screwed up partition setup

[Red Squirrel]

I had a windows install on a single partition and it crapped out so I reinstalled and what I decided to do is just make 2 partitions instead, well that install did not go too well.

it actually spread the windows installation accross both drives!

drive C has ntldr, boot.ini and all the boot stuff, and drive D has the actual windows folder and stuff.

Is there a way to fix this? I just want it back to 1 partition, or at least have windows all on the same partition and not spread out...

I'm sure if I just delete C and make D into C, then it wont boot because all the boot stuff is on the old C and those are specialized files so I can't just do a regular copy...

Any way to fix this mess? This is win2k3 server.

 

[NoelS]

RedSquirrel,

First time I've heard of Windows installing on 2 different partitions like that. Sounds like the partitions may not have been separate from each other but still linked... One possibility is to use Partitition Magic...you may be able to re-partition using it without losing your data. I don't don't about other partitioning programs... You could also try the Windows formatting app in System Manager. Right click on My Computer and select Mange then select Drive Management. You can re-format there, but before you activate see if it says you'll lose your data if you do...

You may to have to re-format the hard drive and try again. There isn't any way I know of that you can go from 2 partitions to a single partition without destroying the data besides Partition Magic...

Noel

 

[Nothinman]

First time I've heard of Windows installing on 2 different partitions like that. Sounds like the partitions may not have been separate from each other but still linked...

No, that happens when you choose to install Windows to the second partition. Windows always assumes the first will be active so it puts the boot files there.

 

[Red Squirrel]

I think that may be what happened, I made the first partition, then the second, so it started installing right away after it was done formatting both, so it defaulted to the 2nd.

The server is in production now so it will have to stay. Don't think theres a way to even fix it anyway, since everything is referring to d:\windows instead of c:\windows and such.

 

[Nothinman]

I think that may be what happened, I made the first partition, then the second, so it started installing right away after it was done formatting both, so it defaulted to the 2nd

No, it defaults to the one that you hit enter on, i.e. there is no default.