Windows 7 Install command prompt can't access the C drive

Question

I'm trying to create a new Windows 7 Professional VHD which I can dual boot to, following Scott Hanselman's guide to creating a bootable VHD.

When I get to the command prompt in the Windows 7 installation and try to create a VHD or select/attach a pre-created VHD file I get an error saying that diskpart can't find the path specified.

If I try and switch to the c drive using cd c: I see

c:\
x:\something\> 

I already have a Windows 7 Ultimate install and my C drive is an SSD – if that makes a difference.

Answer 1

OK, figured this out. After going to back into the windows installer and trying to load the drivers for my ssd I noticed that my c drive is actually showing up as the d drive in the windows install and the c drive was showing as a system reserved/recovery drive. A little random...

Also worth noting that you can't actually boot win7 pro from a vhd, what IT pro would want to do that? Its only available for ultimate and enterprise versions.

Answer 2

The command cd c: just shows the current directory in the C drive.

To change to the C drive, use either of the following commands:

cd /d c:

c:

Answer 3

You don't change drives with CD, that's for Changing Directories.

To switch to another drive you just type C: (for example) and hit enter. Or if you really want to use CD to switch directories AND drive you can use CD /D C:\.

Also, if doing it one of these ways still doesn't work, ensure you have the driver loaded for you controller (AHCI, RAID or whatnot) so that setup can see the drive.