Remove Dual boot - how?

[Martin ©¿©¬]

Hi
I have Vista on C & I created a partition which became H
I then installed XP on H, and created a dual boot log in using the
utility Vistapro boot

Now I would like to remove the C partition (Vista) & the dual boot
Then I would like to make the XP partition (H) C again

Is this possible & if so what's the best way to go about it?

 

[John John (MVP)]

You can't do that.

John

 

[Pegasus \(MVP\)]

Hi
I have Vista on C & I created a partition which became H
I then installed XP on H, and created a dual boot log in using the
utility Vistapro boot

Now I would like to remove the C partition (Vista) & the dual boot
Then I would like to make the XP partition (H) C again

Is this possible & if so what's the best way to go about it?

While it is possible to remove the C partition and modify the boot process
so that Windows XP will still boot, the WinXP system drive will remain H:.
Is this what you want?

 

[Martin ©¿©¬]

While it is possible to remove the C partition and modify the boot process
so that Windows XP will still boot, the WinXP system drive will remain H:.
Is this what you want?

Hi Pegasus, what I would like to do is remove vista,
make the H & C partitions one partition {these 2 partitions are on the
same drive 233gig formatted ntfs} and rename the drive C

 

[Pegasus \(MVP\)]

Hi Pegasus, what I would like to do is remove vista,
make the H & C partitions one partition {these 2 partitions are on the
same drive 233gig formatted ntfs} and rename the drive C

I don't know what you mean with "rename the drive C:". As John John and I
mentioned previously, your WinXP installation will retain the drive letter
H:, regardless of what you do. I also don't think it's a good idea to keep
the OS on such a large partition. My personal preference is to make the
system partition 20..25 GBytes in size and reserve the rest for your data.
This would make it much easier to create a backup image, using an imaging
tool.

Here is what you could do:
1. Back up your important files, including your EMail files.
2. Check that your backup files are useable.
3. Using a partition manager, delete the first partition.
4. Move the second partition to the start of the disk.
5. Extend it if you wish.
6. If it is a logical partition, convert it to a primary partition.
7. Mark it as "active".
8. Boot the machine with your WinXP CD.
9. Get into the Recovery Console.
10. Run the following commands:
fixboot
fixmbr
bootcfg
Note that Steps 9 and 10 could be performed using alternative tools, e.g. a
Bart PE boot CD.

 

[Martin ©¿©¬]

Hi Pegasus
I have xp backed up with Acronis
Is it not possible to just format my C drive, load my back up
& the re-partition as needed?

 

[Pegasus \(MVP\)]

Yes, you could do this but you will still need to establish a proper WinXP
boot environment by going through Steps 6 to 10. If you don't then I don't
think the machine will boot.

 

[John John (MVP)]

Hi Pegasus
I have xp backed up with Acronis
Is it not possible to just format my C drive, load my back up
& the re-partition as needed?

If you mean load the backup of the current Windows XP installation on H:
to the newly created C: partition it won't work, the installation may go
in a reboot loop when you try to start it or you may get a "Pagefile is
missing" error message. If you do succeed to start the installation,
and even if you don't get a Pagefile error message, that won't mean that
all is well and that your installation is in a proper working order, it
won't unless it finds itself on a partition with the drive letter H:, if
it is anything but you will have to edit the registry and restore the
boot volume to the original H: letter that Windows was installed on.

When Windows is installed it creates many pointers and references to the
installation in the registry and all these pointers on your machine
point to drive H: where Windows was installed. If you now change the
location of the installation to C: all the registry entries pointing to
the location of the installation and components will be invalid, the
Windows installation will be in a completely compromised state. You
will have to reinstall Windows, that is the only way to change the
Windows drive letter after it is installed.

John

 

[Pegasus \(MVP\)]

If you mean load the backup of the current Windows XP installation on H:
to the newly created C: partition it won't work, the installation may go
in a reboot loop when you try to start it or you may get a "Pagefile is
missing" error message. If you do succeed to start the installation, and
even if you don't get a Pagefile error message, that won't mean that all
is well and that your installation is in a proper working order, it won't
unless it finds itself on a partition with the drive letter H:, if it is
anything but you will have to edit the registry and restore the boot
volume to the original H: letter that Windows was installed on.

When Windows is installed it creates many pointers and references to the
installation in the registry and all these pointers on your machine point
to drive H: where Windows was installed. If you now change the location
of the installation to C: all the registry entries pointing to the
location of the installation and components will be invalid, the Windows
installation will be in a completely compromised state. You will have to
reinstall Windows, that is the only way to change the Windows drive letter
after it is installed.

John

I agree with your statement about the numerous pointers in the registry.
However, these pointers refer to the drive letter H:, not to the volume
name. The translation of volume name to drive letter is performed here:
HKLM\SYSTEM\MountedDevices. When the OP restores his WinXP installation to a
different volume then there are two possible outcomes:
a) During the first startup, Windows adjusts the volume name automatically.
I think that this is the likely outcome.
b) Windows fails to adjust the volume name. This will prevent the OP from
logging on - Windows will loop from "Loading personal settings" back to the
logon prompt due to its inability to locate userinit.exe.

Condition b) is easily fixed by renaming HKLM\SYSTEM\MountedDevices\C: to
HKLM\SYSTEM\MountedDevices\H:.

I could, of course, be wrong - time will tell. If all fails then the OP
would have to create a small dummy partition at the start of the disk in
order to maintain a similar disk structure as he had before.

