Moving An Operating System.

[Jerry Trudeau]

I have a dual boot setup with Windows 2000 on C:, Data on D:, and
Windows XP Pro on E:.

C: and D: are formatted FAT32 and E: is NTFS.

Is it at all possible to swap the positions of the two operating
systems, making WinXP reside as the boot o/s on the active partition
C: and moving Win2K to E:?

I have several powerful tools such as Drive Image and Partition Magic
plus a couple of removeable slave HDDS, so I can do images or copies
of partitions or the entire HDD master in order to manipulate the
order of partition restoration, but I wonder if any method applied
will really work?

I realize that Win2K and XP hardcode their installation drive letters
into their registry and I am aware that the NTDETECT.com and NTLDR
files would have to be relocated as well as boot.ini which would also
have to be edited to point to the corrected partition locations.

Any suggestions...besides "If it ain't broke, don't fix it" ?

 

[Dave Patrick]

Best to reinstall the operating systems. Just curios why you would want to
do this?

--
Regards,

Dave Patrick ....Please no email replies - reply in newsgroup.
Microsoft MVP [Windows NT/2000 Operating Systems]
http://www.microsoft.com/protect.

:
| I have a dual boot setup with Windows 2000 on C:, Data on D:, and
| Windows XP Pro on E:.
|
| C: and D: are formatted FAT32 and E: is NTFS.
|
| Is it at all possible to swap the positions of the two operating
| systems, making WinXP reside as the boot o/s on the active partition
| C: and moving Win2K to E:?
|
| I have several powerful tools such as Drive Image and Partition Magic
| plus a couple of removeable slave HDDS, so I can do images or copies
| of partitions or the entire HDD master in order to manipulate the
| order of partition restoration, but I wonder if any method applied
| will really work?
|
| I realize that Win2K and XP hardcode their installation drive letters
| into their registry and I am aware that the NTDETECT.com and NTLDR
| files would have to be relocated as well as boot.ini which would also
| have to be edited to point to the corrected partition locations.
|
| Any suggestions...besides "If it ain't broke, don't fix it" ?
| --
| Jerry:1/4/2004 11:54:27 AM

 

[Jerry Trudeau]

Best to reinstall the operating systems. Just curios why you would want to
do this?

I agree that the best is to reinstall the o/s's however, here are my
reasons for wanting to "move" them around.

1. I participate in NewsGroups where questions are frequently asked
about how to convert dual boot systems (Win98 + Win2K or Win98 +
WinXP) to single o/s systems by eliminating the o/s on the primary
partition (usually Win9x) and retaining the newer version (W2k or XP),
without reinstalling everything.

2. In my own case, my primary o/s is Win2K on C: as FAT32. It is
absolutely loaded with all kinds of programs, utilities, tweaks and
goodies that would take me forever to reinstall. I installed XP on
partition E: as NTFS in order to try out the o/s and compare it to
Win2K.

It turns out that I would prefer using XP Pro as my primary o/s and
whereas I could see myself slowly and quietly migrating all my
favorite software and configurations from Win2K over to a
"repositioned" WinXP, the thought of starting over is mindblowing.

 

[Dave Patrick]

Inline reply:

:
| I agree that the best is to reinstall the o/s's however, here are my
| reasons for wanting to "move" them around.
|
| 1. I participate in NewsGroups where questions are frequently asked
| about how to convert dual boot systems (Win98 + Win2K or Win98 +
| WinXP) to single o/s systems by eliminating the o/s on the primary
| partition (usually Win9x) and retaining the newer version (W2k or XP),
| without reinstalling everything.
* I don't see how this is a reason.

| 2. In my own case, my primary o/s is Win2K on C: as FAT32. It is
| absolutely loaded with all kinds of programs, utilities, tweaks and
| goodies that would take me forever to reinstall. I installed XP on
| partition E: as NTFS in order to try out the o/s and compare it to
| Win2K.
|
| It turns out that I would prefer using XP Pro as my primary o/s and
| whereas I could see myself slowly and quietly migrating all my
| favorite software and configurations from Win2K over to a
| "repositioned" WinXP, the thought of starting over is mindblowing.
* I never recommend this but since you don't want to reinstall the OS why
not simply upgrade it to Windows XP?

--
Regards,

Dave Patrick ....Please no email replies - reply in newsgroup.
Microsoft MVP [Windows NT/2000 Operating Systems]
http://www.microsoft.com/protect.

