Setup Windows 2000 so that boot.ini is NOT on the root?

[George Hester]

I have an issue that I am not sure how to achieve what I want. I'm hoping there might be some ideas here to
achieve this:

I have two hardrives. One is a slave on the primary IDE channel and the other is its slave. The slave drive is fine
and it has a Windows 2000 operating system on it. This means it uses a small partition on the master and this is
where its boot.ini; ntldr; netdectect.com; arcldr.exe; and arcsetup.exe reside. That operating system sees this as
drive D: and Windows 2000 sees itself as C: This is the kind of setup I want to continue with.

I want to install Windows 2000 on a partition on the Master drive. I want Windows 2000 there to see itself as C
and see the small partition I mentioned as Not C. And I want it to use drive NOT C: in the same fashion as the
other operating system on the slave is using it to boot.

The trouble is if I make that partition on the Master drive the active partiton then Windows 2000 will install
directly there and NOT use the small partiton I mentioned. This keeps the partition Windows 2000 sees itself on
as C but ignores the small boot partion I mentioned.

If I make the small boot partition the active partition which it always is actually Windows 2000 will not install there
for it is too small 101MB. Hence will want to install to the other partion on the Master now seen but it as NOT
C:.

This is my trouble. How do I install Windows 2000 on a partion of the Master drive such that it sees itself as
installed on C: and uses the small boot partition on partition NOT C I have for the files that I mentioned above?

I say NOT C because the actual drive letter I can deal with. That part is not hard. Thanks.

 

[Dave Patrick]

This article may help.

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;234048

--
Regards,

Dave Patrick ....Please no email replies - reply in newsgroup.
Microsoft Certified Professional
Microsoft MVP [Windows]
http://www.microsoft.com/protect

:
I have an issue that I am not sure how to achieve what I want. I'm hoping
there might be some ideas here to
achieve this:

I have two hardrives. One is a slave on the primary IDE channel and the
other is its slave. The slave drive is fine
and it has a Windows 2000 operating system on it. This means it uses a
small partition on the master and this is
where its boot.ini; ntldr; netdectect.com; arcldr.exe; and arcsetup.exe
reside. That operating system sees this as
drive D: and Windows 2000 sees itself as C: This is the kind of setup I
want to continue with.

I want to install Windows 2000 on a partition on the Master drive. I want
Windows 2000 there to see itself as C
and see the small partition I mentioned as Not C. And I want it to use
drive NOT C: in the same fashion as the
other operating system on the slave is using it to boot.

The trouble is if I make that partition on the Master drive the active
partiton then Windows 2000 will install
directly there and NOT use the small partiton I mentioned. This keeps the
partition Windows 2000 sees itself on
as C but ignores the small boot partion I mentioned.

If I make the small boot partition the active partition which it always is
actually Windows 2000 will not install there
for it is too small 101MB. Hence will want to install to the other partion
on the Master now seen but it as NOT
C:.

This is my trouble. How do I install Windows 2000 on a partion of the
Master drive such that it sees itself as
installed on C: and uses the small boot partition on partition NOT C I have
for the files that I mentioned above?

I say NOT C because the actual drive letter I can deal with. That part is
not hard. Thanks.

 

[George Hester]

Yeah Dave I can look at that but again the actual drive letters are not imporatant. The only drive letter that is
important is the drive that Windows thinks it is installed on. But even if I could install it so that it thinks it is on
drive Not C then later convince it it is on drive C that still does not help.

I need to install Windows 2000 on a partition which is the active partition on the Master drive (Windows will see
this as C) but uses the boot partition I described earlier with the files on it I mentioned. That way Windows
2000 will use the boot.ini on that partition and ignore the ones it has put on its root. I may just be able to do
that and then assign the boot parition after the install which may be all that is necessary. Thanks again.

--
George Hester
_________________________________

This article may help.

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;234048

--
Regards,

Dave Patrick ....Please no email replies - reply in newsgroup.
Microsoft Certified Professional
Microsoft MVP [Windows]
http://www.microsoft.com/protect

:
I have an issue that I am not sure how to achieve what I want. I'm hoping
there might be some ideas here to
achieve this:

I have two hardrives. One is a slave on the primary IDE channel and the
other is its slave. The slave drive is fine
and it has a Windows 2000 operating system on it. This means it uses a
small partition on the master and this is
where its boot.ini; ntldr; netdectect.com; arcldr.exe; and arcsetup.exe
reside. That operating system sees this as
drive D: and Windows 2000 sees itself as C: This is the kind of setup I
want to continue with.

I want to install Windows 2000 on a partition on the Master drive. I want
Windows 2000 there to see itself as C
and see the small partition I mentioned as Not C. And I want it to use
drive NOT C: in the same fashion as the
other operating system on the slave is using it to boot.

