Acronis os selector 8.0 User Manual
2.8 Drive
Letters
Most operating systems when booting assign letters (C, D,...) to all partitions
on all hard disks. You, your applications and the operating system itself
identify file placement in a partition using these letters.
on all hard disks. You, your applications and the operating system itself
identify file placement in a partition using these letters.
An operating system may change letter assignment if you plug or unplug
hard disks or perform different actions with partitions. Some changes in
letter assignment may lead to troubles in parts or in the entire configuration
of an operating system. This usually happens when letters are changed for
the partitions where the system files and folders of an operating system are
stored.
hard disks or perform different actions with partitions. Some changes in
letter assignment may lead to troubles in parts or in the entire configuration
of an operating system. This usually happens when letters are changed for
the partitions where the system files and folders of an operating system are
stored.
To avoid such changes in configuration and/or to solve the problems
associated with drive letters, you should know the following:
associated with drive letters, you should know the following:
• How the operating systems assign letters to disks.
• What problems arise if the letter order is changed?
• What actions should be performed during partition management to avoid
• What problems arise if the letter order is changed?
• What actions should be performed during partition management to avoid
changing the letter order?
• How to solve the problems that arise with unavoidable changes.
2.9
Assignment of Letters in Different Operating Systems
2.9.1
MS-DOS 5.0-6.22, MS-DOS 7.0, Windows 95 (original)
These operating systems assign letters in a fixed order. This order has
settled with the evolution of MS-DOS and abides by the following rules:
settled with the evolution of MS-DOS and abides by the following rules:
• Letter assignment begins with letter C: and goes on to letter Z:. Letters
A: and B: are reserved for floppy disk drives.
• A partition to which the letter C: was assigned is treated as the boot
partition, i.e. the partition from which the operating system was booted.
So if the partition from which the operating system will boot is assigned
a letter that is different from C:, most probably the booting will not
execute properly.
So if the partition from which the operating system will boot is assigned
a letter that is different from C:, most probably the booting will not
execute properly.
• Only partitions of types 1 (FAT12), 4, 6 (FAT16) are recognized. The real
type of file system is determined by the contents of the partition and not
by its type. Partitions of all other types are skipped.
by its type. Partitions of all other types are skipped.
• Only the first suitable partition is looked for in any extended partition
table, the rest are ignored.
• Records of type 5 (Extended) are treated as a reference to the next
partition table, and only the first reference in any partition table is
followed, all other records are ignored. Thus all the logical partitions
form a linear chain.
followed, all other records are ignored. Thus all the logical partitions
form a linear chain.
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Chapter 2 : Basic Information