Can I change my Windows drive J: to C: without too much of a hassle?


  1. Posts : 21
    Windows 10
       #1

    Can I change my Windows drive J: to C: without too much of a hassle?


    Can you change the system partition (including Windows & programs) from J: to C: without a lot of hassle?

    Let me explain:
    My mom's PC was old and still running on Windows XP. Years ago she had a crash and someone restored her PC. Because of the restoration everything was relocated to the J: partition. Her J: partition acts like a normal C: partition, but I want to give it a go correcting it.

    I managed the following; I cloned her old harddisk (with Clonezilla) to a new harddisk and installed it in a new PC. From there I removed a bunch of old programs and cleaned it up (quite) a bit. After that I cloned the contents to a SSD. And the (new) PC booted into Windows XP (without issues), something which I didn't expect to quite honest (ofcourse a lot of drivers missing, but no problem).

    Anyways from there I upgraded to Vista > Windows 7 > Windows 10, while keeping all of her original programs and settings. Normally I would do a complete install, but she has many "old" programs which aren't being sold anymore and / or she didn't save the license information / serials for those programs.

    Her PC is now running fine (and much better) on Windows 10 + SSD. I also installed a harddisk mainly for pictures and backups. Installing the harddisk was kind of a pain. After installing it, the PC wouldn't boot anymore into Windows 10. After spending several days on this, I finally discovered that the registry was messed up and had to load the registry remotely (thanks to Hirens Bootcd) and correct everything from C: to J: (as it originally was on her PC). I think because I added the harddisk it made some registry changes and causing it not to boot anymore. Anyways, long story short, it's working now again.

    So now I am trying to make her (new) PC a bit normal by changing her current Windows partition from J: to C:.
    I don't know if this is possible and that I maybe should leave it as it is, as it's working now. Also she is used to the fact that J: is her default partition. But, if it's possible, it's something I would consider doing. But I would like to know what the professionals in here think of this.

    (sorry for my long story, but wanted to be as detailed as possible)

    If it's too much of a hassle or to dangerous (resulting non-booting or non-starting programs, due to drive letter change, just say so, I will leave it as it is.
      My Computer


  2. Posts : 2,585
    Win 11
       #2

    I had Windows installed on a different letter drive back in the Win 7 days. After long discussions on the Windows 7 forum it appeared there was no way to do it without a complete new install. I just left it as is since everything was working. Later, I built a new PC and did a complete new install and got back to the "C" drive for the OS.

    Unless there are major problems, I would leave it as is. It doesn't matter to the Operating System what letter drive its installed on.
      My Computers


  3. Posts : 5,478
    2004
       #3

    I'd leave it. Have a look in regedit and see how many thousands of entries you'd have to update from J to C and that will put you off.

    Even if you did all them without making a typo then there are also other (unknown) places where paths are hardcoded (configuration files in appdata for example).
      My Computer


  4. Posts : 2,585
    Win 11
       #4

    Ix07, thanks for the rep. We both agree.
      My Computers


  5. Posts : 284
    Windows 10 Pro 64-bit
       #5
      My Computers


  6. Posts : 5,478
    2004
       #6

    Was this reply meant for another thread?
      My Computer


  7. Posts : 21
    Windows 10
    Thread Starter
       #7

    Yeah, that's what I figured guys. I skimmed through the registry past week, but really too many keys to change or edit. She has tons of programs installed (that's why I had to go through the pain of cloning and upgrading from XP all the way through Windows 10).

    I will just leave it as it is then. Everything works now (even her old programs). The J: partition only looks weird for me, but my mom can work with it. So all good I guess.

    I am now only exporting all of her emails from Incredimail (biggest junk ever invented imho, no offence) to Thunderbird. Which is a lot of work, I can tell you that. :)

    Anyways, thanks for all the responses. Highly appreciated. :)
      My Computer


  8. Posts : 284
    Windows 10 Pro 64-bit
       #8

    lx07 said:
    Was this reply meant for another thread?
    Taken from 1st Post:

    Anyways from there I upgraded to Vista > Windows 7 > Windows 10, while keeping all of her original programs and settings. Normally I would do a complete install, but she has many "old" programs which aren't being sold anymore and / or she didn't save the license information / serials for those programs.
      My Computers


  9. Posts : 21
    Windows 10
    Thread Starter
       #9

    Sorry for bumping my old thread, but I found some problems with my mother's PC.

    I checked the event logs and I noticed a ton of errors. Which are created almost every 3-5 seconds.

    Source: ESENT
    ID: 490
    svchost (1464) SRUJet: <dutch> c:\windows\system32\SRU\SRUDB.dat <dutch> Systemerror 1005 (0x000003ed): (translated from Dutch) The volume doesn't contain a recognisable systemfile. <dutch> 1022 (0xfffffc02).

    I want to fix this error, but no clue were or how. As mentioned above Windows is installed on the J:\ partition (was because of a crash/backup years ago).

    Is there a registry setting for this somewhere, which I can change from C:\ to J:\, so I can fix this error. I checked the registry for anything related to ESENT, but couldn't find anything.

    I hope this is fixable. Thank you for your time.
      My Computer


  10. Posts : 21
    Windows 10
    Thread Starter
       #10

    HHawk said:
    Sorry for bumping my old thread, but I found some problems with my mother's PC.

    I checked the event logs and I noticed a ton of errors. Which are created almost every 3-5 seconds.

    Source: ESENT
    ID: 490
    svchost (1464) SRUJet: <dutch> c:\windows\system32\SRU\SRUDB.dat <dutch> Systemerror 1005 (0x000003ed): (translated from Dutch) The volume doesn't contain a recognisable systemfile. <dutch> 1022 (0xfffffc02).

    I want to fix this error, but no clue were or how. As mentioned above Windows is installed on the J:\ partition (was because of a crash/backup years ago).

    Is there a registry setting for this somewhere, which I can change from C:\ to J:\, so I can fix this error. I checked the registry for anything related to ESENT, but couldn't find anything.

    I hope this is fixable. Thank you for your time.
    Well I think I solved it, the errors are gone and the machine is also "snappier" now.
    I removed the drive which was being displayed as C: (which was CF/something) and it created the file on J: automatically. Weird. But fixed. :)
      My Computer


 

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