Windows 10: C: Windows Drive and D: swapped, Windows confused and can’t boot

Hello.

My C: drive which has my Windows files and my local drive D: swapped labels.
I tried changing it in Regedit using Microsoft’s guide, but no luck. Reassigning letters in DISKPART doesn’t do anything, either. In BIOS, no boot devices are shown.
After installing a Lenovo BIOS update and shutting down my laptop, the next day I power it on this happens. The exact same thing happened a year prior. Lenovo BIOS update -> Drives swapped around and confused Windows how to Boot. Last time I reinstalled Windows but I’d much rather not do that.

Used CMD to access Regedit and DISKPART. This is in WRE.


Help is appreciated.

:)

 

No C: but D: drive has all the data

Hi Austin,

To help you with your concern regarding the data on the drive C:, you're seeing the drive "C:" as the drive "D:" because you're booting your computer outside Windows. When booting your computer outside Windows, the system is reading the recovery partition
as drive C: and the data in the drive C: \ are listed on the drive D: \. Try to boot your computer and try to check again the data in the drive C: \ and see if the data are listed.

Regards.

 

Swapping drive letters, including boot volume

I have a new computer. I want to clone the system to a new SSD. Can I change the drive letter of the SSD to C: after cloning?

I have a new ASUS M52BC with:

• 1 TB hard drive with a Windows (C and empty data (D partition
• Windows 8.1 (I will upgrade to Windows 10 very soon) on the hard drive
• Samsung SSD 850 EVO (physically installed but nothing more done to it)

What I want to get to is:

• 1 TB hard drive with the data (D partition and (for the old Windows partition) the drive letter of the C: changed to something else
• Windows 10 on the SSD as the C:

I don't intend to boot to Windows on the hard drive after I get Windows working on the SSD unless I need to remove the SSD for return to ASUS for repair. (My new computer had a bad motherboard when I received it but I hope I do not need to return it again.)

I want to clone Windows to the SSD using the Samsung Data Migration tool. During the clone, the SSD will of course not have the drive letter "C". To boot from and use the SSD after the cloning, it must have the drive letter "C", correct? I assume the Data
Migration tool cannot change the drive letter used by the software it clones.

After the clone, how do I swap the drive letters? I assume I cannot change the drive letter of the hard drive Windows partition when it was used to boot from because it would be the boot drive, correct?

I know that some people will suggest that I do a fresh install. I want to avoid doing that if possible.

I see
Migrate system partition to a new disk. I think that describes doing what I am trying to do, but unfortunately he does not know how he did it.

 

Windows 7 & XP Boot Problem

I did as that said, and was able to get back into Windows 7, but I did not have the option of going into XP. Response two on that page deals with that and says...

I did all that, upon rebooting Windows XP was listed as an option but selecting it doesn't work. I get a message saying something is missing or corrupt. I'm confused what drive letter I was supposed to use during the quoted method of adding XP support. While in Windows, the drive with XP is labeled as E:, but if I go into Windows setup it says the drive with XP is called C:. I had put E:, so perhaps it was supposed to be C...but while in Windows 7, the Windows 7 drive is called C:.

My current situation is that XP wouldn't work at all, but 7 would. I decided to reinstall XP again to be in the same situation as before. I'm unsure how to get them both working.