DUAL Boot w/2 Disks change to SINGLE Boot w/1 OS on disk D

[Guest]

In a dual boot configuration with 2 disks drive C:\W2K and drive D:\WXP, I
want to delete drive C to get it's full space - same scernario would happen
if drive C dies. How to make WXP bootable then? Available tools: Acronis
DiscDirectorSuite-10 & TrueImage-10, WXP-Recovy-CD only.

 

[Guest]

Two hds,2 OS,1 PC.Thier really is no "deleting",by simply unplugging either
hd,start pc in BIOS,set solo as 1st boot device.To remove the OS from one,
set to boot to xp cd,recovery,typeiskPart In DiskPart,delete the
partition(s),
create one,press ESC key.Type either, EXIT Or,FORMAT D: /FS:NTFS D:
being the new partition.

 

[John John]

In a dual boot configuration with 2 disks drive C:\W2K and drive D:\WXP, I
want to delete drive C to get it's full space - same scernario would happen
if drive C dies. How to make WXP bootable then? Available tools: Acronis
DiscDirectorSuite-10 & TrueImage-10, WXP-Recovy-CD only.

Do you have a floppy diskette drive on the computer? If yes create a
floppy boot diskette and test it. http://www.nu2.nu/bootdisk/ntboot/
Once you are satisfied that you can boot the Windows XP installation on
drive "D:" with the boot diskette you can do the following:

Copy the following files from the C: to the D: drive:

ntldr
ntdetect.com
boot.ini

Those are hidden system files, you will have to unhide them to see them
and copy them to the D: drive. After the files are copied to the new
location use the Disk Management tool and mark the D drive active. For
this to work the D: drive must have an NT boot sector, it must have been
formated with an NT type operating system, most likely it was formated
when XP was installed so there should be no problems. If the drive was
formated with DOS W98 startup diskette or if it was prepared by a
Windows 9x operating system then for the above to work you will have to
boot to the Recovery Console and issue the fixboot command on the D: drive.

John

 

[John John]

Two hds,2 OS,1 PC.Thier really is no "deleting",by simply unplugging either
hd,start pc in BIOS,set solo as 1st boot device.To remove the OS from one,
set to boot to xp cd,recovery,typeiskPart In DiskPart,delete the
partition(s),
create one,press ESC key.Type either, EXIT Or,FORMAT D: /FS:NTFS D:
being the new partition.

That presumes that the operating systems were installed independently of
each other and that each drive is the System and Boot drive. If the
operating systems were installed following Microsoft's suggested method
there is only one System drive and two boot drives. The system drive is
most likely the C: drive and that is the drive that the OP wants to
remove or format. If he follows your advice his computer would not
boot, fortunately the operating system will not let him format the
active System drive.

John

 

[Guest]

Do you have a floppy diskette drive on the computer? If yes create a
floppy boot diskette and test it. http://www.nu2.nu/bootdisk/ntboot/
Once you are satisfied that you can boot the Windows XP installation on
drive "D:" with the boot diskette you can do the following:

Copy the following files from the C: to the D: drive:

ntldr
ntdetect.com
boot.ini

Those are hidden system files, you will have to unhide them to see them
and copy them to the D: drive. After the files are copied to the new
location use the Disk Management tool and mark the D drive active. For
this to work the D: drive must have an NT boot sector, it must have been
formated with an NT type operating system, most likely it was formated
when XP was installed so there should be no problems. If the drive was
formated with DOS W98 startup diskette or if it was prepared by a
Windows 9x operating system then for the above to work you will have to
boot to the Recovery Console and issue the fixboot command on the D: drive.

John

John,
Thanks a lot for writing detailed and very clear.
1. Yes, the configuration is exactly as you wrote you before.
2. Starting from suggested boot-diskette caused only the message "Remove
disk ... press any key" and following boot procedure was the same as w/o
diskette. So it didn't have any further effect on booting.
3. Then I have also copied ntldr, ntdetect and boot.ini to drive D: but
there was no effect on booting at all.
4. Then I have set disk D: to active but w/o effect. Note: Both disks are
NTFS formatted.

- What files and parameters are missing to boot from the 2nd disk D without C?

 

[John John]

:




John,
Thanks a lot for writing detailed and very clear.
1. Yes, the configuration is exactly as you wrote you before.
2. Starting from suggested boot-diskette caused only the message "Remove
disk ... press any key" and following boot procedure was the same as w/o
diskette. So it didn't have any further effect on booting.
3. Then I have also copied ntldr, ntdetect and boot.ini to drive D: but
there was no effect on booting at all.
4. Then I have set disk D: to active but w/o effect. Note: Both disks are
NTFS formatted.

- What files and parameters are missing to boot from the 2nd disk D without C?

Re: The floppy diskette. Did you format the diskette with Windows 2000
or Windows XP, as instructed in the article? Format the diskette and
copy the boot.ini file from your C:\ partition to the diskette along
with ntldr and ntdetect.com. If you set the boot order (in the BIOS) to
boot to the diskette first you should be able to boot the Windows
installations on C: or D: with that diskette.

How many partitions do you have on hard disk D:? Does the disk contain
a primary partition? The system drive cannot be an Extended partition.
Also keep in mind that when you move the boot.ini file to the D:\
drive the order of the operating systems will not be the same, you
should be able to boot the XP installation with the line that previously
booted Windows 2000. Also, you will have to go in the BIOS and set the
boot order so that it boots on the "D:" hard disk instead of the C:
disk. If or when you get this to boot keep in mind that the Windows XP
installation will retain the D: drive designation, do not try to change
this, it *must* retain the same drive letter.

