SUMMARY > This article describes how to change the > system or boot drive letter in > Windows.

For the most part, this is not > recommended, especially if the > drive letter is the same as when Windows > was installed. The only time > that you may want to do this is when the > drive letters get changed without > any user intervention. This may happen > when you break a mirror volume > or there is a drive configuration > change. This should be a rare occurrence > and you should change the drive letters > back to match the initial > installation. NOTE: Please be aware of > the following issue related to drive > letters: > 249321 > > Unable to Log on if the Boot Partition > Drive Letter Has Changed > > > WARNING: If you use Registry Editor > incorrectly, you may cause > serious problems that may require you to > reinstall your operating system. > Microsoft cannot guarantee that you can > solve problems that result from > using Registry Editor incorrectly. Use > Registry Editor at your own risk. > > To change or swap drive letters on > volumes that cannot otherwise be > changed using the Disk Management > snap-in, use the following steps. > > NOTE: In these steps, drive D refers to > the (wrong) drive letter assigned > to a volume, and drive C refers to the > (new) drive letter you want to > change to, or to assign to the volume. > > This procedure swaps drive letters for > drives C and D. If you do not need > to swap drive letters, simply name the

> \DosDevice\letter: value to any new > drive letter not in use. > > back to the top > > Changing the System/Boot Drive Letter > Make a full system backup of the > computer and system state. > Log on as an Administrator. > Start Regedt32.exe. > Go to the following registry key: > HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\MountedDevices > Click MountedDevices. > On the Security menu, click Permissions. > Check to make sure Administrators have > full control. Change this back > when you are finished with these steps. > Quit Regedt32.exe, and then start > Regedit.exe. > Go to the following registry key: > HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\MountedDevices > Find the drive letter you want to change > to (new). Look for > "\DosDevices\C:". > Right-click \DosDevices\C:, and then > click Rename. > > NOTE: You must use Regedit instead of > Regedt32 to rename this registry > key. > Rename it to an unused drive letter > "\DosDevices\Z:". (This will free up > drive letter C: to be used later.) > Find the drive letter you want changed. > Look for "\DosDevices\D:". > Right-click \DosDevices\D:, and then > click Rename. > Rename it to the appropriate (new) drive > letter "\DosDevices\C:". > Click the value for \DosDevices\Z:, > click Rename, and then name it back > to "\DosDevices\D:". > Quit Regedit, and then start Regedt32. > Change the permissions back to the > previous setting for Administrators > (this should probably be Read Only). > Restart the computer.