How to move ntldr back to C drive

[JP]

On a recent reinstall of WinXP Pro SP2 on an elderly laptop we noticed that
these files - ntldr, ntdetect and boot.ini - are now located not on the C
(system) partition but on the D (data) partition! The HDD is sectioned into
these two partitions.
No problems with anything. System boots to C "drive" and everything works
normally. And every application did install correctly on C.
But now we need to format D partition and need to know how to move the
system files to C such that the installation continues working fine.
TIA for any advice on this matter.
Regards.
JP
--

 

[JP]

My response at bottom:

- Run diskmgmt.msc, then report here which is your active partition.
- Does your machine have a floppy disk drive?

Thanks for the quick response.
I did as advised and found that D is shown as "Active" in Disk Management.
Yes, the laptop has a floppy drive.
Looking forward to further advice.
Regards and thanks.
JP
--

 

[Pegasus \(MVP\)]

On a recent reinstall of WinXP Pro SP2 on an elderly laptop we noticed
that
these files - ntldr, ntdetect and boot.ini - are now located not on the C
(system) partition but on the D (data) partition! The HDD is sectioned
into
these two partitions.
No problems with anything. System boots to C "drive" and everything works
normally. And every application did install correctly on C.
But now we need to format D partition and need to know how to move the
system files to C such that the installation continues working fine.
TIA for any advice on this matter.
Regards.
JP
--

- Run diskmgmt.msc, then report here which is your active partition.
- Does your machine have a floppy disk drive?

 

[Pegasus \(MVP\)]

My response at bottom:



Thanks for the quick response.
I did as advised and found that D is shown as "Active" in Disk Management.
Yes, the laptop has a floppy drive.
Looking forward to further advice.
Regards and thanks.
JP
--

I thought this might be so. To play it safe, I suggest you do this:
1. Format a floppy disk while in WinXP.
2. Copy the three system files you mentioned to A:\.
3. Instruct your BIOS to use the FDD as its primary boot device.
4. See if you can boot into WinXP from the FDD.
5. Move the three system files from D:\ to D:\TempDir.
6. See if you can boot into WinXP from the FDD.
7. Mark drive C: as active.
8. Copy the three system files from D:\TempDir to C:\.
9. See if you can boot into WinXP from the hard disk.
10. Reverse Step 3. above.
11. Format drive D:.

Having a floppy boot disk means that you will be able to boot
into WinXP even if something goes wrong.

 

[JP]

My response at bottom:

I thought this might be so. To play it safe, I suggest you do this:
1. Format a floppy disk while in WinXP.
2. Copy the three system files you mentioned to A:\.
3. Instruct your BIOS to use the FDD as its primary boot device.
4. See if you can boot into WinXP from the FDD.
5. Move the three system files from D:\ to D:\TempDir.
6. See if you can boot into WinXP from the FDD.
7. Mark drive C: as active.
8. Copy the three system files from D:\TempDir to C:\.
9. See if you can boot into WinXP from the hard disk.
10. Reverse Step 3. above.
11. Format drive D:.

Having a floppy boot disk means that you will be able to boot
into WinXP even if something goes wrong.

Perfect !!! Brought back details of something very similar done a couple of
years back when we had copied the boot files from a working PC on floppy to
boot another reluctant PC and restore them! Only that time it was a desktop.
Never occured that the solution now could be so near-identical!
Thanks very very much for the advice. Everything is running perfectly and
the secondary data partition has already been formatted successfully.
How the system files got to the secondary partition might perhaps remain a
mystery. And perhaps another story.
Regards and thanks again.
JP
--

 

[Pegasus \(MVP\)]

Perfect !!! Brought back details of something very similar done a couple
of
years back when we had copied the boot files from a working PC on floppy
to
boot another reluctant PC and restore them! Only that time it was a
desktop.
Never occured that the solution now could be so near-identical!
Thanks very very much for the advice. Everything is running perfectly and
the secondary data partition has already been formatted successfully.
How the system files got to the secondary partition might perhaps remain a
mystery. And perhaps another story.
Regards and thanks again.
JP
--

Thanks for the feedback.

 

[Elmo]

I ave this exact same problem, fresh XP Pro install onto a HDD with two
partitions. Windows is installed on C, but NTLDR is on D.

Problem is I don't have a floppy drive. How would I fix this without
one?

Burn a BartPE or Linux Live CD, run from the damaged machine and move
the needed file.

 

[dadiOH]

When I pull up the disk manager, C is "boot" and M is "system." Also,
C is a logical drive and M is a primary partition. C is the drive
where \windows is, and M is the drive where NTLDR is. I mainly want
to move the files so I can give M a new drive letter.

When booting, the first primary partition of a drive is accessed, drive
letter is unimportant; that means you can change the drive letter, no need
to change (and do not change) the location of NTLDR. Or of NTDETECT.COM and
boot.ini.

Changing the drive letter may affect the ability of your OS to find other
things on the drive, most especially any shortcuts pointing there.

Regardless of what drive letter you may assign to M:, it will always be the
"system" drive.

--

dadiOH
____________________________

dadiOH's dandies v3.06...
....a help file of info about MP3s, recording from
LP/cassette and tips & tricks on this and that.
Get it at http://mysite.verizon.net/xico

 

[dadiOH]

I can't just change the drive letter because Windows sees M: as the
"system" drive and won't let me change it.

