Re: Changing the system disk after install

Tech-Archive recommends: Fix windows errors by optimizing your registry

Doum wrote:

"John John (MVP)" <audetweld@xxxxxxxxxxx> écrivait
news:udX39JQtIHA.1436@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx:


Doum wrote:

Andy <1@xxx> écrivait
news:ib3i24dsau24lr0ghh255gh38d8tva42a7@xxxxxxx:



On Mon, 12 May 2008 16:06:27 -0400, "Scott S" <scott@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
wrote:



I have recently installed a clean copy of XP onto a machine with 2
hard drives, one is the C: drive with 2 other partitons D: & E:

The 2nd hard drive is completly blank and just formatted. The
problem is windows has installed on the C: Drive, but the 2nd hard
drive is listed as the system disk in the device manager and C: is
the boot drive.

when I boot with recovery coucel and try to fixmbr it states that
windows is installed on F:\windows (Which is the 2nd hard drive).

Any ideas on how to change the "system drive" to the C:\ (boot)
drive?


Run Disk Management, and set the C: drive active.
Copy boot.ini, ntldr, and ntdetect.com from the system partition to
C:\.
Reboot, go into BIOS setup and set (Hard Disk Boot Priority) the disk
drive containing partition C: as the boot drive.



I would reformat, there must be thousands of references to
"F:\Windows" in the OP's XP registry and changing them manually would
take days. It's a lot faster to reinstall everything from scratch.

There is *absolutely* no need to reformat! You can change the System partition from one partition to another or from one disk to another
and the Boot Volume will retain its drive letter when Windows is
booted, that also applies if you make the Boot Volume the System
drive.

We should make sure that we are on the same page and that we use
the same terms else we will all be hopelessly confused! The Microsoft
nomenclature defines the following:

*Boot Partition*
The boot partition contains the Windows operating system and its
support files. By default, the Windows operating system files are in
the WINDOWS folder, and the supporting files are in the
WINDOWS\System32 folder. The boot partition can be, but does not have
to be, the same as the system partition. There will be one, and only
one, system partition, but there will be one boot partition for each
operating system in a multi-boot system.

Note On dynamic disks, this is known as the boot volume.

*System Partition*
The system partition refers to the disk volume that contains the
hardware-specific files that are needed to start Windows, such as
Ntldr, Boot.ini, and Ntdetect.com. The system partition can be, but
does not have to be, the same volume as the boot partition.

Note On dynamic disks, this is known as the system volume.

John


I didn't want to tell my whole story, I thought it was irrelevant but...

[snip...]

I installed WinME on the 4.3GB (C:), XP Pro on the 20 GB (ATA66) (D:). After I finished the installations, I installed Ghost 2003 (in XP) and cloned the XP drive on another 20 GB hard drive (UDMA5) plugged on the PCI controller and removed that drive from the system.

Maybe 10 days later, the XP HD failed (on the ATA66). So I took the cloned disk and put it back in the system on the ATA133 controller. It was still the second hard drive that POST showed up.

When XP began to load it took an eternity and when it finally came up, the drive had become H: (remained H:?), ATI MMC didn't work, AVG didn't work, Ghost didn't work, etc. I went to the registry and found that all the references to Windows were to "D:". I tried to change the letter "H" to "D" in Disk Management but Windows wouldn't let me change the system drive letter.

That is a well known problem that could have easily been fixed by reassigning the drive letter back to its original designation by editing the Mount Manager database in the registry.

How to restore the system/boot drive letter in Windows
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/223188/

John

.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: Changing the system disk after install
    ... Windows Device Manager: ... C:\ (Boot Drive) ... Run Disk Management, and set the C: ... Copy boot.ini, ntldr, and ntdetect.com from the system partition to ...
    (microsoft.public.windowsxp.general)
  • Re: Changing the system disk after install
    ... problem is windows has installed on the C: ... the boot drive. ... Run Disk Management, and set the C: ... Copy boot.ini, ntldr, and ntdetect.com from the system partition to ...
    (microsoft.public.windowsxp.general)
  • Re: [OT] Any XP experts around?
    ... > How To Create a Boot Disk for an NTFS or FAT Partition in Windows XP ...
    (sci.electronics.design)
  • Re: Can someone else help? Was changing partition size.
    ... with one hard drive, that Windows 98 does not list. ... My Computer still does not list the partition that has ... two hard drives. ... This should fix the boot sector on the C: drive and allow you to boot ...
    (microsoft.public.windowsxp.general)
  • Re: [OT] Any XP experts around?
    ... >This is what my system looks like according to XP Disk Management: ... >So, from that, can someone please tell me definitively what partition ... C was exclusively my system and boot ... How To Create a Boot Disk for an NTFS or FAT Partition in Windows XP ...
    (sci.electronics.design)