Problem re-locating XP partition

  • Thread starter Thread starter Sunny
  • Start date Start date
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Sunny

I recently upgraded my home systems from NT4 SP6a to XP Pro SP2 - so I'm
new here :-)

My NT system had two SCSI disks - drives C: (NT) and D: (software) on
ID0 and drive E: (data) on ID1. To install XP, I added a disk at ID2,
set the host adapter to boot from ID2, and booted from the XP CD.

I now have XP set up the way I like and don't need to retain the ability
to boot NT, so I backed up ID0 to DVD using Drive Image 7.0 and deleted
the disk partitions, leaving me with:

ID0: Unallocated
ID1: drive E:
ID2: drive C: (XP) and D: (software)

Now I'd like to move C: and D: to ID0, so I used Drive Image 7.0 to copy
the partitions and set the host adapter to boot from ID0.

XP boots normally from ID0, I log in, everything looks fine - but after
a minute or so a dialog pops up telling me svchost.exe has encountered a
problem and needs to close. After that the system is unresponsive -
mouse cursor still moves but there's no visible response to clicks or
keyboard input - not even CTRL ALT DEL. If I hit the reset button, XP
boots again but I can't log in - the login dialog re-appears about a
minute later each time I enter my credentials.

I've used Drive Image many times in the past to relocate my NT partition
without problems, and also successfully tested restoring my XP partition
from an image file, so I'm not sure why moving XP causes svchost.exe to
crash.

Any suggestions?

TIA

Sunny
 
With xp on a RAID0 configuration useing SATA drives,xp is unable to use
XCOPY,it just wont work.SCSI drives as youre set up with probably fall
into the same catagory.
 
Sunny said:
I now have XP set up the way I like and don't need to retain the ability
to boot NT, so I backed up ID0 to DVD using Drive Image 7.0 and deleted
the disk partitions, leaving me with:

ID0: Unallocated
ID1: drive E:
ID2: drive C: (XP) and D: (software)

Now I'd like to move C: and D: to ID0, so I used Drive Image 7.0 to copy
the partitions and set the host adapter to boot from ID0.
Click to expand...

XP has the 'slot number' of the partition it is on recorded in boot.ini
(presumably correctly as it boots) and also in registry. If you move
the partition to another slot you need to let that re-enumerate. Use
regedit.exe, open to
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\Mounted devices
and in the right pane delete the lines DosDevices\x:
close. powering down and reboot
 
Andrew said:
With xp on a RAID0 configuration useing SATA drives,xp is unable to use
XCOPY,it just wont work.SCSI drives as youre set up with probably fall
into the same catagory.
Click to expand...

Thanks for your response, but I'm not using RAID or XCOPY.
 
Alex said:
Sunny wrote:




XP has the 'slot number' of the partition it is on recorded in boot.ini
(presumably correctly as it boots) and also in registry. If you move
the partition to another slot you need to let that re-enumerate. Use
regedit.exe, open to
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\Mounted devices
and in the right pane delete the lines DosDevices\x:
close. powering down and reboot
Click to expand...

Thanks for your response.

boot.ini has:

default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS

Since I change the boot SCSI ID in the adapter BIOS, 'slot number' is
the first partition on the first disk regardless of which copy of the XP
partition I boot.

Would you still expect editing that registry key to solve the problem,
even though the 'slot number' doesn't change?
 
Sunny said:
Since I change the boot SCSI ID in the adapter BIOS, 'slot number' is
the first partition on the first disk regardless of which copy of the XP
partition I boot.

Would you still expect editing that registry key to solve the problem,
even though the 'slot number' doesn't change?
Click to expand...

I was referring to the slot number in the partition table (partition(1))
of the drive concerned, being under the impression you were moving the
partition on the drive. And that is not necessarily the same as the
physical position of the partition on the disk as seen by BIOS. So try
the idea and see
 
Alex said:
Sunny wrote:




I was referring to the slot number in the partition table (partition(1))
of the drive concerned, being under the impression you were moving the
partition on the drive. And that is not necessarily the same as the
physical position of the partition on the disk as seen by BIOS. So try
the idea and see
Click to expand...

Thanks - I will most certainly experiment further (on a test system!) as
I'm keen to understand what changes to the tried-and-true procedures
I've used for years on NT are needed for XP, and that registry key is
clearly a piece of the puzzle.

I wondered if moving the both the C: and D: partitions from disk ID 2 to
disk ID 0 simultaneously was part of the problem, so I tried moving just
C: and booting it.

I encountered the same problem, but learned that the system does not
become unresponsive until one *acknowledges* the svchost.exe error - so
on the next attempt I ignored the error dialog and deleted the registry
entries you suggested. I still could not shut down, but was able to log
in again after hitting reset. It took several reboots, but from there I
was able to move the other partition and reassign drive letters as they
had been.

In summary, your advice was invaluable but perhaps there's a cleaner way
to accomplish the procedure than the above - which was rather messy ;-)
I'll be considerably more comfortable experimenting with this in the lab
than I was on my main system!

BTW, is it possible to edit the registry in the copied partition, i.e.
access a registry that isn't 'running'? I'd like to avoid any
requirement to alter the 'known good' XP partition prior to copying it -
although I guess one could export the keys, delete them, copy the
partition, then import them again before shutting down.

Sunny
 
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