The trouble is if I make that partition on the Master drive the active
partiton then Windows 2000 will install
directly there and NOT use the small partiton I mentioned. This keeps the
partition Windows 2000 sees itself on
as C but ignores the small boot partion I mentioned.

If I make the small boot partition the active partition which it always is
actually Windows 2000 will not install there
for it is too small 101MB. Hence will want to install to the other partion
on the Master now seen but it as NOT
C:.

This is my trouble. How do I install Windows 2000 on a partion of the
Master drive such that it sees itself as
installed on C: and uses the small boot partition on partition NOT C I have
for the files that I mentioned above?

I say NOT C because the actual drive letter I can deal with. That part is
not hard. Thanks.

 

[Dave Patrick]

Be aware that Microsoft use the term boot partition for the partition where
the operating system is installed, while the system partition is the first
primary active partition (where the boot sector and files required to start
the operating system reside) The system and boot partition can be
one-and-the-same.

As long as there is ample space then installing to the system partition
should always be an option.

This statement and all of the NOT's are quite confusing.
"One is a slave on the primary IDE channel and the other is its slave"

--
Regards,

Dave Patrick ....Please no email replies - reply in newsgroup.
Microsoft Certified Professional
Microsoft MVP [Windows]
http://www.microsoft.com/protect

:
Yeah Dave I can look at that but again the actual drive letters are not
imporatant. The only drive letter that is
important is the drive that Windows thinks it is installed on. But even if
I could install it so that it thinks it is on
drive Not C then later convince it it is on drive C that still does not
help.

I need to install Windows 2000 on a partition which is the active partition
on the Master drive (Windows will see
this as C) but uses the boot partition I described earlier with the files on
it I mentioned. That way Windows
2000 will use the boot.ini on that partition and ignore the ones it has put
on its root. I may just be able to do
that and then assign the boot parition after the install which may be all
that is necessary. Thanks again.

 

[George Hester]

I understand. The Primary Drive on the Primary IDE Channel has a small partition I call
the boot partition. This is the partition Windows boots from when Windows is not
installed on the Primary Drive of the Primary IDE channel. That boot pasrtition is small
25MB. I want to install Windows 2000 on the Primary drive in a Active Partition but use
the boot partition I just mentioned. How?

I understand it may not be necessary. I want to do what I have asked about. I'll worry about drive letters since what they are is really irrelevant.

 

[Dave Patrick]

Currently your system partition is the 25 mB that you mention. You're asking
about installing Windows to an active partition on the primary drive so it
will now become the system partition. What you're asking is to have two
system partitions which won't be possible. On the other hand you *can*
create another primary (non-active) partition and install the operating
system there.

--
Regards,

Dave Patrick ....Please no email replies - reply in newsgroup.
Microsoft Certified Professional
Microsoft MVP [Windows]
http://www.microsoft.com/protect

:
I understand. The Primary Drive on the Primary IDE Channel has a small
partition I call
the boot partition. This is the partition Windows boots from when Windows
is not
installed on the Primary Drive of the Primary IDE channel. That boot
pasrtition is small
25MB. I want to install Windows 2000 on the Primary drive in a Active
Partition but use
the boot partition I just mentioned. How?

I understand it may not be necessary. I want to do what I have asked about.
I'll worry about drive letters since what they are is really irrelevant.

 

[George Hester]

Right. But then that won't be C: Windows will assign a letter other than that upon install. I want it to be
C hence I need it active. The small partition does not have to be active. Windows will put a few files on
that when it is NOT installed on the Primary Drive on the Primary IDE channel. But if I try to install it in
an Active Partition on the Primary Drive of the Primary IDE channel it will install happily all in that Active
Partition. Seems the only way I can change that is to just manually change it's boot dir but I'm afraid info
is written to that Active Partition on the Primary Drive of the Primary IDE channel that will cause a
problem. If you think not then I can do it. If it does I'm stuck.

No more NOT C promise.

 

[Dave Patrick]

Can you post what you've got as far as drives, partition info, and current
drive letter assignments?

--
Regards,

Dave Patrick ....Please no email replies - reply in newsgroup.
Microsoft Certified Professional
Microsoft MVP [Windows]
http://www.microsoft.com/protect

:
Right. But then that won't be C: Windows will assign a letter other than
that upon install. I want it to be
C hence I need it active. The small partition does not have to be active.
Windows will put a few files on
that when it is NOT installed on the Primary Drive on the Primary IDE
channel. But if I try to install it in
an Active Partition on the Primary Drive of the Primary IDE channel it will
install happily all in that Active
Partition. Seems the only way I can change that is to just manually change
it's boot dir but I'm afraid info
is written to that Active Partition on the Primary Drive of the Primary IDE
channel that will cause a
problem. If you think not then I can do it. If it does I'm stuck.

No more NOT C promise.

 

[George Hester]

Sure.

Two harddrives.

1) Master on Primary IDE Channel
2) Slave on Primary IDE Channel
3) Master is a IOMEGA internal drive (will be removing that soon) on Secondary IDE Channel
4) CDR_ROM slave on Secondary IDE Channel

On 1) I have 2 partitions.
1a) Boot partition 100MB FAT16
1b) Empty and unformatted Partition this is where I plan on installing the new Op Sys

On 2 I have two partitions:
2a) Windows 2000 Server is installed here. NTFS.
2b) NTFS partition just data

There are no Extended partitions and every partition can be made active and bootable.

I want to install Windows on 1b but have it use 1a (like 2a is) as its boot partition.

 

[George Hester]

I'm sorry Dave I have to give you some further information so you understand how this is set up.

The Windows 2000 sees itself installed in Drive C. This is how I do that. I make another small 100
MB partion next to 1a let's call it 1(temp). I make this partion active. Then I delete it. This allows me
to make the partion on the scond drive active (hence C). I install Windows 2000 on that and it gripes.
It then makes and writes a few files to 1(temp) and calls that F say. I get into Windows 2000 on C and
transfer the boot up files to 1a. Then I delete 1(temp).

This is how I do it. I cannot do the same procedure installing in 1b because ALL files will happily go there. No gripes from Windows installing on 1b. That's my problem.

--
George Hester
_________________________________
Sure.

Two harddrives.

1) Master on Primary IDE Channel
2) Slave on Primary IDE Channel
3) Master is a IOMEGA internal drive (will be removing that soon) on Secondary IDE Channel
4) CDR_ROM slave on Secondary IDE Channel

On 1) I have 2 partitions.
1a) Boot partition 100MB FAT16
1b) Empty and unformatted Partition this is where I plan on installing the new Op Sys

On 2 I have two partitions:
2a) Windows 2000 Server is installed here. NTFS.
2b) NTFS partition just data

There are no Extended partitions and every partition can be made active and bootable.

I want to install Windows on 1b but have it use 1a (like 2a is) as its boot partition.

--
George Hester
_________________________________

Can you post what you've got as far as drives, partition info, and current
drive letter assignments?

--
Regards,

Dave Patrick ....Please no email replies - reply in newsgroup.
Microsoft Certified Professional
Microsoft MVP [Windows]
http://www.microsoft.com/protect

:
Right. But then that won't be C: Windows will assign a letter other than
that upon install. I want it to be
C hence I need it active. The small partition does not have to be active.
Windows will put a few files on
that when it is NOT installed on the Primary Drive on the Primary IDE
channel. But if I try to install it in
an Active Partition on the Primary Drive of the Primary IDE channel it will
install happily all in that Active
Partition. Seems the only way I can change that is to just manually change
it's boot dir but I'm afraid info
is written to that Active Partition on the Primary Drive of the Primary IDE
channel that will cause a
problem. If you think not then I can do it. If it does I'm stuck.

No more NOT C promise.

 

[Dave Patrick]

Sounds like you may want one of the third party boot managers where you can
also hide partitions. I've never needed to use them so I really don't have
much to tell you about them.

--
Regards,

Dave Patrick ....Please no email replies - reply in newsgroup.
Microsoft Certified Professional
Microsoft MVP [Windows]
http://www.microsoft.com/protect

:
I'm sorry Dave I have to give you some further information so you understand
how this is set up.

The Windows 2000 sees itself installed in Drive C. This is how I do that.
I make another small 100
MB partion next to 1a let's call it 1(temp). I make this partion active.
Then I delete it. This allows me
to make the partion on the scond drive active (hence C). I install Windows
2000 on that and it gripes.
It then makes and writes a few files to 1(temp) and calls that F say. I get
into Windows 2000 on C and
transfer the boot up files to 1a. Then I delete 1(temp).

This is how I do it. I cannot do the same procedure installing in 1b
because ALL files will happily go there. No gripes from Windows installing
on 1b. That's my problem.

--
George Hester
_________________________________
Sure.

Two harddrives.

1) Master on Primary IDE Channel
2) Slave on Primary IDE Channel
3) Master is a IOMEGA internal drive (will be removing that soon) on
Secondary IDE Channel
4) CDR_ROM slave on Secondary IDE Channel

On 1) I have 2 partitions.
1a) Boot partition 100MB FAT16
1b) Empty and unformatted Partition this is where I plan on installing the
new Op Sys

On 2 I have two partitions:
2a) Windows 2000 Server is installed here. NTFS.
2b) NTFS partition just data

There are no Extended partitions and every partition can be made active and
bootable.

I want to install Windows on 1b but have it use 1a (like 2a is) as its boot
partition.

 

[George Hester]

No I don't use a boot manager and in any case that won't help. Thanks anyway.