Question Can I determine partition letter designations when doing a windows reinstall?

[Dimitri001]

I am going to be adding a new SSD to my computer and doing a Windows reinstall onto that new SSD. Now, the problem is, I have a few programs that I use that refer to files on various partitions (these programs will be reinstalled and file references conserved in new Windows) and when I add the new SSD, I imagine the letters of the partitions may change, which will mess up the file paths. Is there some way either during the installation of Windows or before it to ensure that the current partitions keep their old letter designations and the new SSD gets assigned a new, currently unused one?

 

[USAFRet]

I am going to be adding a new SSD to my computer and doing a Windows reinstall onto that new SSD. Now, the problem is, I have a few programs that I use that refer to files on various partitions (these programs will be reinstalled and file references conserved in new Windows) and when I add the new SSD, I imagine the letters of the partitions may change, which will mess up the file paths. Is there some way either during the installation of Windows or before it to ensure that the current partitions keep their old letter designations and the new SSD gets assigned a new, currently unused one?

After the OS install, you can swap around drive/partition letters on the other ones as you please.
Since you are reinstalling the applications as well, they have no history.

And during the new OS install, have only ONE drive physically connected.
Reconnect the others later.

 

[Dimitri001]

After the OS install, you can swap around drive/partition letters on the other ones as you please.
Since you are reinstalling the applications as well, they have no history.

And during the new OS install, have only ONE drive physically connected.
Reconnect the others later.

You say "on the other ones", does that mean the Windows partition has to be C:?

 

[USAFRet]

You say "on the other ones", does that mean the Windows partition has to be C:?

Generally, the Windows partition is the C.
Little if any reason to have it something else.

If you mean otherwise, please give us a solid description of what you have now, and what you want to end up with.

 

[Dimitri001]

Generally, the Windows partition is the C.
Little if any reason to have it something else.

If you mean otherwise, please give us a solid description of what you have now, and what you want to end up with.

Actually, now that I think of it, I think all the files the programs reference are on D and E, so I think it will be ok for the SSD to become C and what was formerly C to be something else. Thanks!

 

[BFG-9000]

While Windows can be installed on a drive that is not C: it is really not recommended as lots of things expect it to be on C: and it could cause numerous unexpected issues.

Only install Windows when one drive is connected. Once that is done, plug back the old drive and enter the BIOS to make sure it is set to boot from the new SSD rather than the old one.

Windows will automatically assign letters to whatever partitions you have on the old drive, but you can change them to whatever you like in Disk Management, provided there is no pagefile on them. The trick is you can only select a drive letter that is not in use so this can be a multistep process, i.e. if you wanted to reassign your current G: to D: but D: is already in use, you will first have to temporarily reassign the current D: to something higher in the alphabet, such as X:

In fact D: will likely be your old C: install so you would probably want it left mapped to a high letter so that all of your other partitions can go back to their old places.

 

[USAFRet]

Actually, now that I think of it, I think all the files the programs reference are on D and E, so I think it will be ok for the SSD to become C and what was formerly C to be something else. Thanks!

As said, install the OS with ONLY the desired drive connected.
That will be your C drive.

Reconnect other drives after. And they WILL be given different drive letters. You can change those around as desired.

 

[USAFRet]

Unless you really really want/need to do a full clean OS install....consider a clone from old drive to new.

We can go through that process if you want.