doug

[doug]

I have a Win2000 PDC in a small lab environment that was set up as dual boot
such that 1 insytance of Win2000 only existed to aid in recovering the
primary instance should it get hosed. This has worked very well for years
as an insurance policy. However, now I want to remove 1 instance.

I want to remove the instance of Win2000 on what is the C drive and retain
the instance of Win2000 on my D drive.

Ideally I'd like it all to become C drive (merging the 2 partitions) and
even editting the registry to replace D: with C:. Or just make drive C very
small and move the bulk of the space from C to D (using PartitionMagic), but
that kinda implies retaining dual boot, even if time=0.

regards,

doug

 

[Pegasus \(MVP\)]

I have a Win2000 PDC in a small lab environment that was set up as dual boot
such that 1 insytance of Win2000 only existed to aid in recovering the
primary instance should it get hosed. This has worked very well for years
as an insurance policy. However, now I want to remove 1 instance.

I want to remove the instance of Win2000 on what is the C drive and retain
the instance of Win2000 on my D drive.

Ideally I'd like it all to become C drive (merging the 2 partitions) and
even editting the registry to replace D: with C:. Or just make drive C very
small and move the bulk of the space from C to D (using PartitionMagic), but
that kinda implies retaining dual boot, even if time=0.

regards,

doug

1. Rename c:\WinNT to WinNT.old.
2. Wait a week.
3. Delete c:\WinNT.old.
4. use PQMagic to reduce drive C: to its bare minimum.

That's all! However, if you attempt to run the D: drive
instance of Win2000 on drive C: then you will most likely
destroy your system.

By the way, your are a front runner in the annual award
for the most meaningless Subject line. Congratulations!

 

[doug]

meaningless subject line....yeah...what can i say. i'm not a ng virgin,
buit i don't recall entering a subject line. been very focused on something
else and this issue is just raising its' ugly head again.....

so, i guess from your reply, thou shalt not putz around with the rot
directory of drive C": so much and just leave dual boot alone, setting time
to zero.

i kinda thought that would be the answer, short of a rebuild.

doug

 

[Pegasus \(MVP\)]

The simplest way of installing two OSs consists of installing
one on drive C:, the other on drive D:. The downside is that
you are stuck with the drive letters for ever.

A more elegant way consists of using a third-parth boot
manager that lets you hide the various OSs from each
other. This means that each OS resides on its own drive
C:, and can be manipulated completely independently
from any other OS. It's a little more work to do it like
this but I think it's well worth the trouble.

 

[doug]

I don't suppose I would get many different answers if I reposted my question
using a more specific "subject" line....

I have asked a few tough questions with specific subject lines and I get NO
replies. Maybe I should stick with 'doug'...

Oh, I understood the path I had taken when I went down this road, and the
option you mentioned.

And I kinda knew my options now. Rebuild is the better way to go, in fact,
it cleans up garbage that has neen left around by less than perfect
uninstalls and such.

For the same reasons I took the easier path back then, I thought my easier
path this time was delete what I could from C: and shrink partition giving
space to D:.

My mistake was to switch to using the D: instance as my Primary and making
C: the recovery instance.....HUGE MISTAKE.....

But I had to ask....

I've done the regedit thing, on specific products, of changing [d1:] to
[d2:] and then doing a drive search for the old string so I could change
other files (xml, ini, etc...), but figured with sql server and exchange
server i'd end up changing 698 places instead of 703 places.... So I don't
mind doing that, IF I can find & change all 703 instances. Course the trick
here is how do you change registry settings from D: to C: when D: instance
is active AND STILL D:, then use PartitionMagic to delete C:, and reboot
back to the now single instance on C: (old D and work flawlessly....

this old pc has been a workhorse, had to use an MSDN "incident" and had 2 MS
guys on the line who wanted to share my hardware spec internally at MS with
what I was running on this box (we had to endure several reboots of about 20
minutes each - and they were curious why reboots took so long). they didn't
think you could run what i was running on a box the old....i did admit
Win2003 server wouldn't load, which they already knew. But once it is "up"
it runs everything just fine.

thanks,

doug