: to G: for example.
On Sat, 2 Oct 2010 23:04:26 -0600, "Bill in Co"
wrote: mm wrote: On Sat, 2 Oct 2010 13:36:05 -0600, "Bill in Co" wrote: mm wrote: On Sat, 2 Oct 2010 12:13:56 -0400, "dadiOH" wrote: dadiOH wrote: mm wrote: Program that changes drive letter D: to G: for example. Five or ten years ago I had a freeware program that would scan the harddisk and find every place where a drive letter of your choosing was used, like C: or D:, display a list of them, and give you the opportunity to change some or all of them to some other drive letter. Does anyone remember the name of that program? Or part of the name. Or the author's name? It would look in the registry and all the .bat files and shortcuts and some other places that didn't come to my mind years ago until I saw the author had thought of them (and don't come to my mind today either.) It had a simple gui, nothing fancy, but did have white squares, probably with scroll bars where the names of the files appeared each with a check box probably. I have a great need for something like this now. Thanks. There is a program called COA (change of address) that purports to do so. http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,2845,9413,00.asp Hey, that's it! Thanks so much. Newsgroups are so great (and you're great too. ) Reading more about it, now that I know its name, it was written by Neil J. Rubenking at Ziff Davis, a name I used to know, and you can dl it he http://marmro.homeip.net/Description/coa2.zip.html Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows ME, Windows NT 4, Windows 2000 It doesn't list XP, but one person said it worked fine with XP, but wouldn't the change in name of the registry file make it hard/impossible for it to work with XP....unless there is a system variable that means the registry, like there is for the windows directory etc. Yes, that must be how it does it, because it also works with w2000 where the registry is probably also pagefile.sys. I don't think the registry is "pagefile.sys", but I don't know w2000. Oh, yeah, thanks for the tactful correction. Pagefile is the swap file. I don't know if I know what the registry is called. But it would be in the windows directory, not the root, like this one. But for Win9x, it's in the two system files, "system.dat" and "user.dat". Oh, yeah. Two files. I forget the difference beween the two. For WinXP, I believe there are several files in the registry hive: DEFAULT, SAM, SECURITY, SOFTWARE, SYSTEM, Oh, yeah. This 5 are in windows\system32\config. There are five sections to the XP registry, Classes, Current User, Local Machine, Users, and Current Config. Maybe each of them corresponds to one of your five. ntuser.dat, UsrClass.dat, I don't see these, but I didn't migrate from win2000. Maybe that's why. It turns out I had these two also, but in a different folder. I forgot to look at the Date Modified, etc. Regardless, regedit picks up all of them and if regedit can do it, maybe COA2 can do it. but I'm not sure which ones are which! (Perhaps someone else can clarify)? (I can't clarify but I can muddle it further! There is a system.dat file, 8 megs in my case. And User.dat, one meg. But both were last updated a year ago May. Hmmm. I installed software just last week. Hmmm. Nothing important has been updated in windows\ directory since last may, nothing but log files and 5 or 6 others. May 2009 must be when I transfered my win98 data to XP, which it used to set up winXP to a large extent.) I don't understand how it was possible to install some significant software and NOT update system.dat or user.dat. Right. From that I deduced that these two files are the win98 Registry, on the day I installed XP. but they are not used in XP, other than the day they they are copied to XP. That the XP registry is those five files you also listed. I used the File and Setting Transfer Wizard, to gether up info from 98 and install it where it needed to go in XP. So maybe it copies over the whole registry, then goes through the 98 registry looking for entries that I had created (like by installing software) and it made corresponding entries in the XP registry. I ran this program once in 98 to gather my personal windows-related data, and once in XP to make use of the data. (Now there is also Mozbackup.exe, which only worries about the various mozilla programs, but it will gather up the bookmarks, passwords, cookies, history, etc from one OS and then install the stuff in the other OS If you install a program, it adds that info to the registry, which means it HAS to update system.dat and user.dat (usually both, but not necessarily). Unless.... If you're not "installing" the program, per se, and are simply copying a *very* simple and basic program (one that doesn't need the registry services at all), then I can see how. (We're only talking about some really basic programs at this level, however). I used COA on Win9x, but don't recall if I tried it on XP or not. But as you said, there's probably a good chance it will work there. I've also done the manual regedit search and manually replace approach, which is a bit tedious. One win98 version of Norton Utilities included a Registry program that would look for all occurrences of a given search string, at the same time. Then iirc, you could change them all at once, or probably just the ones you wanted. Maybe you couldn't change more than one at once, but at least you could see them all at once, know how many there were, and decide which ones are important, and which are just Recently Viewed, for example. I lost Norton in my crash, too, although I'm sure i have the CD in one of the piles of CDs. However I have newer Norton CDs, I bought at hamfests. ONe is 2003, so it should work with XP, but I can't install it until I get the other things done and migrate to a newer (2003) computer, so I don't know what all it has. I gave up on Norton after around 2001. Too much bloat, that, and all the horror stories i read about trying to uninstall it, and/or the problems it was creating on so many systems. Yeah, when Symantec or Norton had newsgroups, I read a lot about uninstall problems nad it scared me off. (Even though for a couple years I had both NAV and AVG running live at the same time, without any of the predicted problems. Most of the time, AVG found the virus, but sometimes Norton did, which made me glad that it was there. My impression was that if the virus only had a one part name, like Cher or Liberace or Hildegard (before your time?) that was when Norton found it and not AVG. Norton was great in its heyday, however. The only Norton I've got installed here (on my XP system) is the latest edition of Partition Magic (8.0), because I needed a decent Partition Manager. Well they didn't write it anyhow. Powerquest did. But on my Win98SE computer, I still use BootItNG in the Maintenance Mode only (for partition work), But it is a bit less intuitive, however. I'm about 5 days into a 30 day free trial. So far, I'm still confused, but it's too early to ask questoins. (I bought Norton versions mostly to get Cleansweep so I could move programs with that. Some versions have it and some don't. I had Cleansweep with my Win95 system. Maybe the later version(s) worked well in Win98 - don't know. But I generally don't use such utilities, and as for registry cleaners, well, we can save that one for another day. I don't feel like revisting that one. :-) Okay. Before the crash I had 8 partitions, because there was a limit on partition size, so for lack of the ability to plan I had a greater need to move things than I do now.). I also think there are some basic registry editors that will do a search and replace to replace all references of a drive letter (for example) with another, but you have to be *very* careful with that. (I think I did that before with the drive letter colon attached (like replace "E:" with "F:" for example), or better yet, "E:\" with "F:\", for example).. Yes, I can see why caution is needed. And just to clarify the above, I simply meant using a text search and replace option - not that there is an explicit drive letter replacement option in those basic registry editors. I remember for sure that COA2 gave the option to say yes or no to each thing it found. That's another reason to my test with the phony registry entry, to see what COA2 and Drive Mapper do, to make sure that Drive Mapper also givves one the chance to say yes or no. The manual makes it sound lke either Drive Mapper runs automatically, or you have to change entries totally manaully. I don't like that. It also mentions .ini files as a place where drive letters and fully qualified names are used. I knew there was one other place, in addition to shortcuts, and the registry, and iirc one other place. It says "If you are using Windows NT or Windows 2000/XP Professional as your only operating system, we recommend using the Change Drive Letter operation rather than DriveMapper." So it does konw about XP. But I don't know yet about "Change Drive Letter". I wonder why this is only a recommendation. Certainly there are times when I woudl want to change file name refe "Change Drive Letter lets you permanently set the drive letters for your partitions so that adding and removing partitions does not affect drive letters. Note that if you merge or split partitions, drive letters will change even if you are using Windows NT/2000/XP and the Change Drive Letter operation" But that doesn't do everything COA2 does. With COA2, if you decide to move all your Wordperfect data files from one place to another, well I have to check. I'll try to get back to you with details of how that works. This is a strange paragraph: "If you have installed an alternative desktop on Windows 9x with the desktop files residing on a different drive than the Windows system files, DriveMapper may not be able to adjust your paths. Because DriveMapper is a Windows program, it must have Windows loaded to run. If the drive letter has been changed for the drive that holds your desktop files, you may not be able to start Windows" It seems to me anyone smart enough to install an alternative desktop, or add, merge, split, or delete a partition, shouldn't need the desktop files to start a program. Drive Mapper doesn't use any switches, parameters, or arguments, as I suspected. Enough for now. |
#24
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Program that changes drive letter D: to G: for example.