John

 

[John John]

Re: The floppy diskette. Did you format the diskette with Windows 2000
or Windows XP, as instructed in the article? Format the diskette and
copy the boot.ini file from your C:\ partition to the diskette along
with ntldr and ntdetect.com. If you set the boot order (in the BIOS) to
boot to the diskette first you should be able to boot the Windows
installations on C: or D: with that diskette.

How many partitions do you have on hard disk D:? Does the disk contain
a primary partition? The system drive cannot be an Extended partition.
Also keep in mind that when you move the boot.ini file to the D:\
drive the order of the operating systems will not be the same, you
should be able to boot the XP installation with the line that previously
booted Windows 2000. Also, you will have to go in the BIOS and set the
boot order so that it boots on the "D:" hard disk instead of the C:
disk. If or when you get this to boot keep in mind that the Windows XP
installation will retain the D: drive designation, do not try to change
this, it *must* retain the same drive letter.

PS. Post your boot.ini file here, the Windows 2000 entry will point to
the WINNT folder, Windows XP is installed to WINDOWS folder by default.
The ARC path in the boot.ini file has to reflect this. You can also
use an all purpose boot.ini file like this one:

[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP"
/fastdetect /noexecute=OptIn
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP"
/fastdetect /noexecute=OptIn


John

 

[Guest]

Re: The floppy diskette. Did you format the diskette with Windows 2000
or Windows XP, as instructed in the article? Format the diskette and
copy the boot.ini file from your C:\ partition to the diskette along
with ntldr and ntdetect.com. If you set the boot order (in the BIOS) to
boot to the diskette first you should be able to boot the Windows
installations on C: or D: with that diskette.

How many partitions do you have on hard disk D:? Does the disk contain
a primary partition? The system drive cannot be an Extended partition.
Also keep in mind that when you move the boot.ini file to the D:\
drive the order of the operating systems will not be the same, you
should be able to boot the XP installation with the line that previously
booted Windows 2000. Also, you will have to go in the BIOS and set the
boot order so that it boots on the "D:" hard disk instead of the C:
disk. If or when you get this to boot keep in mind that the Windows XP
installation will retain the D: drive designation, do not try to change
this, it *must* retain the same drive letter.

PS. Post your boot.ini file here, the Windows 2000 entry will point to
the WINNT folder, Windows XP is installed to WINDOWS folder by default.
The ARC path in the boot.ini file has to reflect this. You can also
use an all purpose boot.ini file like this one:

[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP"
/fastdetect /noexecute=OptIn
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP"
/fastdetect /noexecute=OptIn


John

John,

It works excatly as you write above in your last instructions.
I highly appreciate your help and thank you very much.
Your a real expert !

 

[John John]

:

John John wrote:

Early Bird wrote:


:



Early Bird wrote:



In a dual boot configuration with 2 disks drive C:\W2K and drive
D:\WXP, I want to delete drive C to get it's full space - same
scernario would happen if drive C dies. How to make WXP bootable
then? Available tools: Acronis DiscDirectorSuite-10 & TrueImage-10,
WXP-Recovy-CD only.


Do you have a floppy diskette drive on the computer? If yes create a
floppy boot diskette and test it. http://www.nu2.nu/bootdisk/ntboot/
Once you are satisfied that you can boot the Windows XP installation
on drive "D:" with the boot diskette you can do the following:

Copy the following files from the C: to the D: drive:

ntldr
ntdetect.com
boot.ini

Those are hidden system files, you will have to unhide them to see
them and copy them to the D: drive. After the files are copied to
the new location use the Disk Management tool and mark the D drive
active. For this to work the D: drive must have an NT boot sector,
it must have been formated with an NT type operating system, most
likely it was formated when XP was installed so there should be no
problems. If the drive was formated with DOS W98 startup diskette or
if it was prepared by a Windows 9x operating system then for the
above to work you will have to boot to the Recovery Console and issue
the fixboot command on the D: drive.

John



John,
Thanks a lot for writing detailed and very clear.
1. Yes, the configuration is exactly as you wrote you before.
2. Starting from suggested boot-diskette caused only the message
"Remove disk ... press any key" and following boot procedure was the
same as w/o diskette. So it didn't have any further effect on booting.
3. Then I have also copied ntldr, ntdetect and boot.ini to drive D:
but there was no effect on booting at all.
4. Then I have set disk D: to active but w/o effect. Note: Both disks
are NTFS formatted.

- What files and parameters are missing to boot from the 2nd disk D
without C?


Re: The floppy diskette. Did you format the diskette with Windows 2000
or Windows XP, as instructed in the article? Format the diskette and
copy the boot.ini file from your C:\ partition to the diskette along
with ntldr and ntdetect.com. If you set the boot order (in the BIOS) to
boot to the diskette first you should be able to boot the Windows
installations on C: or D: with that diskette.

How many partitions do you have on hard disk D:? Does the disk contain
a primary partition? The system drive cannot be an Extended partition.
Also keep in mind that when you move the boot.ini file to the D:\
drive the order of the operating systems will not be the same, you
should be able to boot the XP installation with the line that previously
booted Windows 2000. Also, you will have to go in the BIOS and set the
boot order so that it boots on the "D:" hard disk instead of the C:
disk. If or when you get this to boot keep in mind that the Windows XP
installation will retain the D: drive designation, do not try to change
this, it *must* retain the same drive letter.

PS. Post your boot.ini file here, the Windows 2000 entry will point to
the WINNT folder, Windows XP is installed to WINDOWS folder by default.
The ARC path in the boot.ini file has to reflect this. You can also
use an all purpose boot.ini file like this one:

[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP"
/fastdetect /noexecute=OptIn
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP"
/fastdetect /noexecute=OptIn


John

John,

It works excatly as you write above in your last instructions.
I highly appreciate your help and thank you very much.
Your a real expert !

You're welcome, thanks for the follow up.

John