SP2 and drive letters

[David]

Having just updated to SP2 I find that I have a new "drive" which at
this time has only one restore point, and is only 8Mb in size.
However, I will not use system restore, in my experience it doesn't
restore everything so it is no substitute for a drive image. Trouble
is this pesky drive has taken "D" which I have always used for program
files.

Can I delete this restore point and get back my D drive letter? If not
can I reasign it to an un-used letter like X? I have already disabled
the service.

David

[Dave Patrick]

You can use the Disk Management snap-in to reassign non-system, non-boot
partition drive letters.
Start|Run|diskmgmt.msc

--
Regards,

Dave Patrick ....Please no email replies - reply in newsgroup.
Microsoft Certified Professional
Microsoft MVP [Windows]
http://www.microsoft.com/protect

"David" wrote:
| Having just updated to SP2 I find that I have a new "drive" which at
| this time has only one restore point, and is only 8Mb in size.
| However, I will not use system restore, in my experience it doesn't
| restore everything so it is no substitute for a drive image. Trouble
| is this pesky drive has taken "D" which I have always used for program
| files.
|
| Can I delete this restore point and get back my D drive letter? If not
| can I reasign it to an un-used letter like X? I have already disabled
| the service.
|
| David

[Rock]

David wrote:

> Having just updated to SP2 I find that I have a new "drive" which at
> this time has only one restore point, and is only 8Mb in size.
> However, I will not use system restore, in my experience it doesn't
> restore everything so it is no substitute for a drive image. Trouble
> is this pesky drive has taken "D" which I have always used for program
> files.
>
> Can I delete this restore point and get back my D drive letter? If not
> can I reasign it to an un-used letter like X? I have already disabled
> the service.
>
> David

Your post is somewhat confusing. An installation of SP2 doesn't create
any new drives and certainly not just for the purpose of holding system
restore information. So something else created this partition. SR is a
valuable tool for it's purpose. It's not a backup system. It is there
to correct problems like a messed up driver update or program
installation. Yes drive imaging is best for backup but unless it's
current everyday after every change, it doesn't do the same thing that
SR does.

Drive letters can be reassigned by going to Control Panel,
Administrative Tools, Computer Management. Click on Disk Management.
Right click on the drive and choose Change drive letter and paths. Any
drive except the system drive can be changed.

[Alex Nichol]

David wrote:

>Having just updated to SP2 I find that I have a new "drive" which at
>this time has only one restore point, and is only 8Mb in size.
>However, I will not use system restore, in my experience it doesn't
>restore everything so it is no substitute for a drive image. Trouble
>is this pesky drive has taken "D" which I have always used for program
>files.

The 8 MB of spare space is normally the slack of the very first cylinder
of the drive, left after the initial Master Boot Record in the very
first sector, and before the first partition which is aligned on a
sector boundary. Go to Control Panel - Admin Tools - Computer
Management, select Disk Management and look lower right for the graphic
of the drive to check

Provided you do not use 'Dynamic disk' which makes use of this space,
though I do not think it should show there as a partition, or a Boot
Manager (eg Bootit NG will make its own 8 MB micro-partition there) it
would be a partition that could be deleted. But if you do use such a
Boot Manager you should take steps in *its* set up to ensure that the
partition in question is 'Hidden'


--
Alex Nichol MS MVP (Windows Technologies)
Bournemouth, U.K. (remove the D8 bit)