Swap Drive Letters and User's Folder?

[Guest Steve Meyerson]

My Dell Inspiron 6000 laptop became unbootable when I attempted to

install SP3 for XP Pro.

 

My plan was to do a complete reinstall. My data's backed up on an

external drive, so I tried to reformat, but was rejected. It showed 3

partitions (I thought I had only one) and wouldn't let me delete any

of them. I can live with the "extra" partitions, so I went ahead with

the install, but during the install, about 40 files were missing (it

said).

 

So I did a "Repair" only. It seemed to work fine and the computer

functions ok, but I have two glitches (which I probably caused

somehow) I'm hoping someone can help me with.

 

1. Somehow it (or I?) installed the OS on Drive D: instead of C: I

have many shortcuts and maybe other programs which point to C: drive

and it would be much easier to swap drive letters than change all the

shortcuts/programs. Can I swap the letters and if so, how?

 

2. The "Repair" added a new user's folder under "Documents and

Settings". The old folder is named "Steve" and contains my

"Identities" including emails, cookies, etc. The new folder was

created and named "Steve.LAPTOP.000 (LAPTOP is the name of the

computer). All user-specific data goes to the new folder. I know I can

copy and paste the old to the new, but it won't let me rename the new

folder (says it is required for Windows to run properly). Is there a

way I can go back to the old name and get rid of the extra folder?

 

Thanks for any help.

 

Steve M.

[Guest DL]

Re: Swap Drive Letters and User's Folder?

 

The winxp cd has all the capabilities of deleting all partitions &

installing, or your Dell revovery cd's do, you may have to amend your bios

settings to enable boot from cd

 

"Steve Meyerson" <stevemeyerson@cox.net> wrote in message

news:98lrf457eltk3lrl136dvm70jttgotbaui@4ax.com...

> My Dell Inspiron 6000 laptop became unbootable when I attempted to

> install SP3 for XP Pro.

>

> My plan was to do a complete reinstall. My data's backed up on an

> external drive, so I tried to reformat, but was rejected. It showed 3

> partitions (I thought I had only one) and wouldn't let me delete any

> of them. I can live with the "extra" partitions, so I went ahead with

> the install, but during the install, about 40 files were missing (it

> said).

>

> So I did a "Repair" only. It seemed to work fine and the computer

> functions ok, but I have two glitches (which I probably caused

> somehow) I'm hoping someone can help me with.

>

> 1. Somehow it (or I?) installed the OS on Drive D: instead of C: I

> have many shortcuts and maybe other programs which point to C: drive

> and it would be much easier to swap drive letters than change all the

> shortcuts/programs. Can I swap the letters and if so, how?

>

> 2. The "Repair" added a new user's folder under "Documents and

> Settings". The old folder is named "Steve" and contains my

> "Identities" including emails, cookies, etc. The new folder was

> created and named "Steve.LAPTOP.000 (LAPTOP is the name of the

> computer). All user-specific data goes to the new folder. I know I can

> copy and paste the old to the new, but it won't let me rename the new

> folder (says it is required for Windows to run properly). Is there a

> way I can go back to the old name and get rid of the extra folder?

>

> Thanks for any help.

>

> Steve M.

>

[Guest Jim]

Re: Swap Drive Letters and User's Folder?

 

 

"Steve Meyerson" <stevemeyerson@cox.net> wrote in message

news:98lrf457eltk3lrl136dvm70jttgotbaui@4ax.com...

> My Dell Inspiron 6000 laptop became unbootable when I attempted to

> install SP3 for XP Pro.

>

> My plan was to do a complete reinstall. My data's backed up on an

> external drive, so I tried to reformat, but was rejected. It showed 3

> partitions (I thought I had only one) and wouldn't let me delete any

> of them. I can live with the "extra" partitions, so I went ahead with

> the install, but during the install, about 40 files were missing (it

> said).

>

> So I did a "Repair" only. It seemed to work fine and the computer

> functions ok, but I have two glitches (which I probably caused

> somehow) I'm hoping someone can help me with.

>

> 1. Somehow it (or I?) installed the OS on Drive D: instead of C: I

> have many shortcuts and maybe other programs which point to C: drive

> and it would be much easier to swap drive letters than change all the

> shortcuts/programs. Can I swap the letters and if so, how?

>

> 2. The "Repair" added a new user's folder under "Documents and

> Settings". The old folder is named "Steve" and contains my

> "Identities" including emails, cookies, etc. The new folder was

> created and named "Steve.LAPTOP.000 (LAPTOP is the name of the

> computer). All user-specific data goes to the new folder. I know I can

> copy and paste the old to the new, but it won't let me rename the new

> folder (says it is required for Windows to run properly). Is there a

> way I can go back to the old name and get rid of the extra folder?

>

> Thanks for any help.

>

> Steve M.

>

Yes, my Inspiron 6000 has three partitions. One perhaps contains the MBR.

The second contains the recovery partition. The third contains Windows.

You can restore the system to its as delivered condition by using the

recovery partition as described in the manual. However, instead of using

the recovery partition, you should have prepared for the need to reinstall

the current setup by creating backups with Acronis True Image.

 

1. No you cannot swap system drive letters easily.

2, The repair installation added an account called Steve.Laptop.1000. This

folder tree now contains those files which you access via the user name

Steve. There is no need to go back to using the folder tree called Steve.

Just take ownership of the files and move them to the new folder tree.

 

You still should address the issue of why the SP3 installation failed. SP3

installed on my Inspiron 6000 with no problems at all.

 

Jim

[Guest Steve Meyerson]

Re: Swap Drive Letters and User's Folder?

 

On Tue, 21 Oct 2008 11:35:30 -0500, "Jim" <j.n@invalid.invalid> wrote:

>

>"Steve Meyerson" <stevemeyerson@cox.net> wrote in message

>news:98lrf457eltk3lrl136dvm70jttgotbaui@4ax.com...

>> My Dell Inspiron 6000 laptop became unbootable when I attempted to

>> install SP3 for XP Pro.

>>

>> My plan was to do a complete reinstall. My data's backed up on an

>> external drive, so I tried to reformat, but was rejected. It showed 3

>> partitions (I thought I had only one) and wouldn't let me delete any

>> of them. I can live with the "extra" partitions, so I went ahead with

>> the install, but during the install, about 40 files were missing (it

>> said).

>>

>> So I did a "Repair" only. It seemed to work fine and the computer

>> functions ok, but I have two glitches (which I probably caused

>> somehow) I'm hoping someone can help me with.

>>

>> 1. Somehow it (or I?) installed the OS on Drive D: instead of C: I

>> have many shortcuts and maybe other programs which point to C: drive

>> and it would be much easier to swap drive letters than change all the

>> shortcuts/programs. Can I swap the letters and if so, how?

>>

>> 2. The "Repair" added a new user's folder under "Documents and

>> Settings". The old folder is named "Steve" and contains my

>> "Identities" including emails, cookies, etc. The new folder was

>> created and named "Steve.LAPTOP.000 (LAPTOP is the name of the

>> computer). All user-specific data goes to the new folder. I know I can

>> copy and paste the old to the new, but it won't let me rename the new

>> folder (says it is required for Windows to run properly). Is there a

>> way I can go back to the old name and get rid of the extra folder?

>>

>> Thanks for any help.

>>

>> Steve M.

>>

>Yes, my Inspiron 6000 has three partitions. One perhaps contains the MBR.

>The second contains the recovery partition. The third contains Windows.

>You can restore the system to its as delivered condition by using the

>recovery partition as described in the manual. However, instead of using

>the recovery partition, you should have prepared for the need to reinstall

>the current setup by creating backups with Acronis True Image.

>

>1. No you cannot swap system drive letters easily.

>2, The repair installation added an account called Steve.Laptop.1000. This

>folder tree now contains those files which you access via the user name

>Steve. There is no need to go back to using the folder tree called Steve.

>Just take ownership of the files and move them to the new folder tree.

>

>You still should address the issue of why the SP3 installation failed. SP3

>installed on my Inspiron 6000 with no problems at all.

>

>Jim

>

Jim, thank you for the info and answering the questions I asked. I

guess I'll pretty much have to live with what Microsoft decided for

me:) It seems MS prefers to treat users as idiots rather than give

them specific info they can use to do certain things (IMHO).

Steve