Error 1324: A Possible Solution [Windows XP]

So I log on to my computer today and I start getting this error message… Error 1324. Apparently this error has to do with an improper location or path of an application. I was really puzzled because applications were trying to reinstall themselves automatically, seemingly out of nowhere and for no reason.

Once again, the problem seemed to originate with Adobe Acrobat 8.0 Professional. But, it didn’t stop there. It was happening with Office 2007, too. I’d try to open Word and, once again, Office began trying to reinstall itself.

After a little bit of investigation, and deductive reasoning, I’d found out the cause of the problem. For some reason, the drive letter on my hard drive had changed from G to H, so every single reference (path) to every single program on my secondary hard drive was incorrect. For example, when I installed Adobe, the path was G:\Adobe. But, when the drive letter changed, my computer was still trying to find Adobe in G:\Adobe, when in actuality, it was now H:\Adobe.

I should note that I use a separate hard drive for my programs and storage.

So, to spare the details of this story, here’s the solution:

1. Open up the Control Panel.
2. Open Administrative Tools.
3. Open Computer Management
4. On the left, click on Disk Management.
5. Right-click on the drive you want to change the drive letter of and select “Change Drive Letter and Paths…”
6. Change the drive letter to the one you want it to be. (Make sure no other drives currently use the letter you want.)
7. Shut down your computer, then power back up.

I’m not exactly sure what caused the drive letter to change, but I have an idea that it’s my CD/DVD image management software – MagicISO. My virtual CD/DVD drive ended up with my hard drive letter – G, and my hard drive ended up with H.

Read a book.