Win2K to XP Pro Upgrade problem

[Don]

I had a major system crash a few months back, mother board went and glitches
a hard drive. New mother board, Processor, etc and while I was at it a
couple more hard drives. After about three weeks of recovery, I got my
Win2K back up and running. I then decided to upgrade to XP Pro so I could
use the Hyperthreading. I made a full bootable copy of my Win2k drive and
then made the copy my C drive and installed WinXP over 2K to keep my
configuration. This seemed to work well. I've run this setup for a couple
weeks now.

Now the big HOWEVER. This morning I decided I didn't need the Win2K fall
back any longer and started erasing stuff off the F: drive. (old C) At
one point, I did a re-boot and I was dead in the water, NTldr not found. I
did a re-install of XP and was back on line. After investigating, I found
that my XP system is spread across two drives. Some of the programs are in
F:/Programs and some are in C:/Programs. Seems I've dug myself quite a
hole.

I suspect this is confusing the system also as every now and the all of the
icons on the desktop go white and then slowly one by one repaint with the
correct logos.

Is there anyway to gracefully herd all of the programs back to the C drive
or am I going to either live with the fragmented op sys or do a from scratch
install? I don't like the thoughts of the later at all.

Thanks for your ideas

Don

 

[Rick \Nutcase\ Rogers]

Hi Don,

The programs would have to be uninstalled and reinstalled to the new C:,
there is no easy way. What likely happened is that F: was the active
(bootable) drive, so during the XP install the boot files (ntldr,
ntdetect.com, boot.ini) were placed there. When you deleted stuff, you
deleted them too. Unless you have redirected the bootloader to C: (fixboot
C after making it the active volume, chances are that F: will still be the
booted partition.

--
Best of Luck,

Rick Rogers, aka "Nutcase" - Microsoft MVP

Associate Expert - WindowsXP Expert Zone

Windows help - www.rickrogers.org

 

[Carey Frisch [MVP]]

The problem is you did not select "Upgrade" during setup.
To rectify the situation, perform a "clean install".

The Windows XP CD is bootable and contains all the tools necessary
to partition and format your drive. Follow this procedure and allow
Windows XP to partition and format your drive:

NOTE: It would be best to physically disconnect all your peripheral hardware
devices, except the monitor, mouse and keyboard, before installing XP.

NOTE: If you have an internal Zip Drive installed, physically disconnect the
EIDE and power cable to it before proceeding, otherwise your main
hard drive may not be assigned the customary C: drive letter.
After installing Windows XP, you may then reconnect it.

1. Open your BIOS and set your "CD Drive as the first bootable device".

===> Accessing Motherboard BIOS
===> http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/bios_manufacturer.htm

2. Insert your Windows XP CD in the CD Drive and reboot your computer.
3. You'll see a message to boot to the CD....follow the instructions.
4. The setup menu will appear and you should elect to delete all the existing
Windows partitions, then create a new partition, then format the primary
partition (preferably NTFS) and proceed to install Windows XP.

5. Clean Install Windows XP
http://michaelstevenstech.com/cleanxpinstall.html

[Courtesy of Michael Stevens, MS-MVP]

6. ==> Immediately after installing Windows XP, turn on XP's Firewall.
==> http://www.microsoft.com/athome/security/protect/default.mspx

7. After Windows XP is installed, visit the Windows Update website
and download the available "Critical Updates".

8. After installing the critical updates, be sure and visit the support website
of the manufacturer of the computer to download and install any
available Windows XP compatible drivers, such as video adapter
and audio drivers.

9. If you happen to run into any installation difficulties, use the following resources:

How to Troubleshoot Windows XP Problems During Installation
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;310064

Troubleshooting Windows XP Setup
http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/xp_setup.htm

[Courtesy of MS-MVP Kelly Theriot]

--
Carey Frisch
Microsoft MVP
Windows XP - Shell/User
Microsoft Newsgroups

Get Windows XP Service Pack 2 with Advanced Security Technologies:
http://www.microsoft.com/athome/security/protect/windowsxp/choose.mspx

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

:

| I had a major system crash a few months back, mother board went and glitches
| a hard drive. New mother board, Processor, etc and while I was at it a
| couple more hard drives. After about three weeks of recovery, I got my
| Win2K back up and running. I then decided to upgrade to XP Pro so I could
| use the Hyperthreading. I made a full bootable copy of my Win2k drive and
| then made the copy my C drive and installed WinXP over 2K to keep my
| configuration. This seemed to work well. I've run this setup for a couple
| weeks now.
|
| Now the big HOWEVER. This morning I decided I didn't need the Win2K fall
| back any longer and started erasing stuff off the F: drive. (old C) At
| one point, I did a re-boot and I was dead in the water, NTldr not found. I
| did a re-install of XP and was back on line. After investigating, I found
| that my XP system is spread across two drives. Some of the programs are in
| F:/Programs and some are in C:/Programs. Seems I've dug myself quite a
| hole.
|
| I suspect this is confusing the system also as every now and the all of the
| icons on the desktop go white and then slowly one by one repaint with the
| correct logos.
|
| Is there anyway to gracefully herd all of the programs back to the C drive
| or am I going to either live with the fragmented op sys or do a from scratch
| install? I don't like the thoughts of the later at all.
|
| Thanks for your ideas
|
| Don

 

[Don]

Carey, I did do an update. Also, a full install is out of the question. I
can't afford another three weeks of reloading software.

