Safe to delete partition?

[Bob Jones]

In the process of setting up XP, I wound up with XP loaded on two
partitions (made with Bootitng), which are drives C and D. Both
partitions are NTFS, and both are bootable.

C: is about 3G in size and D: is about 9G. When XP makes changes, it
seems to be making the changes to the installation on the D: drive.

I don't need two installations of XP, and I'd like to wipe out the
partition on the C: drive.

Can I safely use Bootitng to eliminate the partition on C: drive? Are
there any essential files that will be lost when I do that? I mean,
will the system be fruitlessly searching for NTLDR or some other file?

Or will I be able to safely boot the system to the D: drive?

Thanks.

 

[Rick \Nutcase\ Rogers]

Hi Bob,

Depends on where the boot files are. And that depends on how you configured
BING. Boot the system you want and look at boot.ini to see where you're
booting from.

--
Best of Luck,

Rick Rogers aka "Nutcase" MS-MVP - Win9x
Windows isn't rocket science! That's my other hobby!

Associate Expert - WinXP - Expert Zone

 

[Bob Jones]

Depends on where the boot files are. And that depends on how you configured
BING. Boot the system you want and look at boot.ini to see where you're
booting from.

Rick:

I found boot.ini in the root directory of the C: drive/partition.
Remember, this is the partition I want to eliminate. I want to keep
the XP installation in my current D: drive/partition.

Can you recommend the needed changes that will allow me to do that?

Here are the contents of the boot.ini file:

[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP
Professional" /fastdetect

 

[Rick \Nutcase\ Rogers]

Hi Bob,

Don't format, as the system is booting from C:\. You can delete files from
C:\ as long as you leave ntldr, ntdetect.com, and boot.ini alone (and any
BING files as well, I suspect you have it installed there).

If you do, you will need to boot the WinXP CD and run fixboot after
formatting from the Recovery Console. Do this by configuring BING to load
the CD drive as a one-time only option if you are using its boot manager.
BING may need to be reactivated as well by booting the installation floppy.

--
Best of Luck,

Rick Rogers aka "Nutcase" MS-MVP - Win9x
Windows isn't rocket science! That's my other hobby!

Associate Expert - WinXP - Expert Zone

Depends on where the boot files are. And that depends on how you configured
BING. Boot the system you want and look at boot.ini to see where you're
booting from.

Rick:

I found boot.ini in the root directory of the C: drive/partition.
Remember, this is the partition I want to eliminate. I want to keep
the XP installation in my current D: drive/partition.

Can you recommend the needed changes that will allow me to do that?

Here are the contents of the boot.ini file:

[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP
Professional" /fastdetect

 

[Alex Nichol]

C: is about 3G in size and D: is about 9G. When XP makes changes, it
seems to be making the changes to the installation on the D: drive.

I don't need two installations of XP, and I'd like to wipe out the
partition on the C: drive.

Can I safely use Bootitng to eliminate the partition on C: drive? Are
there any essential files that will be lost when I do that? I mean,
will the system be fruitlessly searching for NTLDR or some other file?

You will have the initial boot files on C: and must retain them around.
Easiest would be to use BootitNG to reduce that partition to around 100
MB, containing the hidden files ntldr, boot.ini and ntdetect.com,
together with a notional setting for page file there of initial 2 max
50, and any 'Dos' style boot files that may be around so as to keep old
programs happy. Then expand D into the space released

 

[Bob Jones]

Thanks all for your help. I'm glad I asked first before wiping out partitions.