How do I format the system drive?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Adam
  • Start date Start date
A

Adam

I've installed XP on a new drive and wish to format my
old drive. XP tells me the old drive is the system drive
and my new one is the boot drive. How do I configure
(both system and boot) to be on ONLY my new drive? Is
this even possible? Do I transfer files? How?
 
you need to make sure that your new drive that has XP on
it now is set to be a "master" your old drive will then
become a "slave" (you will need to change the jumpers on
the abck of both drives) This should now boot from the
new drive. so your old one can now be formated.
 
from the wonderful said:
I've installed XP on a new drive and wish to format my
old drive. XP tells me the old drive is the system drive
and my new one is the boot drive. How do I configure
(both system and boot) to be on ONLY my new drive? Is
this even possible? Do I transfer files? How?
Click to expand...

You need to re-cable your new drive as the master, unless your BIOS is
capable of booting from HardDrive2. Then you need to make sure that
NTLDR, NTDETECT.COM, and BOOT.INI all get copied to the new master
drive. Then you need to edit boot.ini (which is hidden, system, write
protected) to change the drive number from 1 to 0 for the NT boot
location (and delete any other boot entries while you are there), then
you need to make sure the new master drive is 'active' - has an
appropriate MBR (you can do this from the WinXP recovery console - see
start, help, fixmbr .. you may need fixboot as well if you mess up).
Note that the new master (HDD1, which is now the boot and system drive
both) will retain it's drive letter, which is probably not C:

As you can see, non trivial.

Or you can just delete everything except those three files on your
existing system drive, and keep booting from there (what MS calls the
'system' drive is the one with the bootloader(s) on. The one they call
the boot drive is the one with the system on).
 
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