Changing a Dual Boot OS

  • Thread starter Thread starter doug
  • Start date Start date
D

doug

I currently have a dual booted server where I had a primary W2K Server and
an emergency W2K server config. I made a mistake and eventually made the
W2K instance on drive D my primary. The instance on drive C I have cut off
as best I could and I never use it. I have a tiny home educational lan
running Dev copy MS BackOffice on my drive D instance.

I want to now put an instance of XP Pro on my drive C.

Can I simply install XP Pro on drive C and have it retain the dual boot
characteristics of knowing drive D is also bootable? I understand generally
the "newer" OS is installed 2nd.

Do I need to "fix" the dual boot configuration after I install XP Pro?

I usually don't mind trial and error. Just not right now. Too much going
on. And I do not want to risk doing a complete rebuild of my drive D
instance of W2K. I do do full backups on a network drive. I just haven't
had to actually rely on them yet.

Any help greatly appreciated.

regards,

doug
 
doug said:
I currently have a dual booted server where I had a primary W2K Server and
an emergency W2K server config. I made a mistake and eventually made the
W2K instance on drive D my primary. The instance on drive C I have cut off
as best I could and I never use it. I have a tiny home educational lan
running Dev copy MS BackOffice on my drive D instance.

I want to now put an instance of XP Pro on my drive C.

Can I simply install XP Pro on drive C and have it retain the dual boot
characteristics of knowing drive D is also bootable? I understand generally
the "newer" OS is installed 2nd.

Do I need to "fix" the dual boot configuration after I install XP Pro?

I usually don't mind trial and error. Just not right now. Too much going
on. And I do not want to risk doing a complete rebuild of my drive D
instance of W2K. I do do full backups on a network drive. I just haven't
had to actually rely on them yet.

Any help greatly appreciated.

regards,

doug
Click to expand...

If I understand you correctly then you have a WinXP installation that
is currently currently installed on the second partition, which is visible
as drive D: You now wish to move it from the second partition to the
first partition.

This can be done but since you must maintain the current drive letter
(D:) it is a little fiddly and requires a good deal of patience. I recommend
that you defer the move until you have time to experiment and to knock
things back into shape in case they go wrong.
 
Drive D is most likely not bootable. The system always starts from the
system partition (first primary active partition) most likely C:\

To do a clean install boot the Windows XP install CD-Rom. When you get to
the point, *format* only the existing C:\ partition. Do not delete/recreate
this partition. Then continue the install. The XP install routine will find
the Windows 2000 install and add the XP boot option to the existing boot.ini
for dual boot.

Be sure to apply SP2 or at least these to your new install before connecting
to any network.

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/...be-3b8e-4f30-8245-9e368d3cdb5a&displaylang=en
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/bulletin/MS03-043.mspx
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/bulletin/MS03-049.mspx

--
Regards,

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

:
|I currently have a dual booted server where I had a primary W2K Server and
| an emergency W2K server config. I made a mistake and eventually made the
| W2K instance on drive D my primary. The instance on drive C I have cut
off
| as best I could and I never use it. I have a tiny home educational lan
| running Dev copy MS BackOffice on my drive D instance.
|
| I want to now put an instance of XP Pro on my drive C.
|
| Can I simply install XP Pro on drive C and have it retain the dual boot
| characteristics of knowing drive D is also bootable? I understand
generally
| the "newer" OS is installed 2nd.
|
| Do I need to "fix" the dual boot configuration after I install XP Pro?
|
| I usually don't mind trial and error. Just not right now. Too much going
| on. And I do not want to risk doing a complete rebuild of my drive D
| instance of W2K. I do do full backups on a network drive. I just haven't
| had to actually rely on them yet.
|
| Any help greatly appreciated.
|
| regards,
|
| doug
|
|
 
"eventually made the W2K instance on drive D my primary."

Does this mean you swapped the drives around? If so ignore my posted
solution.

--
Regards,

Dave Patrick ....Please no email replies - reply in newsgroup.
Microsoft Certified Professional
Microsoft MVP [Windows]
http://www.microsoft.com/protect
 
No, I have 2 instances on W2K Server. One on C: and one on D:. "C:"
started out as my primary boot, wit D:" being my recovery boot, but over
time, it got switched, so the instance on "C:" is just wasted space that I
can't delete BECAUSE of the dual boot configuration and I know I can't just
remove the Drive "C:" instance and tweak the registry to switch everuything
from D: to C:.

As it turns out, I can use the obsolete C: drive to install WinXP over W2K
Server and hope it behaves as you suggested by knowing a dual boot exists
and keeps it.

Thanks.

doug

And yes, I putzed around a bit and found the Sunday posting. Had to
unsubscribe, resubscribe, exit my mail client and go back in to refresh
everything and Sunday's postings showed up.
 
