change drive letter from D: to C: for Windows drive!

Question

My computer was installed from a USB stick, and now the Windows' drive is D:, while C: is used for external media.

I'd really want/need to change, so Windows & Program Files' drive letter will be called C:, and D: is left for something else (2nd partition).

How can I do that? Simply forcing drive letter change will cause window's internal links to break. There should be an ordered procedure or a software that does it.

I don't mind re-installing Windows for that matter, but I don't know how to force setup to call it C:

When i set windows up in the 1st place, the partitioning screen referred to the target drive as C:, but the end result is D: :(

Answer 1

You'll have to reinstall windows either from a CD, or follow an installation guide that takes the flash drive into account.

There's no easy way to change it after the fact, especially since the drive paths for all the applications would also have to change.

Answer 2

If you need it to be C and it is currently D, three steps.

1. First, force the C, or use a partition editor to do so actively.

2. Then export your entire registry as a text file, and replace all D:\ with C:\ (Replace all command),

3. Then import back into your registry to replace it and restart.

Now you'll need the disks or installers from all your programs, but you should be able to "Repair" them and have any of their config files rewritten to enable the programs to function without a problem (you might need to simply reinstall).

My Documents etc will be fixed, the rest should work. It's a long and grueling process, but in the end you should have everything you need. If a driver malfunctions, reinstall it, and you should be fine. Most of them use Reg keys to store linkage, so once you fix that, it will write to a config file when the driver is used.