how does the MBR work with Vista?

[tommo123]

basically i have 2 drives - both raptors.

i installed vista 32 bit on, lets call it drive 1. i then installed vista x64 on drive 2 (no change in bios settings re: boot drive).

i much prefer the 64 bit vista and want to format the 1st drive but am a tad worried since i had this situation with xp once and after formatting one drive, the other wouldnt boot.

i have a feeling if i format disk 1 then there wont be a boot drive anymore and the other wont boot anymore

did that make any sense?

 

[TurboFool]

If I'm not mistaken you should be able to format the first partition, then boot with the Vista disc and run the repair console and run the fixmbr and fixboot commands to restore the boot information.

 

[tommo123]

that's the theory but i'm not convinced it will work in practise.

 

[TurboFool]

My strongest recommendation before doing something like that is to use Acronis or something like it to image the drive. That way you can always image it back if it fails. That's the first step I always make before making any changes.

 

[tommo123]

i use acronis but would need to image both drives to keep everything wouldnt i?

I might just raid the drives and reinstall anyway at some point.

ta for the advice all

 

[pallejr]

just make sure the 2nd drive contains all the boot files, and that the partition is marked active. Then you can just test if it works by telling bios to boot on the 2nd

 

[kedlav]

Originally posted by: TurboFool
If I'm not mistaken you should be able to format the first partition, then boot with the Vista disc and run the repair console and run the fixmbr and fixboot commands to restore the boot information.

This works perfectly, speaking from experience

 

[bigi]

I'd use olde FDISK. Anything running under OS will not format the drive properly (FULLY). Then format it as fat32, still in DOS. This will get you very clean drive as opposed to any Acronis.