When i recently formaed my pc i decided to insall my OS and applicaions on my bigger HD, which is D

I want to remove the C drive, but cannot as he boot files, boo.ini etc, are on it, so when removed my pc wont boot up.

Is here anyway, wihout formatting and staring over, that i can get he necessary boot files onto my D disk, so that the C drive is no longer needed.



Thanks
RZA

no u have to start over man or it will all go tits up!
just put windows on drive c and all your programs on d drive

i wanna get rid of the C drive all together, so if i format, i'll then have to remove it, then install everythign again on the drive i want

but i dont really wanna format, u sure theres no other way?

Remove the C drive then do a reinstall of the OS to the remaining drive. That should update the boot loader and stuff and allow it to boot while also keeping your existing programs intact.

I'm with QWERTY with one addition, I'd back up your files to C: first, THEN remove it and install your OS to D:, "just in case".

yeh thats ok to over write it all but...............
if u are a paranoid person worried wether its runnin ok [ like me i need to know ] i strongly suggest u back up and do it right if u got the time for piece of mind.
seems to do a bad job runnin stuff over stuff ......... for me that is
hope this helps m8

The order in which you boot your drives is determined in the BIOS.

Ant212, thats not his problem. He has the OS boot loader on C: but the system files are on a non-bootable D: drive. Just changing the BIOS settings won't make the D: drive bootable.

Yes thats rigth QWERTY - i tried removing the C drive and telling the bios to boot from the oher drive - but it didn't work

minimarsh - if i had time i would format, but i have A level exams and lots of coursework to do in the next month so i really dont have time to do a format


i had an idea........dunno if it'll work:

1. i remove the C drive
2. i put in the win2k disc
3. rather than installing over, wot if i choos the option to do a system repair - would this notice that there are no boot files, and put some on?

i would think that this is safer cos it wont change anything thats all ok, as installing windows over everthing thats there might?


any ideas

thanks for all ur replies

Hi

Dont know if this will work or not but cant you just copy everything from C to D except the pagefile.sys file,remove the C Drive make the D Drive the master drive,reboot..??

Smiffy

surely the boott files on C say 'go to D drive and do this' - so if i copy them over to the D drive - it'll create a problem

any ideas on my thought on doing the system repair using my win2k disc?

Originally posted by RZA
surely the boott files on C say 'go to D drive and do this' - so if i copy them over to the D drive - it'll create a problem

any ideas on my thought on doing the system repair using my win2k disc?

Well boot.ini only refers to the disk ID,so if you are making your D the new C surely the boot.ini file will only look for the disk ID which will be the only hdd you have in the system. As I said as long as you copy over the entire contents of C drive inc hidden/system files this should work...

I've done this method on a Win9x system before to save going through the format/reinstall procedure and it worked no probs. Perhaps os's based on the nt kernal work differently

Smiffy

I haven't messed with 2000 but in XP you can't simply copy the boot files over or make a drive image because of a security ID that is written on each install. Well you can but it gets very involved, it would be easier to backup your files, reformat D: and install the OS. It works best if only one drive is physically connected to the PC otherwise you may have problems. After doing the install and reconnecting C: the PC may not recognize the boot files on C: and you'll have to edit the boot files manually so they show up. MS Knowledge Base article 311578 gives all the details, if I can do it anybody can.

Once that is done you can right click My Computer on either drive and select Properties, Advanced and Startup and Recovery. You will find a step which allows you to select which OS installation will be the default boot and how long to display the window where you can choose the other C: will always be C: and D: will always be D:, no changing them around, it's just the nature of the beast.

hmmmm

Smiffy - aswell as boot.ini, there are some system files (.sys) - do these not refer specifically to a certain drive in this case D?


Hippie - thanks for the article - it doesn' seem hard to edit boot.ini, but i dont know what i'd be editing?




anyone know if doing a system repair using the win2k disc from dos would work if i disconnect drive C (with the boot files on) ?



thanks everyone who has helped so far

Originally posted by Hippie
I haven't messed with 2000 but in XP you can't simply copy the boot files over or make a drive image because of a security ID that is written on each install. Well you can but it gets very involved, it would be easier to backup your files, reformat D: and install the OS.

