How safe is writing a new boot record

[Guest]

Here's my situation ... my PC has 2 disks ... it was setup with a boot
manager on disk1 .. disk1 has linux... disk2 is my Win XP disk .... my
question is can I safely write a boot block on disk2 and not loose data ..
like the XP CD warns you about ??? I'm not using Linux on disk1 anymore ...
but I need the boot manager to boot XP on disk2 ... so the question is how
safe is it to use the XP CD and fix/create a boot record on disk2??? Are
there any issues??? I really don't want to restore because of the software is
already working....

thanks in advance

Dale G

 

[peterk]

Make Bootable
1) the second disk has to be a primary partition before this can work.
If it's not a primary you cannot boot to it directly.
2) you have to set the second disk as active. ( only primary
partitions can be set as active)
In recovery console you need to:
3) you need to run fixboot to write the bootsector
4) you need to run fixmbr to write the master boot record
5) you need to copy NTLDR and Ntdetect to the root of the drive
6) You need to run bootcfg /rebuild to create a new boot.ini file. ( this
option is only available in recovery console)

peterk

 

[Guest]

Peterk,

Thanks for the reply ... I believe it's primary but unsure ... from Disk
Management it's the only partition that show's up ... the small boot
manager part shows up as fat the one in question shows up as C .. I
researched this before and basically been told back your stuff up and
reinstall ... I really can't buy that because disk0 boot's disk1 ... a
simple solution from a friend was to unplug the 2 disks reinstall XP on a
3rd, which I have, and copy over the data files .... I don't want to go down
that road but it seems the best way to fix my Windows problem .....

Thanks

Dale G.

 

[Timothy Daniels]

In the Disk Management GUI, primary partitions are bordered in black.
Extended partitions are bordered in blue.

*TimDaniels*

 

[Guest]

Tim,

Thanks for the reply ... but both Disk0 & Disk1 are Blue .. So ...

thanks again

Dale G.

 

[Timothy Daniels]

If you really want to avoid having to re-install WinXP Pro and
all the apps on disk 2, you can try a cloning operation from
the extended partition on disk 2 to unallocated space or a
pre-existing primary partition on disk 1. You can even use
a free trial version of Casper XP to do it - downloadable
from www.FSSdev.com/products/casperxp/ . I have never
cloned from an extended partition to a primary partition
(it's usually done the other way around), but I don't see why
it can't be done. Try this:

1) download and install Casper XP into WinXP Pro on
disk 2.
2) with WinXP Pro running from disk 2, delete the partition(s)
from disk 1 using Disk Management.
3) run Casper XP from disk 2 and clone the WinXP Pro from
the extended partition on disk 2 to unallocated space
(or to a pre-made primary partition) on disk 1. Formatting
will be copied along with the data, so you don't have to
bother with formatting.
4) run Recovery Console from the WinXP installation CD
(see http://www.winbookcorp.com/_technote/WBTA20000785.html ),
and use "fixboot" to add the boot files,
use "bootcfg /rebuild" to make a proper boot.ini file if
it doesn't look right, and maybe
use "fixmbr" if control doesn't get to the boot loader.
5) with just the 2nd HD connected (so that it will be at the head
of the BIOS's HD boot order), start the PC.
6) let us know what happens.

*TimDaniels*

 

[Guest]

Tim, Well another problem .. disk0 is 37 gb and disk1 is 57 gb I don't
believe there's enough space to do that ... So I believe I'm screwed ... I
think .... that's the reason I bought the 3 disk ....

Thanks again

Dale G.

 

[Timothy Daniels]

Well, yes... if you mean that the partitions take up the entirety
of their respective hard drives... unless you have Partition Magic
which will let you shrink down a partition's size if there is excess
space containing no data. Partition Magic will also convert an
Extended Partition to a Primary Partition, according to its Help
file (I've never tried it). If you did that, you wouldn't even have to
copy anything to the 1st HD. But... Partition Magic costs $70:
http://www.symantec.com/partitionmagic/ . It's your call.

*TimDaniels*

 

[Rich Barry]

You can do that using the Recovery Console and just a few commands.
Check the Mskb Article below
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;314058 You
are primarily interested in the Bootcfg, Fixboot
and Fixmbr commands. Safe, all I can say is that I have done it many
times going back and forth with Linux and Windows
and never had any data loss.