 

[Jerry Trudeau]

* I never recommend this but since you don't want to reinstall the OS why
not simply upgrade it to Windows XP?

Because I will probably end up with a number of programs that run in
W2K that will fail in XP. In addition, I am not a fan of upgrading to
begin with, I much prefer a 'clean' install rather than an overlay.

I posted this question in order to learn how to reconfigure existing
o/s's within a dual or triple boot environment. I haven't read that it
is impossible nor have I found a clear procedure in order to
accomplish the task.

The main reason I want to know how to do this is because I wish,
eventually, to make XP my main operating system and either retire
Win2K entirely or, if I can, move it onto another partition or drive.
If I must reinstall, I will, but there has to be a way to move the
system if it is totally contained within it's own partition.

 

[Dave Patrick]

Probably not without involving 100's of registry edits. I can't imagine that
it would be worth the time and trouble.

--
Regards,

Dave Patrick ....Please no email replies - reply in newsgroup.
Microsoft MVP [Windows NT/2000 Operating Systems]
http://www.microsoft.com/protect.

:
| Because I will probably end up with a number of programs that run in
| W2K that will fail in XP. In addition, I am not a fan of upgrading to
| begin with, I much prefer a 'clean' install rather than an overlay.
|
| I posted this question in order to learn how to reconfigure existing
| o/s's within a dual or triple boot environment. I haven't read that it
| is impossible nor have I found a clear procedure in order to
| accomplish the task.
|
| The main reason I want to know how to do this is because I wish,
| eventually, to make XP my main operating system and either retire
| Win2K entirely or, if I can, move it onto another partition or drive.
| If I must reinstall, I will, but there has to be a way to move the
| system if it is totally contained within it's own partition.
|
| --
| Jerry:1/4/2004 3:51:10 PM

 

[sgopus]

You didn't specify if these drives are logical or each
partition is on a seperate hd?
I think your getting too tied up in reconfiguring the
existing install, it would be much easier to just reinstall
where you want the OS

 

[Jerry Trudeau]

You didn't specify if these drives are logical or each
partition is on a seperate hd?

Ah...One HDD partitioned into three Logical drives, C:, D:, and E:.
Windows 2000 on the C: partition is linked to data on the D:
partition. The E: partition is formatted NTFS - WinXP, with no data
links to either of the other two partitions.

I think your getting too tied up in reconfiguring the
existing install, it would be much easier to just reinstall
where you want the OS

Seems to be the what most people think. What I want to know is WHY it
cannot be done.

 

[Jerry Trudeau]

Probably not without involving 100's of registry edits. I can't imagine that
it would be worth the time and trouble.

So basically it's a registry problem? If the registry does not update
itself to reflect the changed drive designation, nothing will work
until the individual registry keys have been updated?

I am not an expert in the WinXP registry, so if this is the case, then
indeed, there is little point.

 

[Dave Patrick]

Yepper. But not only for the operating system. Also for most any installed
applications.

--
Regards,

Dave Patrick ....Please no email replies - reply in newsgroup.
Microsoft MVP [Windows NT/2000 Operating Systems]
http://www.microsoft.com/protect.

:
| So basically it's a registry problem? If the registry does not update
| itself to reflect the changed drive designation, nothing will work
| until the individual registry keys have been updated?
|
| I am not an expert in the WinXP registry, so if this is the case, then
| indeed, there is little point.
|
| --
| Jerry:1/4/2004 7:51:57 PM

 

[Jerry Trudeau]

Yepper. But not only for the operating system. Also for most any installed
applications.

Gotcha.

Too bad there isn't some utility that could overwrite the registry and
correct the drive paths where necessary.

Oh well, I guess that leaves the hard way.

Thanks for your help, Dave.

 

[Enkidu]

Gotcha.

Too bad there isn't some utility that could overwrite the registry and
correct the drive paths where necessary.

There's a PowerQuest utility that does something like that.

Cheers,

Cliff

 

[Jerry Trudeau]

There's a PowerQuest utility that does something like that.

Yes, it's called DriveMapper, an element of Partition Magic by
PowerQuest. Unfortunately, my version 6 does not support WinXP and in
any case, I'm not too sure it would be able to address the registry.
It seems designed to correct drive paths for applications, but I'll
check it out anyway.

Thanks.

 

[sgopus]

Not sure that it can't be done, but it appears to be so
complex, that nobody wants to tackle it, so much easier
to just reinstall.

I mean move one OS from C, replace from another drive and
keep the file associations correct, somewhere along the
way something is going to come up missing.