Help with moving master boot files to another partition

[rosalind8109]

Even though I use Windows 2000 Pro, I'm posting this here since it's a
more active group than the Win 2000 groups, and the problem can affect
both XP and Win 2000. I already have it posted to a Win 2000 group, but
it can't hurt to get more advice before I do a total reinstallation. One
difference that can influence the situation is that Win 2000 doesn't have
a bootcfg utilty.


Initially, I partitioned my hard disk into 5 partitions. D: is a Dos
fat32 partition (thinking I might load Dos in the future and have a dual
boot. I've since read on the MS site that Dos s/b loaded BEFORE Win
2000).


For some reason, I didn't pay close enough attention during setup, and
the D: partition (formatted as Dos - fat32) is listed as the primary
partition and the others are logical partitions. When Win 2000 Pro was
installed on the C: partition, somehow the Boot.ini, ntldr, and
ntdetect.com files were loaded on the D: partition.

Assuming that creating a backup disk image of my OS might be difficult
with the files on two different partitions (and even if I can, I'm still
not keen on having the bootup files on a different partition), I'd like
to transfer these files to the C: partition, which means adjusting the
master boot record, among other files.


..


What I'd like to do:

1) Convert the logical partition (C) to a primary partition.
I think that Partition Magic can do this, and Pennywise in the Win 2000
group says that Fdisk can, too.

2) Somehow force the C drive to contain all the necessary boot-up files
and ensure that the Master boot record has been adjutsted correctly.

If this is too much trouble, I might as well reformat the C and D
partitions and reinstall the OS (and immediately create a disk image once
all OS updates are finished and my main programs are loaded).


Are there any easy ways to do this or is a reinstall the best option?

 

[Pegasus \(MVP\)]

Even though I use Windows 2000 Pro, I'm posting this here since it's a
more active group than the Win 2000 groups, and the problem can affect
both XP and Win 2000. I already have it posted to a Win 2000 group, but
it can't hurt to get more advice before I do a total reinstallation. One
difference that can influence the situation is that Win 2000 doesn't have
a bootcfg utilty.

While it cannot hurt to get more advice, multi-posting is not
the right way to go about it because it wastes everybody's
time: Respondents in the Win2000 groups cannot see the
replies in the WinXP newsgroups and vice versa. This is
particularly relevant in a post as involved as yours is. Use
cross-posting (in moderation) instead to increase the exposure
of your posts.

 

[Timothy Daniels]

Assuming you're successful in converting the logical
partition C: to a Primary partition, just copy the boot
files from D: to C: and adjust the single option entry
in boot.ini to refer to the C: partition (more on that
further on.). Normally, the MBR will look for the
Primary partition marked "active" and assume that
the boot files are in that partition. But in the case of
only one Primary partition, it may simply assume that
the boot files are in the sole Primary partition. Try
just copying the boot files to C:, edit boot.ini, and
see if that works to boot the OS. If not, use Disk
Management to mark C: as the "active" partition.

You don't say what the numbering of the partitions
is, but since Primary partitions are numbered before
logical partitions, I'll assume that C: is the 1st partition.
To edit the boot.ini file so that it tells ntldr to look in
the C: partition for the OS instead of in the D: partition,
edit the line following "default=" so that what is probably
"partition(2)" is changed to "partition(1)", and do the
same for the line following "[operating systems]".
That will point ntldr to the 1st partition (i.e. "C:").

Let us know how it works.

*TimDaniels*

 

[Timothy Daniels]

...but since Primary partitions are numbered before
logical partitions, I'll assume that C: is the 1st partition.

This may or may not hold if a logical partition is
converted to a Primary partition. The C: partition,
having been a logical partition and probably numbered
"2", may remain as partition #2 even after it has been
converted to a Primary partition. Try booting after
the conversion to Primary partition but before editing
the boot.ini file to see what happens. Please report
your findings.

*TimDaniels*