Corrupted OS on C: drive. Working OS on D: drive

[Guest]

This is essentially the same question I asked a couple of days ago, but I'm a
little smarter now than I was then and I think I can word the question
better. Briefly, I did something that resulted in a computer that would not
boot up in any way (safe mode, last known working configuration, etc.).
Luckily, I had installed a second hard drive a few weeks earlier (which
became the F: drive). Hitting F10 during the bootup process gave me a menu
that let me choose which drive to boot from. I put my WinXP installation disk
into the CD-RW drive (E and chose that drive. To make a long story short,
problems with all the other options led me to install a fresh copy of WinXP
on the second hard drive, which somehow got renamed the D: drive. I have
reinstalled all of my programs on that drive and moved all my data files to
it. I edited the boot.ini file to remove the reference to the C: drive.
Everything works fine but I would like to purge the C: drive of everything
that I don't need on it. But I know it contains some files that are required
in the bootup process. In the end I would like to make what is now the D:
drive the C: drive, which would contain the aforementioned files, and replace
what is now the C: drive with a larger drive. Any suggestions?

 

[Doug Knox MS-MVP]

At this point, you're better off buying the larger disk and starting over. There are too many references to what is currently the D: drive to be able to change the partition its installed on.

 

[Guest]

That's the conclusion I've been moving toward anyway. But I think I will wait
awhile to do it. What amazed me about this whole business is how much better
my computer runs now with the fresh WinXP installation. It boots up and shuts
down faster and just runs better in general. The fresh installation cleared
away two years of accumulated junk. What started out as a disaster turned out
to be a blessing in disguise. Thanks for your help.