On Sun, 03 Oct 2010 18:23:26 -0400, mm
wrote: And just to clarify the above, I simply meant using a text search and replace option - not that there is an explicit drive letter replacement option in those basic registry editors. Noted. Just searching the whole registry could get tedious, let alone changing drive letters, although if one doesn't change the windows partition letter, maybe there wouldn't be many entries to change. If you have no chance of using File Mapper of Partition Magic, you can all skip the rest. Or even the preceding, but it's probably too late for that. I remember for sure that COA2 gave the option to say yes or no to each thing it found. That's another reason to my test with the phony registry entry, to see what COA2 and Drive Mapper do, to make sure that Drive Mapper also givves one the chance to say yes or no. The manual makes it sound lke either Drive Mapper runs automatically, or you have to change entries totally manaully. I don't like that. My previous post was very encouraging about both COA2 and Drive Mapper, but further reading of the PM8 manual yielded this: Using DriveMapper With Multiple Operating Systems If you run multiple operating systems, you should reinstall applications rather than use DriveMapper. Maybe. It worked out for me that all partitions have the same Drive letter whether I"m in 98 or XP. The following issues make using DriveMapper in a multiple operating system environment difficult and error-prone: • Drive letter assignments are based on the file systems supported by an operating system. If you do not put all FAT32 and NTFS partitions after all FAT partitions, drive letters will change depending on the operating system currently running, and I only have FAT32. Maybe this is another reason not to use NTFS also. In another ng, one or two people are saying that NTFS isn't better after all, and that since it's a proprietary MS file system, that causes some other problems. I havent' finished the thread yet, or looked this up on the web. DriveMapper may be unable to correctly identify which changes should be made. • Registry settings are changed for the current operating system only. If you manually run DriveMapper from another operating system, references in files will already be changed in the current operating system and further changes will introduce errors in the other operating systems. Duh, then you should only run drive mapper from one OS. You have to plan this sort of thing anyhow. If you want to change D: references to E: and E: reference to F:, you have to do the second one first, or all the D: references will also become F:. I only have PM installed in one partition anyhow. I am glad they mention this problem and the others, however. It reminds me what problems I have to take effort to prevent. • When DriveMapper is running, files contained in hidden partitions are not updated. If I'm too curious to use hidden partitions. I'd always want to know what was hiding. you are using multiple primary partitions for different operating systems, only the active primary partition may be visible to be updated. So none of these warnings are so bad, but the overriding problem is that once started, it runs automatically afaict. It doesn't say that explicity, it says "PowerQuest recommends that you allow DriveMapper to automatically update the drive letter references in shortcuts, [etc.]when prompted to do so. However, you can update drive letter references manually". I think this means totally manually, like using regedit to find references and then typing in each change separately. I'll run it with that test line and see if it means that. COA2 is looking better and better. I'll run that too. |
#25
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Program that changes drive letter D: to G: for example.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hard_disk_drive
Third-party Software Will not help you ! If you mated XP in NTFS http://cquirke.mvps.org/ntfs.htm NTFS vs. FAT32 http://support.microsoft.com/kb/154997 Description of the FAT32 File System NOTE: Although the FAT32 file system supports hard disks up to 2 terabytes in size, some hard disks may not be able to contain bootable partitions that are larger than 7.8 GB because of limitations in your computer's basic input/output system (BIOS) INT13 interface. Please contact your hardware manufacturer to determine if your computer's BIOS supports the updated INT13 extensions. For additional information about FAT32, click the article number below to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base: 253774 Common Questions About the FAT32 File System Back to the top http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disk_pa....2C_and_OS.2F2 If you Made your XP partitions in to NTFS and not a FAT32 your Windows 98 may not work no more Because it need XP as a FAT32 so that win98 can Boot in DOS..... |
#26
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Program that changes drive letter D: to G: for example.
