merge boot and system partitions

blastman

blastman

blastman

Associate
Joined
8 Mar 2007
Posts
2,176
Location
between here and there
hey guys,

I seem to have a boot partition (C:\) with program files and windows directorys and a system partition (G\:) with boot.ini ntldr and such on a completely different HDD.

Firslty, how did I end with this after reinstalling XP and secondly, since I want to format G:\ and use it something else, how can i 'merge' the two??

Can I just move the system files, ntldr, boot.ini (which is poitning to C:\) and others to the C:\ drive and then convert the C:\ to a system partition?

Cheers guys
 
Cheers for the link.

That would be perfect, sadly, this is on an XP machine and BCDBoot is a win7 cli only :(

Anyother suggestions?

I think I'm looking at removing the MBR from my G:\ drive and rebuilding it on C:\ so that that system boots to C:\ and not to G:\. is that right?
 
Oh sorry, I completely spaced that you were on XP! No idea where I got Windows 7 from :p

I think the easiest method with XP is to unplug the "wrong" disk, then do a repair install of XP using an XP installation disk. Make sure the "correct" disk is first in the boot order in the BIOS.

Once done you should be able to then plug in your second disk and delete any boot files on there. Windows should now boot off the C drive.

This problem is usually caused when the wrong HDD is listed as the first boot device when you install Windows. It assumes you will always want to boot from that particular HDD so sticks the boot stuff there.
 
SiriusB said:
Oh sorry, I completely spaced that you were on XP! No idea where I got Windows 7 from :p

I think the easiest method with XP is to unplug the "wrong" disk, then do a repair install of XP using an XP installation disk. Make sure the "correct" disk is first in the boot order in the BIOS.

Once done you should be able to then plug in your second disk and delete any boot files on there. Windows should now boot off the C drive.

This problem is usually caused when the wrong HDD is listed as the first boot device when you install Windows. It assumes you will always want to boot from that particular HDD so sticks the boot stuff there.
Click to expand...

Cool. tbh, I was kind of hoping I coupld do it from a cli as the PC is my HTPC ans it's now safely tucked away under my PS3 and all the cabling. can't be bothered to pull it all out again, but if thats going to fix it then oh well.
 
There may be another way, but a quick Google hasn't thrown anything up. Been a while since I had to fix XP boot problems so any particular tool for this, if it existed, has escaped me.
 
Cheers anyway.

I'll give your suggestion a crack tonight.

I'll unplug all drives apart from the one I want (C) and then I'll run the xp setup again but do a repair and see how it goes.

All this becuase I want to make the G: drive one of 3 dymanic drives with a single volume spanned across all three for all my media.

wish, I'd gotton it right the first time :)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom