Change the letter and size of the Guest PC disk drive.

[ermete74]

Regards, sorry me for my bad english.
I ask if it is possible to change the drive letter assigned to the disk drive of a Guest PC with Windows XP Pro 32-bit.
If I try to change the letter assigns to the disk drive from the Windows installation, it indicates to me that it is not possible.
On changing the assigned size before installing the Guest PC, I couldn't find any settings for this.
Maybe it can't be done?
Thank you.

[mpack]

A drive letter is not a hardware feature. It's a software convenience in some but not all guest OS's. I.e. the letter that WinDOS chooses to label a drive with, or the number that Linux/MacOS chooses to label a drive with, has nothing to do with VirtualBox. Likewise labels given to all other bits of hardware.

Look to guest OS solutions for how to change device labels.

And yes, it is certainly possible to change a drive label in Windows. If some letters are refused then do your own basic research to find out why. The most obvious reason will be that the letter you want is already in use inside the VM (e.g. CD drive is D), hence some juggling will be required.

[scottgus1]

On changing the assigned size before installing the Guest PC, I couldn't find any settings for this.

Please ask this in a new topic, per One issue per thread. But before you do, when making a new VM, you'll be asked to make a drive for the VM, and there is a slider for how big to make the drive.

[ermete74]

On changing the assigned size before installing the Guest PC, I couldn't find any settings for this.

Please ask this in a new topic, per One issue per thread. But before you do, when making a new VM, you'll be asked to make a drive for the VM, and there is a slider for how big to make the drive.

Excuse me, do I have to open a post for each topic?
One for letter assignment and one for disk drive size?
In this I speak only of the assignment of letters?
I asked if it was possible to change the letters to the disk drives, because I can't do it, the Guest PC tells me it can't.
The first oddity is that when I install the Guest PC, using Windows XP SP3 XP as the operating system, the installation assigns the letter C: \ to the USB drive (a USB key); the letter D: \ to the optical reader; the letter E: \ to the disk drive.
The Guest PC allows me to change the letters of the USB drive and the optical drive but not the disk drive.
It reports "Cannot change the drive letter of the system or boot volume".
Before even choosing a new letter.

[mpack]

I have no idea how you managed to give a CD drive the C label (but I'd guess it's by booting from a CD), but yes is it known that you can't change the label of the Windows system drive. To do so would invalidate a near-infinity of stored registry paths.

As I said above, the labels applied to hardware by a guest OS have nothing to do with VirtualBox. Nor do we consider ourselves experts on the multitude of ways to mess up a Windows installation. So if you have Windows support questions, please seek answers on a Windows support forum. A VirtualBox support forum is not the proper place for those discussions.

[scottgus1]

Excuse me, do I have to open a post for each topic?

Please ask this in a new topic, per One issue per thread.

QED.

[ermete74]

I have no idea how you managed to give a CD drive the C label (but I'd guess it's by booting from a CD), but yes is it known that you can't change the label of the Windows system drive. To do so would invalidate a near-infinity of stored registry paths.

I have not done anything.
It was VirtualBox that automatically assigned the letters to the drives.
I used an ISO file for the Guest PC installation.
I also tried to use another USB pen drive, it always behaves the same way.
The strange thing is that Virtualbox has assigned the letter C to the USB drive (USB pendrive), the letter D to the optical reader and the letter E to the disk drive.
To the main drive it gave the last letter, while as a logical criterion, since it is the main drive, it should assign the first letter to the disk drive.
Without controversy, the more I use VirtualBox, the more I find strange situations and don't understand how it works.
Thanks to you I realized that I can't change the drive letter.
Strange, Windows allows you to do this even after its installation.

[mpack]

It was VirtualBox that automatically assigned the letters to the drives.

No, it was not. I have already explained why (twice).

A third time: drive letters are not a feature of the hardware, which is the domain where VirtualBox works. There is no mechanism that could allow VirtualBox to assign software labels at a hardware level.

Consider, if the name is selected by VirtualBox then why don't Linux guest drives end up being labelled C, D etc?

What VirtualBox provides are disk controllers, and drives attached to those controllers. The guest OSs have their own rules and conventions for how those drives and controllers are labelled as a convenience to users.

[ermete74]

With Windows 7 Pro SP1 32-bit it does not behave in the same way.
Correctly assigns the letter C to the disk drive, the letter D to the optical reader, the letter E to the USB pen drive.

[mpack]

With Windows 7 Pro SP1 32-bit it does not behave in the same way.

Perhaps so. But you need to go discuss your Windows problems with Microsoft.