Ah, yes, now I recall. Sorry for the erroneous suggestion.
______________

C: is (for some reason only
the Windows installer knows) an extended partition, so I assume I need
to fix that. If so, how?

It is an on an extended partition because that is the way you formatted it.
You need one primary partition but can have up to four primary (don't
construe "primary" as "main" or "better"). One can also have "extended"
partitions and numerous (don't recall if there is a limit) logical drives on
the extended partition.

I really can't see that you need to fix anything. M: is the primary, C: is
a logical drive on an extended partition with Windows on it. What's wrong
with that? Is it that you can't get your head around the drive letters? If
so, try giving the drives descriptive labels and more or less disregarding
drive letters. Using TweakUI for XP you can set drive letters to show
before or after the label or to not show them at all.

--

dadiOH
____________________________

dadiOH's dandies v3.06...
....a help file of info about MP3s, recording from
LP/cassette and tips & tricks on this and that.
Get it at http://mysite.verizon.net/xico

 

[dadiOH]

I just told the Windows installer to delete the partition that was
there and create a new one. I didn't even consider that it wouldn't
create a primary. Guess I've never installed onto a drive that already
had a partition I was keeping.



I need to change it to Q for the following reasons:

1. 10+ years of having Q:\ be my default day-to-day data drive. My
fingers automatically type it that way.

2. I'm re-installing several apps that have existing libraries that
are going to look at subdirectories off of Q:\ for data. (things like
iTunes and a bunch of linked Word and Excel files). It would be a
huge pain in the butt to have to fix all those instead of having the
way I've always had it.

3. I want to be able to do whatever I want in the future to the data
drives without worrying that it will kill my Windows installation.

You won't ever be able to do whatever you want to the drive that is now M:
because it is the drive accessed by BIOS when you boot. It is accessed to
determine which drive holds the OS. In order to boot your system you must
have the aforementioned files on it and you can do nothing that will affect
the master boot record on it. Beyond those things, you can do "whatever".

I've copied the NTLDR, boot.ini, and NTDETECT over to C:\. If I find a
way to change that partition to be a primary am I all set? Any ideas
on how to do that?

Only way I know is to format the entire drive. That wipes both partitions,
of course, but you can then rebuild them to suit your fancy. Might be
simpler to just create another logical drive on the extended partition and
give that the letter Q:.

--

dadiOH
____________________________

dadiOH's dandies v3.06...
....a help file of info about MP3s, recording from
LP/cassette and tips & tricks on this and that.
Get it at http://mysite.verizon.net/xico

 

[dadiOH]

squeamish wrote:

Only way I know is to format the entire drive. That wipes both
partitions, of course, but you can then rebuild them to suit your
fancy. Might be simpler to just create another logical drive on the
extended partition and give that the letter Q:.

This might work if you don't have anything to speak of on C: other than
Windows...

1. Shut down

2. Boot with the XP install disc

3. Install Windows to your primary drive (now M

4. After Windows is installed, use the XP install CD to boot to the repair
console

5. The install CD should ask which Windows install you want to log on to.
Choose the one on what is now M:

6. Do FIXBOOT and FIXMBR

7. Remove the install CD and reboot. You should now have a boot menu
offering you the choice of which Windows install you want to boot. You want
the one on what is now M: but it will probably not be obvious which is which
in the boot meny...probably the second choice.

8. Once booted, confirm via drive size, files you know to exist or whatever
other means that you have booted to the correct drive. The drive letters
may have changed, don't recall.

9. If there is anything on the drive that was C: - the one that is on an
extended partition - save it somewhere.

10. Format the drive that was C: You can do that either from Explorer by
right clicking the drive or from Disk Management.

11. Once formated, the drive won't show in Explorer until assigned a drive
letter via Disk Management.

12. I've never done the above exactly but I think the things in step #6 will
have changed your former drive letter of M: to C:.

13. Having deleted what was formerly C: - together with the Windows install
that was on it - you have no need for a boot menu. You can get rid of it by
deleting boot.ini assuming that your primary partition - the one being
accessed by BIOS when booting - is now C: and that it contains C:\Windows.


--

dadiOH
____________________________

dadiOH's dandies v3.06...
....a help file of info about MP3s, recording from
LP/cassette and tips & tricks on this and that.
Get it at http://mysite.verizon.net/xico

 

[dadiOH]

What qualities does it have that makes the BIOS look to it for the
boot files? Why can't I apply those qualities to another partition?

BIOS deals with *physical* drives. It cares not how many partitions may be
on that drive because it looks in a particular spot on the *physical* drive
for information needed to start the booting process. That particular spot
is the master boot record and that exists only on a primary drive marked as
active.
______________

There is no way to turn an extended partition into a primary
partition? If I were to simply delete the partition and then restore
the image (to a primary) would that be enough?

Yes, doing as Andy says. I'd suggest you first do some reading about how
machines boot, partitions, etc. so you''ll have a clearer idea of what you
are doing and why. Naturally, you'll also need an imaging program.
_____________________

Why would the BIOS
choose the M partition over the C?

See above.



--

dadiOH
____________________________

dadiOH's dandies v3.06...
....a help file of info about MP3s, recording from
LP/cassette and tips & tricks on this and that.
Get it at http://mysite.verizon.net/xico