I am thinking that a find and replace of F: with C: in the registery along
with a folder syncronize between the C and F drives would get me to where I
want to be. Now to find a way to do the find and replace.

Don

The problem is you did not select "Upgrade" during setup.
To rectify the situation, perform a "clean install".

The Windows XP CD is bootable and contains all the tools necessary
to partition and format your drive. Follow this procedure and allow
Windows XP to partition and format your drive:

NOTE: It would be best to physically disconnect all your peripheral
hardware
devices, except the monitor, mouse and keyboard, before
installing XP.

NOTE: If you have an internal Zip Drive installed, physically disconnect
the
EIDE and power cable to it before proceeding, otherwise your
main
hard drive may not be assigned the customary C: drive letter.
After installing Windows XP, you may then reconnect it.

1. Open your BIOS and set your "CD Drive as the first bootable device".

===> Accessing Motherboard BIOS
===> http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/bios_manufacturer.htm

2. Insert your Windows XP CD in the CD Drive and reboot your computer.
3. You'll see a message to boot to the CD....follow the instructions.
4. The setup menu will appear and you should elect to delete all the
existing
Windows partitions, then create a new partition, then format the
primary
partition (preferably NTFS) and proceed to install Windows XP.

5. Clean Install Windows XP
http://michaelstevenstech.com/cleanxpinstall.html

[Courtesy of Michael Stevens, MS-MVP]

6. ==> Immediately after installing Windows XP, turn on XP's Firewall.
==> http://www.microsoft.com/athome/security/protect/default.mspx

7. After Windows XP is installed, visit the Windows Update website
and download the available "Critical Updates".

8. After installing the critical updates, be sure and visit the support
website
of the manufacturer of the computer to download and install any
available Windows XP compatible drivers, such as video adapter
and audio drivers.

9. If you happen to run into any installation difficulties, use the
following resources:

How to Troubleshoot Windows XP Problems During Installation
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;310064

Troubleshooting Windows XP Setup
http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/xp_setup.htm

[Courtesy of MS-MVP Kelly Theriot]

--
Carey Frisch
Microsoft MVP
Windows XP - Shell/User
Microsoft Newsgroups

Get Windows XP Service Pack 2 with Advanced Security Technologies:
http://www.microsoft.com/athome/security/protect/windowsxp/choose.mspx

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

:

| I had a major system crash a few months back, mother board went and
glitches
| a hard drive. New mother board, Processor, etc and while I was at it a
| couple more hard drives. After about three weeks of recovery, I got my
| Win2K back up and running. I then decided to upgrade to XP Pro so I
could
| use the Hyperthreading. I made a full bootable copy of my Win2k drive
and
| then made the copy my C drive and installed WinXP over 2K to keep my
| configuration. This seemed to work well. I've run this setup for a
couple
| weeks now.
|
| Now the big HOWEVER. This morning I decided I didn't need the Win2K
fall
| back any longer and started erasing stuff off the F: drive. (old C)
At
| one point, I did a re-boot and I was dead in the water, NTldr not found.
I
| did a re-install of XP and was back on line. After investigating, I
found
| that my XP system is spread across two drives. Some of the programs are
in
| F:/Programs and some are in C:/Programs. Seems I've dug myself quite a
| hole.
|
| I suspect this is confusing the system also as every now and the all of
the
| icons on the desktop go white and then slowly one by one repaint with
the
| correct logos.
|
| Is there anyway to gracefully herd all of the programs back to the C
drive
| or am I going to either live with the fragmented op sys or do a from
scratch
| install? I don't like the thoughts of the later at all.
|
| Thanks for your ideas
|
| Don

 

[Carey Frisch [MVP]]

You cannot change the drive letter once Windows XP is installed.
All the thousands of registry entries are referencing the H partition.
A "clean install' is the only viable solution.

--
Carey Frisch
Microsoft MVP
Windows XP - Shell/User
Microsoft Newsgroups

Get Windows XP Service Pack 2 with Advanced Security Technologies:
http://www.microsoft.com/athome/security/protect/windowsxp/choose.mspx

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

:

| Carey, I did do an update. Also, a full install is out of the question. I
| can't afford another three weeks of reloading software.
|
| I am thinking that a find and replace of F: with C: in the registery along
| with a folder syncronize between the C and F drives would get me to where I
| want to be. Now to find a way to do the find and replace.
|
| Don