What happens when you make an image then with Ghost....? If you cant just make a drive image because of a security ID. Can you explain what you mean about a security ID on each install....?

Cheers

Smiffy

hi

this is what my boot.ini file says:

[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(1)\WINNT
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(1)\WINNT="Microsoft Windows 2000 Professional" /fastdetect



woudl i need to edit anyhing here?



any ideas what rdisk(1) means?

RZA, not until you install the OS on D: and maybe not then it's just a possibility you should be aware of so you don't panic when it doesn't list the C: OS boot option. With a dual boot installation you will get a screen during boot up allowing you to choose which OS you want to boot. If you don't then you need to do the edit. On mine when I reconnected C: it didn't show it so I had to edit my boot configuration. You aren't that far yet and you may not have to, just giving you a head's up.

Smiffy, Windows NT, 2000 and XP create a unique security identification number each time the OS is installed. In order to do a drive image on the NT based OS's you have to first run "Sysprep" to remove the SID (security identifier) created at the time the OS was installed. Otherwise if the PC and it's clone are on the same network (or on two HDD's in the same PC) they will conflict with each other. Although in "Microdoft Windows XP, Inside and Out" it says that once each OS is started they willl each create a new SID. However there can be no user accounts, profiles or encrypted data on the partition on which you run Sysprep. Also each PC must be identical in configuration which on a single PC with 2 separate HDD's probably wouldn't be an issue. This method is intended for large companies with "fleets" of identical PC's... I think copying his data to C:, reformatting D: and doing a clean install of his OS then reconnecting C: and transferring the data back would be the easiest in the long run. But then I have been wrong a time or two ;). I know XP has a Files and Settings Transfer Wizard that will do this for you without Sysprep, Ghost, etc. I just used it a few days ago when I installed a larger HDD.

You don't have to reinstall windows at all. All you need to do is this.

Copy these files to your drive D from drive C
btw these are hidden files so you need to do a copy /a command

ntdetect.com
ntldr
boot.ini

That's it. Hope this helps

Hi

Hippie: Thanks for the info on SID you've jogged some grey matter with the explanation and I do recall this issue with major networks but I always came across this issue when cloning several systems on a single network using Ghost.

We are looking however at a single pc which RZA explained and i'm still not convinced that he can't use the method i've said ;)

RZA: After all this messing it would of been quicker for you to backup your vital data, change C&D around format both and do a fresh install,it's by far the best,cleanest hassle free method....

Smiffy

ok

i ried copying the boot and system fiels over - changed the bios to boot from the second hd - it worked

but when i removed the C drive, and changed the bios to boot from the first hard disk (as c is now gone d is the first hd right?) it didn't work

i also ried removing C, and doing a system repair using my win2k disc, and ran FIXBOOT - but it didn't seem to do anyhing


Smiffy - lol i guess it would have been faster to format, its just i dont want to format if i can fix it another way.

When you enter the BIOS redetect the drive and save and exit,then try again.

:D you're right m8 all this tooing and frowing you'd be up and running with your system the way that you want it by now.

When you do get it the way you want it i'd suggest that you get yourself a trial version of Ghost or Drive Image and setup the system to your liking then make an image and keep it on your old C drive which I assume that you will now use for data as your D drive. Soon as you get a prob you can reimage your system back to it's virgin installation....

Good Luck m8

Smiffy

hi

how do i redetect the drive in the bios?

this is why i think it didn't work once i removed the c drive, i may be totally wrong.

some how the boot.ini file has to say which hard disk to load the files from yes?

if i have two hard disks installed it might say something like go to teh second hard disk - so therefore the boot files work on either hard disk, if both hard disks are in

as soon as i remove the c drive - d now becomes c and the and it wont boot as it cant go to the second drive - the boot files must now get it to boot from the first hard drive

i'm not sure if thats how it all works but thats wot i would guess, and would sort of explain why it wont boot after removing c, with teh original boot files on d

i assume therefore i'd need to edit something in the boot.ini file to get it to work?



thanks Smiffy i'll look ingto getting a trial version of Ghost - seems like it coudl very extremely useful

^^any ideas?^^