Then my first reply should be correct. You can verify the system partition
from Disk Management.
Start|Run|diskmgmt.msc

--
Regards,

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

:
| No, I have 2 instances on W2K Server. One on C: and one on D:. "C:"
| started out as my primary boot, wit D:" being my recovery boot, but over
| time, it got switched, so the instance on "C:" is just wasted space that I
| can't delete BECAUSE of the dual boot configuration and I know I can't
just
| remove the Drive "C:" instance and tweak the registry to switch
everuything
| from D: to C:.
|
| As it turns out, I can use the obsolete C: drive to install WinXP over W2K
| Server and hope it behaves as you suggested by knowing a dual boot exists
| and keeps it.
|
| Thanks.
|
| doug
|
| And yes, I putzed around a bit and found the Sunday posting. Had to
| unsubscribe, resubscribe, exit my mail client and go back in to refresh
| everything and Sunday's postings showed up.
 
While running W2K, delete the three W2K Server folders on the C:
drive. Then install XP Pro on the C: drive using the existing file
system, i.e., don't format it.
 
Hi Doug! If I remember correctly, there are only a few files needed to be kept under C: and they are in the root folder. Just keep them all and then all folders in Drive C: (along with their files) can be deleted and your Windows 2000 on Drive D: will still boot just fine. Thus you gain virtually all of the space back on Drive C:.

Again I am not positive, but Partition Magic (about $60 I believe) might be able to make Drive D: to Drive C:. And you can reletter the partitions, delete, move, etc. And Partition Magic will take care of changing the references in the registry, links, etc. Just a thought.

There is a free program that does what Partition Magic does, but I've never used it and it is hell to pay if something goes wrong. If you did a backup beforehand, now is a bad time to learn your backups are basically worthless.

Bill



Date: Mon, 14 Feb 2005 16:33:31 -0800

No, I have 2 instances on W2K Server. One on C: and one on D:. "C:"
started out as my primary boot, wit D:" being my recovery boot, but over
time, it got switched, so the instance on "C:" is just wasted space that I
can't delete BECAUSE of the dual boot configuration and I know I can't just
remove the Drive "C:" instance and tweak the registry to switch everuything
from D: to C:.

As it turns out, I can use the obsolete C: drive to install WinXP over W2K
Server and hope it behaves as you suggested by knowing a dual boot exists
and keeps it.

Thanks.

doug

And yes, I putzed around a bit and found the Sunday posting. Had to
unsubscribe, resubscribe, exit my mail client and go back in to refresh
everything and Sunday's postings showed up.
 
This is why I'm installing XP. Partition Magic won't install on server.....

Oddly, there are some ill-behaved programs that assume the boot drive is C:,
so they install at least a few files on the C: drive even though you told it
to install on the D: drive.

About 6 months or so ago I renamed most directories on C: just to test the
waters.

doug


Hi Doug! If I remember correctly, there are only a few files needed to be
kept under C: and they are in the root folder. Just keep them all and then
all folders in Drive C: (along with their files) can be deleted and your
Windows 2000 on Drive D: will still boot just fine. Thus you gain virtually
all of the space back on Drive C:.

Again I am not positive, but Partition Magic (about $60 I believe) might be
able to make Drive D: to Drive C:. And you can reletter the partitions,
delete, move, etc. And Partition Magic will take care of changing the
references in the registry, links, etc. Just a thought.

There is a free program that does what Partition Magic does, but I've never
used it and it is hell to pay if something goes wrong. If you did a backup
beforehand, now is a bad time to learn your backups are basically worthless.

Bill



Date: Mon, 14 Feb 2005 16:33:31 -0800

No, I have 2 instances on W2K Server. One on C: and one on D:. "C:"
started out as my primary boot, wit D:" being my recovery boot, but over
time, it got switched, so the instance on "C:" is just wasted space that I
can't delete BECAUSE of the dual boot configuration and I know I can't just
remove the Drive "C:" instance and tweak the registry to switch everuything
from D: to C:.

As it turns out, I can use the obsolete C: drive to install WinXP over W2K
Server and hope it behaves as you suggested by knowing a dual boot exists
and keeps it.

Thanks.

doug

And yes, I putzed around a bit and found the Sunday posting. Had to
unsubscribe, resubscribe, exit my mail client and go back in to refresh
everything and Sunday's postings showed up.
 
I tried it and assumed the install would be better/smarter than the W2K
Server install had been years before, so I let it do what it did initially
without interrupting it. It behaved just as the prior install did where I
had to hit a PFKey to interrupt the install to identify the PC. Before I
figurted this out, XP had corrupted the boot files on C: drive making it
impossible to boot back to my W2K server. Just exactly the place I didn't
want to be. Took a while, got W2K back. Installed XPPro. Got Partition
Magic out there. Tweaked my resized my drives.

Thanks everyone.

doug
 
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