XP boot order on partitions

[greid.home]

I have a desktop a few years old, but that works just fine - though
with additional programs and software updates, its boot partition (C)
has run out of space, I have backed up my files to a external drive
and then ghosted my (C) partition to my now empty *larger* (D)
partition. However, i have not been able to change the boot order to
my (D) partition so that I may clean the smaller (C) partition. I am
for some reason not able to enter my bios setup during startup, which
with my experience was as simple as holding the F1 or spacebar key
during the boot process.

If anyone has any suggestions rather then my reinstalling XP and all
my addition software. I already have the drives copied - they are now
exactly the same, but i haven't been able to find a way to now change
which partition windows boots from. and is there another trick into my
bios setup, because F1 and/or spacebar during boot do not work *as
well most pc's i have worked with state that during startup "press F1
to enter setup"
these statements are not present with this pc during startup.

any help would be appreciated, i simply didn't want to format and
reload everything
thanks

 

[Michael]

Most BIOS's I deal with use DEL on startup. I have also seen F2 used.

 

[Ken Blake, MVP]

Most BIOS's I deal with use DEL on startup. I have also seen F2 used.

A common way to enter the BIOS setup program is to press the Del key
when you first power on, but that's not necessarily right for every
computer. Watch the screen carefully when you first boot; there's
often a message there telling you what to do. If not, check your
system documentation or check with your vendor.

Also look here: http://michaelstevenstech.com/bios_manufacturer.htm

 

[Bob Harris]

The solution may not be BIOS-related.

The source of which operating system to boot should come from the BOOT.INI, which must be on the first parition of the primary hard drive, commonly known as C:\, even if XP is somewhere else. Additionally, NTLDR and NTDETECT.COM must be on C:\.

Given your current setup, change BOOT.INI to point to the XP installation on D:\ instead of on C:\.

Your BOOT.INI should should somehting like this for XP with SP-2:

[boot loader]
timeout=15
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition" /fastdetect /NoExecute=OptIn

Note the disk(0), that is the primary hard drive, with parition(1) being the first parition on it, or C:.

Your D:\ would be disk(1) but still partition(1) on that disk.

Alternatively, unplug C:\ and plug D:\ into the signal cable formerly used by C:\. If you correctly cloned C:\ to D:\, including the boot record, then XP should boot from the new disk, which it should recognize as the new C:\, without you having to change any drive letters.

Note: "clone" copies the entire disk, including the boot record. "image" copies one or more paritions, without the boot record. Software like GHOST or TrueImage can do either. Be sure that you did a clone not an image.

Caution: If the old disk was IDE/ATA and the new one is SATA, then you will not be able to simple change signal cables. Worse, you will need to de a repair install of XP and provide new drivers for the disk controller. If both drives use flat ribbon cables, they are IDE/ATA, so ignore this.

 

[Gerry]

Easier to abandon booting from D and create space on C.

How large is your C partition and how much free space? Does the computer
have one or two internal drives? Is the C partion formatted as FAT32 or
NTFS?


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Hope this helps.

Gerry
~~~~
FCA
Stourport, England
Enquire, plan and execute
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