Vista on the C: drive but System drive is the D: drive - any way to

[hinnc]

I had an issue with one of my disk drives this past weekend and ended
up re-installing Vista. My system has two drives; one that I use as
the system drive and the other is used for data backup. Well the re-
install went fairly well but when I tried to do a complete image
backup my data drive today, the one that has the drive letter D:
assigned to it, it was not listed as a valid backup device. Further
investigation revealed that somehow the D: drive which contains only
data and not the operating system is the system partition. The C:
drive where all of Vista's files reside is the boot partition.
Normally, on non-dual boot systems the boot and system partitions
reside on the same physical partition, (and the same physical disk
drive). The D: drive was unavailable to use as an image backup drive
because it has the system information on it.

My question: is there a way to make the C: drive the system partition
withput a complete reinstallation? I looked all over the web and at
BCDEdit.exe, DiskPart.exe, and BootEdit.exe and none of those appear
to be a fix. Anyone have any ideas? Other than that it all works
fine.

More info below:

DISKPART> list volume

Volume ### Ltr Label Fs Type Size Status
Info
---------- --- ----------- ----- ---------- ------- ---------
--------
Volume 0 I Removable 0 B No Media
Volume 1 E Removable 0 B No Media
Volume 2 G Removable 0 B No Media
Volume 3 C NTFS Partition 295 GB Healthy
Boot <-----------------
Volume 4 K Removable 0 B No Media
Volume 5 D NTFS Partition 298 GB Healthy
System <--------------
Volume 6 J Removable 0 B No Media
Volume 7 F DVD-ROM 0 B No Media
Volume 8 H Removable 0 B No Media
Volume 9 L Removable 0 B No Media


C:\Windows\system32>bcdedit

Windows Boot Manager
--------------------
identifier {bootmgr}
device partition=D:
<--------------------------------------------
description Windows Boot Manager
locale en-US
inherit {globalsettings}
default {current}
resumeobject {01d9d5d0-9003-11dc-9e1b-f05eb17f0115}
displayorder {current}
toolsdisplayorder {memdiag}
timeout 30

Windows Boot Loader
-------------------
identifier {current}
device partition=C:
<--------------------------------------------
path \Windows\system32\winload.exe
description Microsoft Windows Vista
locale en-US
inherit {bootloadersettings}
osdevice partition=C:
systemroot \Windows
resumeobject {01d9d5d0-9003-11dc-9e1b-f05eb17f0115}
nx OptIn

 

[JerryM]

There is a misunderstanding here,
Your C: drive is the Boot drive,
It would not Boot if the system files were on another partition.

Your D: drive is not a valid operating system.
Delete it .
Create a new partition for all your extra program files.

Jerry

 

[hinnc]

There is a misunderstanding here,
Your C: drive is the Boot drive,
It would not Boot if the system files were on another partition.

Your D: drive is not a valid operating system.
Delete it .
Create a new partition for all your extra program files.

With all due respect I don't think the system will boot if I delete
the system partion. Open your disk administrator and see that your
boot and system partitions are one in the same, (unless you dual
boot).

From Microsoft:

"The system partition contains the hardware-related files that tell a
computer where to look to start Windows. A boot partition is a
partition that contains the Windows operating system files, which are
located in the Windows file folder. Usually, these are the same
partition, especially if you have only one operating system installed
on your computer.

When you turn on your computer, it uses information stored on the
system partition to start up. There is only one system partition on a
Windows-based computer, even if you have different versions of Windows
installed on the same computer. A boot partition is a partition that
contains Windows operating system files. If you have a multiboot
computer that contains, for example, this version of Windows and
Windows XP, then each of those volumes are considered boot
partitions."

So it would appear that the system partition is critical to the
startup process.

 

[Hans-Georg Michna]

I had an issue with one of my disk drives this past weekend and ended
up re-installing Vista. My system has two drives; one that I use as
the system drive and the other is used for data backup. Well the re-
install went fairly well but when I tried to do a complete image
backup my data drive today, the one that has the drive letter D: ...

My question: is there a way to make the C: drive the system partition
withput a complete reinstallation?

The first thing to make clear is that Microsoft decided to call
the partition that has the boot files and from which the
computer's BIOS starts to boot, "system partition". The
partition that has the Windows system files they call "boot
partition". You have to mentally swap those two to make them
intelligible.

In Windows XP, making a partition bootable used to be very
simple. The partition from which you initially boot has to have:

1. A suitable master boot record. (Actually that's on the hard
disk, not the partition. Safest way to put it in place is to
install Windows on the drive.)

2. The boot files, boot.ini, ntdetect.com, ntldr, and possibly a
few others.

3. The partition has to be set active.

When these three conditions are met, the computer will happily
boot from that drive, even if it is just a diskette. I always
keep such a Windows XP boot diskette nearby, just in case the
boot stuff gets clobbered on the hard disk.

See also http://winhlp.com/node/68 for info on boot diskettes.

I don't have complete experience with Vista yet, so please chime
in, anyone, to confirm or deny that this is still valid for
Vista.

Hans-Georg

 

[andy]

I had an issue with one of my disk drives this past weekend and ended
up re-installing Vista. My system has two drives; one that I use as
the system drive and the other is used for data backup. Well the re-
install went fairly well but when I tried to do a complete image
backup my data drive today, the one that has the drive letter D:
assigned to it, it was not listed as a valid backup device. Further
investigation revealed that somehow the D: drive which contains only
data and not the operating system is the system partition. The C:
drive where all of Vista's files reside is the boot partition.
Normally, on non-dual boot systems the boot and system partitions
reside on the same physical partition, (and the same physical disk
drive). The D: drive was unavailable to use as an image backup drive
because it has the system information on it.

My question: is there a way to make the C: drive the system partition
withput a complete reinstallation? I looked all over the web and at
BCDEdit.exe, DiskPart.exe, and BootEdit.exe and none of those appear
to be a fix. Anyone have any ideas? Other than that it all works
fine.

1. You have to make the C: drive bootable. VistaBootPro might be able
do this for you.
2. You have to set your motherboard bios to boot from the disk
containing the C: drive.