 

[John John (MVP)]

I agree with your statement about the numerous pointers in the registry.
However, these pointers refer to the drive letter H:, not to the volume
name. The translation of volume name to drive letter is performed here:
HKLM\SYSTEM\MountedDevices. When the OP restores his WinXP installation to a
different volume then there are two possible outcomes:
a) During the first startup, Windows adjusts the volume name automatically.
I think that this is the likely outcome.
b) Windows fails to adjust the volume name. This will prevent the OP from
logging on - Windows will loop from "Loading personal settings" back to the
logon prompt due to its inability to locate userinit.exe.

Condition b) is easily fixed by renaming HKLM\SYSTEM\MountedDevices\C: to
HKLM\SYSTEM\MountedDevices\H:.

I could, of course, be wrong - time will tell. If all fails then the OP
would have to create a small dummy partition at the start of the disk in
order to maintain a similar disk structure as he had before.

Yep, if it boots and adopts drive letter H: all will be fine. If it
adopts any other letter the changes you explained will have to be made
at the MountedDevices key.

The "Pagefile is missing" syndrome occurs when the Session Manager
cannot open or create the pagefile shown in the PagingFiles value at:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session
Manager\Memory Management. For example, if the PagingFiles value says
that the paging file is on the H: drive and you don't have an H: drive
you may get a pagefile error message. If the paging file is System
Managed there should not be any problems or error messages.

John

 

[Martin ©¿©¬]

Hi John & Pegasus
I haven't done anything yet and from what you are saying I could run
into problems

What is the best/easiest way to solve my prob?
I would like to have a single boot system into XP
I would prefer to have my OS on the C drive
I would like to be able to have all my existing settings restored

 

[Pegasus \(MVP\)]

Yep, if it boots and adopts drive letter H: all will be fine. If it
adopts any other letter the changes you explained will have to be made at
the MountedDevices key.

The "Pagefile is missing" syndrome occurs when the Session Manager cannot
open or create the pagefile shown in the PagingFiles value at:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Memory
Management. For example, if the PagingFiles value says that the paging
file is on the H: drive and you don't have an H: drive you may get a
pagefile error message. If the paging file is System Managed there should
not be any problems or error messages.

John

In view of your concerns I decided to play around a little. I imaged an
existing WinXP Home installation from drive C: to drive E: of some other
disk, went through the repair steps I had recommended to the OP, then
checked out its operation. It basically ran (after some initial
encouragement) but the results are not quite as expected. Here are the
issues I found:
- I thought that fixboot would take care of the missing boot files
ntdetect.com and ntldr. It didn't.
- I did run into the "userinint.exe" file issue, which I fixed.
- Much to my surprise the system drive letter turned out as I:. Drive I: is
identical to drive C: but is not visible under the Disk Manager.
- Initially there was no paging file but I had no problem setting one.
In other words, not a happy machine, as you had predicted. If it was my own
machine then I'd spend more time on it, trying to fix the drive letter issue
*before* the very first boot. With respect to the OP his best option is
probably to reload Windows. For future multi-boot exercises I strongly
recommend using a proper boot manager, e.g. XOSL. The native Windows boot
manager is just too basic to do things properly and allow future
modifications.

 

[John John (MVP)]

Hi John & Pegasus
I haven't done anything yet and from what you are saying I could run
into problems

What is the best/easiest way to solve my prob?

It depends. If the XP installation in a fairly new installation that
hasn't been worked on too much then the best and easiest thing to to
would probably be to boot the computer with your Windows XP cd and
rebuild the disk, delete all the partitions and create a single new one
and then install Windows XP cleanly on the newly created partition.
After you delete and recreate the partitions reboot the machine before
you install Windows, this will avoid other possible drive letter mix ups
that can sometimes happen when partitions are deleted and created during
the setup. Of course this option means that you will lose all the files
on the disk, you will have to make sure that you have a known good
working backup of your files before you rebuild the disk.

If the installation has been installed for a long while or worked on to
a degree where a reinstall would entail a fair amount of inconvenience
and work then I would simply copy/clone the current H: installation to
the newly rebuilt single partition disk and live with the installation
on drive H:. If you are fairly adept at working with disks and
partitions and copying/cloning utilities this is fairly easy to do, you
may have to edit the MountedDevices key as Pegasus explained but
otherwise your Windows installation will be preserved intact and it will
keep on working as it does now. Windows doesn't need a C:\ drive to
operate properly, I have seen Windows 2000/XP installations run for
years on end on drives designated other than C:. There are some older
mostly now obsolete DOS applications that may not run without a C: drive
but otherwise this is mostly a non-issue on NT type installations.

I would like to have a single boot system into XP

That isn't a problem and it isn't all too hard to do if you are adept
with computers. Once you decide what you want to do you can post back
and someone will offer further help.

I would prefer to have my OS on the C drive

That will require that you cleanly reinstall Windows on a C: partition.

I would like to be able to have all my existing settings restored

You will have to use Files and Settings Transfer Wizard and see what it
can do for you, it isn't a perfect solution but it will help you keep a
lot of your personal settings.

John

 

[Martin ©¿©¬]

Hi John
I have only had this dual boot with XP for about 7 to 10 days and even
though I have XP set up more-or-less as I like it, it wouldn't be too
hard to start over.
As long as i'm able to get my internet connection and file sharing
between my desktop & laptop restored, I'll be a happy chappie

Most other programs/utilities are either on disc or another HDD

I have a reasonable grasp of the computer and learn more every day
Being a retired person in a wheelchair I have plenty of free time

So, I've decided to start over with the Windows XP cd and rebuild the
disk. Any assistance/tweaks you can offer will be greatly appreciated
Many thanks to you and Pregasus for sticking with me on this one

 

[John John (MVP)]

You're welcome.

John