changing he boot partition?

G

goldtech

I made a new install of win2k on a new partition on my hard disk. The
old partion has nothing important on it except for the fact that the
boot begins in the old partition. I guess ithe old partition is still
the "primary" partion even though I've deleted most of it - except for
files needed for the boot.

I want to delete/wipe/nuke the old partition but if I do I won't be
able to boot and get the new partiton/install. Is there a way to
transfer over the boot process/files from old to new? Or make the new
partition bootable? Then I could safely nuke the old.

Thanks.
 
P

Pegasus \(MVP\)

I made a new install of win2k on a new partition on my hard disk. The
old partion has nothing important on it except for the fact that the
boot begins in the old partition. I guess ithe old partition is still
the "primary" partion even though I've deleted most of it - except for
files needed for the boot.

I want to delete/wipe/nuke the old partition but if I do I won't be
able to boot and get the new partiton/install. Is there a way to
transfer over the boot process/files from old to new? Or make the new
partition bootable? Then I could safely nuke the old.

Thanks.

Making a partition bootable is easy but getting the
drive letters right could be much harder. What is
the system drive letter for your new Win2000 installation?
 
P

Pegasus \(MVP\)

The new is H:\

the old (currently boots from) is D:\

Thanks

Your response does not make it entirely clear what
your current system drive letter is. Here is how you
can find out:
- Launch Win2000.
- Start a Command Prompt (Start / Run / cmd {OK})
- Type this command: set system
- Make a note of the SystemDrive letter.

When you remove the old disk then it is likely that
the system drive letter will change. This will cause
massive problems. Here is what I would do in your
position:

a) If you have no other Win2000/XP PC that is networked
to your current PC: Leave things as they are. It's the
safest course.

b) If you have a networked Win2000/XP PC:
- Mark the primary partition of your Win2000
disk as "active".
- Copy these hidden files to the root directory of
your Win2000 disk:
c:\ntldr
c:\ntdetect.com
c:\boot.ini
- Use notepad.exe to edit d:\boot.ini and change
"partition(2)" to "partition(1)".
- Disconnect the old disk and make the new disk the
primary master.
- If Win2000 boots, check the drive letter as suggested
above. If it is no longer what it used to be then post
again for a fix.
 
G

goldtech

Making a partition bootable is easy but getting the
drive letters right could be much harder. What is
the system drive letter for your new Win2000 installation?

H

Thanks
 

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