XP won't assing drive letter, even in disk managemet

[genistas]

HI!
I just moved a win98 hard drive (fat32) into my XP machine to move some data. The drive works fine in the other computer. CMOS detects the drive correctly, as does device manager, saying that the drive is ready for use. However, it hasn't been assigned a drive letter and isn't available in Explorer. I went to disk management to assign one myself, but unfortunately all options are grayed out for that disk, including the one to change drive letters. However, it still says that the partition is online, and that it's "healthy (active)".

I've seen a lot of people online with similar problems, but not quite the same as mine. Any ideas?
Thanks!
-Dan

 

[killians45]

then guess you have to do registry (be damn careful in there, one slip and if not backed up, could be real bad).... anyhow, here is what to do.

goto start/run and type regedit

then goto this key:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\MountedDevices

Find the drive letter you want to change to (new). Look for "\DosDevices\C:" (assuming its C you wanna change).

Right-click \DosDevices\C:, click Rename. Rename to \DosDevices\Z: which will free up the C: drive.

Now the drive letter you want changed. Look for "\DosDevices\D:" (or whatever drive you wanted changed)

Right-click \DosDevices\D:, click Rename. Rename to \DosDevices\C:

Click the value for \DosDevices\Z:, click Rename, name it back to "\DosDevices\D:".

quit and restart

keep in mind that the C and D are just generic, as in I have no idea which drives you are wanting changed. Simply put, if you wanted D: to be the C: you cant very well do that because there is already a C:.... so, in the above we renamed the C: to Z:, made the D: into the C:, and then the Z: into the D: (or whatever drive you want).