Simple? hard drive question - anyone?

[jaybee]

Not sure how to do this, but it shouldn't be a big deal. Anyway, here's the scenario:

I've got two hard drives, with 2 partitions each. The first is the master on IDE 0. It's got Windows 98 on partition 1 and Win2k on an extended partition. I added a second drive not too long ago. It's on IDE 1, and it has two primary partitions: Win98 and WinXP. My drive letters are: C=Win98,D=WinXP,E=Win2k,F=Win98. C and E are the same drive, and D and F are the same.

My question is this: C is currently the system drive, but I no longer need that partition and want to reformat it. How do I change my system drive? I can't format the partition as long as it's the system drive. I'm happy to keep the drive letters as they are. WinXP(D: ) is my main OS btw.

Thanks for any help.

jaybee

 

[jaybee]

Anyone know?

 

[Alphazero]

Swap the drives around. The primary partition of the the master on the primary IDE channel will be your system drive (which will now be XP). You can do whatever you want with the other partitions.

EDIT: oops, that will mess up your drive letters. You could try installing WinXP over 98 on C:.

 

[jaybee]

Yikes. I want to keep my current WinXP OS. If I reinstall XP on my C: drive, I've got to reinstall all the apps. Plus, I'd reformat before installing a new OS, and it won't let me format that drive. Maybe I could do a search and replace in my registry for D: -> C:, then switch channels. Would switching IDE channels make my current D: drive C: on bootup? As I said, it's on the secondary right now, and the other HD is on the primary. Also, what difference does master/slave make?

Thanks,
jaybee

 

[kd7fhd]

pqmagic

 

[zephyrprime]

Maybe Xp's "Transfer files and settings" wizard would be useful?

The primary partition on hard drive controller 0 channel 0 has to contain the initial boot loader since that is where the bios automatically checks for an os. What I think you'd have to do is delete everything except the root directory and "System Volume Information" on C:, then copy everything on E: into C:, then delete E:, then resize C: so that it uses up the space formerly used by E:, then rename C:->E: . See? Only 100 easy steps! 🙂

Actually, now that I think about it, it would be easier to just swap around your IDE0 and IDE1 drives. Believe it or not, this will not mess up you drive letters since XP "remembers" drive letters. This should work so long as partition D: has boot.ini, cmldr, ntldr, msdos.sys, and io.sys on it. And if these files are absent, I believe that you can simply copy them over from your C: and it should work because XP's boot loader is smart like that.

I'm not dead certain that this would work so tell me if it does!

 

[jaybee]

I'll give that a shot. I've got to swap hard drives in the enclosure due to how the cables are set up (with 2 other devices). But I think you might be right. btw my D: drive is the fast one so I ruled out copying the OS over to C: already. Oh, one thing I'll have to do is rejigger the boot.ini with the correct ARC path (disk(x)partition(y)etc). Shouldn't be a big deal though. Thanks for the help!

jaybee

PS I'll LYK

 

[alkemyst]

you can fdisk it to a new system drive, fix the old one and then be on your way.

 

[jaybee]

No luck so far. I'm not sure why, but I can't boot from D:. I copied over boot.ini, ntldr, and ntdetect.com. When I set (in bios) to boot from HDD-0 (I switched D: to primary channel, master drive) it stops right before you get to the OS selection screen. When I switch to boot from HDD-1 (C:, Win98 basically), I get the OS selection screen and can boot from any OS.

Fdisk allows me to set the active partition, but that's already set. C: and D: are both active. I am afraid to blow away my C: drive because I can't boot from D: for some reason. I should have everything I need, right? I copied over the three files named above. Is there something I have to do with the master boot record? I thought that setting the partition to active handled that.

Anyway, I'm at a loss. Any more suggestions?

Thanks,
jaybee

 

[fluxquantum]

all i can tell you is this: partition magic

 

[jaybee]

Crap. Tried Partition Magic, nothing helpful there.

I have an image of my C: on F:, which are two different disks. D: and F: are on the same drive. Anyway, I can boot from F: if I make it active, but the OS selection screen never appears for some reason, even though the ntldr & other files are present (just like on C: ). Also, when I boot from F: it becomes C: and my C: becomes D:. D: is not visible because it's XP. I'd be happy to have F: become my system partition (so I can wipe C: ), but I can't boot to XP from F:.

Does your system partition have to be C:? I suppose I can do a reg swap of D: for C: if that'll work. Also, does your system partition have to be FAT? That would explain it.

Thanks,
jaybee