Compaq CMOS SETUP Software on the Mother Board assigns drive first
The F10 key is used to access them from the HDD on boot . Press F10 AFTER the memory test completes. Boot Order CD-ROM Drive First Floppy Drive (A Second Hard Drive (C Third Hard Drive (C Microsoft MS-DOS assigns drive letters is Software on the Hard Drive if that OS on it.... My BCM Computer that I have a Elo Touchscreen on it Whizpro BIOS SETUP Utility Press F2 AFTER the memory test completes. General Configuration 1st Boot Device: CDROM 2nd Boot Device: Floppy A 3rd Boot Device: HDD-0 4th Boot Device: LS-120 Now on all 4 I can pick from a list too Disabled, Floppy A, HHD-0, CDROM, HHD-1, HHD-2, HHD-3, SCSI/Add-on, ZIP100, LS-120, LAN, USB Floppy A, USB Disk, 1st Boot Device: CDROM 2nd Boot Device: HDD-1 I have win3.0 here, I believe run it to day LOOL. But on win3.0 no Elo Touchscreen ! 3rd Boot Device: HDD-0 I have Win98 and XP here 4th Boot Device: LS-120 Win98 set up see Software on the Hard Drive do not start the Boot it's the CMOS Software that get the ball rolling! "FromTheRafters" erratic @nomail.afraid.org wrote in message ... "Hot-Text" wrote in message ... http://support.microsoft.com/kb/51978 [...] |
#27
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Program that changes drive letter D: to G: for example.
On Sun, 3 Oct 2010 20:08:32 -0500, "Hot-Text"
wrote: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disk_pa....2C_and_OS.2F2 If you Made your XP partitions in to NTFS and not a FAT32 your Windows 98 may not work no more Because it need XP as a FAT32 so that win98 can Boot in DOS..... Yes, I used nothing but FAT32, because I wanted to be able to read data in one OS while I was in the other. In fact, I left my Agent and Eudora in win98, made XP shortcuts, and use the very same files when I'm in XP. Just like I did when I moved back and forth between win3.1 and win98. It means the move doesn't have to be done all at once. It can take years. Thanks. |
#28
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Program that changes drive letter D: to G: for example.
win3.1 is run on a 16fat DOS and win98 is on 32fat DOS can stop win98 from
booting. |
#29
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Program that changes drive letter D: to G: for example.
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#30
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Program that changes drive letter D: to G: for example.
Yes TRUE at first HMM
And the Start Boot Manu was moving you pass the fat16 Command.com to fat32 Command.com at first on to C:\WONDOWS\ to run the WIN.EXE. For Win98 will not run on a fat16 Command.com For XP do not need the Command.com to Start Running.. it runs it on NTFS Boot. For you can install 2000, XP and up, on all Systems and it will run YES Linux Systems too! So if you make XP a FAT32 in the XP Systems... XP make a little NTFS Folder for it Booting.. That why you see that Bar running fast a crass the bottom of the page at start up Booting of NTFS if you have see it that's a good thing!! now how to fix fat16 Command.com to fat32 Command.com back the way it was! you the first one to do this one I Know if But as you have say::: in time by one at a time in the right way to do! Bill in Co We need you're here! "mm" wrote in message ... On Mon, 4 Oct 2010 23:32:47 +0000 (UTC), (Hot-Text) wrote: win3.1 is run on a 16fat DOS and win98 is on 32fat DOS can stop win98 from booting. I guess that means I was using FAT16 then for both, or some other method where that wasn't a problem, because I know it worked. Thanks. |
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