Getting rid of an old bootable partition...

  • Thread starter Thread starter Homer J. Simpson
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Homer J. Simpson

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Hi all,

I used to have XP 32-bit on my C: drive. Shortly after XP 64-bit came out,
I installed in on D: and started dual-booting. It didn't take long after
I've completed my migration that I started using x64 exclusively. My
system's gone through a few hardware changes since then, but I've never
bothered to reboot in XP 32-bit to install drivers and such. A while ago I
did try to boot into XP 32-bit (can't remember why I would do such a foolish
thing) ;-) but I found out at that time that my 32-bit installation was
corrupted.

I can't say I cared enough about it to try to fix it or even figure out why
it wasn't functional anymore. In fact I'd prefer to have it gone
completely.

Both partitions (C: and D:) are 30GB in size, on the same physical hard
drive (250GB SATA). The C: partition (obviously in such a setup) contains
the boot.ini file. Given that I have no need for XP 32-bit, and my D:
partition could use the space, I thought I could get rid of the C: partition
entirely.

So I'm asking for advice on exactly how I could proceed, given that XP's
disk manager doesn't really have the smarts to do such a thing.

At a minimum I would expect I would have to copy the boot.ini, ntdetect.com
and ntldr files from C: to D: before I blow away the C: partition (and
resize D: to take up that free space)...maybe edit the boot.ini so any
reference to ...rdisk(0)partition(2) becomes rdisk(0)partition(1)...but then
I'm pretty sure I'll run into further problems because C: drive is currently
a primary partition, while D: (and E:, F:, G:, and a couple more) are all
logical partitions grouped within one extended partition.

I'm not looking to change XP x64's drive letter assignment from D: back to
C:...in fact if it does that, that'll screw up *all* references pretty good.
I just want the C: partition to go away.

I know that at least one of these steps isn't supported by Disk Manager
itself (resizing my D: partition), so I'm looking for a good tool (Partition
Magic, or something from Acronis?) that is *known* to be able to do these
sort of changes intelligently and won't leave me with a system that won't
boot...

Anybody gone through this process?
 
Re: Getting rid of an old bootable partition...

If you're not trying to change the drive letters, make your life easier -
use one of the smart partition products (I like Acronis), to resize your C:
down to tiny, and fill up the extra space by growing the D: partition. I'd
leave C: just big enough to not have it get excited if some ill-behaved
program decided to dump it's files there, and so that you can have the dump
file there. Say 5GB?

By doing it this way, you don't have to move any files, just delete all the
old ones that you don't want that are on there. And, of course, edit your
boot.ini file to get rid of any reference to that partition. ;)

--
Charlie.
http://msmvps.com/xperts64
http://mvp.support.microsoft.com/profile/charlie.russel


"Homer J. Simpson" <root@127.0.0.1> wrote in message
news:%232RNyjDCIHA.4476@TK2MSFTNGP06.phx.gbl...
> Hi all,
>
> I used to have XP 32-bit on my C: drive. Shortly after XP 64-bit came
> out, I installed in on D: and started dual-booting. It didn't take long
> after I've completed my migration that I started using x64 exclusively.
> My system's gone through a few hardware changes since then, but I've never
> bothered to reboot in XP 32-bit to install drivers and such. A while ago
> I did try to boot into XP 32-bit (can't remember why I would do such a
> foolish thing) ;-) but I found out at that time that my 32-bit
> installation was corrupted.
>
> I can't say I cared enough about it to try to fix it or even figure out
> why it wasn't functional anymore. In fact I'd prefer to have it gone
> completely.
>
> Both partitions (C: and D:) are 30GB in size, on the same physical hard
> drive (250GB SATA). The C: partition (obviously in such a setup) contains
> the boot.ini file. Given that I have no need for XP 32-bit, and my D:
> partition could use the space, I thought I could get rid of the C:
> partition entirely.
>
> So I'm asking for advice on exactly how I could proceed, given that XP's
> disk manager doesn't really have the smarts to do such a thing.
>
> At a minimum I would expect I would have to copy the boot.ini,
> ntdetect.com and ntldr files from C: to D: before I blow away the C:
> partition (and resize D: to take up that free space)...maybe edit the
> boot.ini so any reference to ...rdisk(0)partition(2) becomes
> rdisk(0)partition(1)...but then I'm pretty sure I'll run into further
> problems because C: drive is currently a primary partition, while D: (and
> E:, F:, G:, and a couple more) are all logical partitions grouped within
> one extended partition.
>
> I'm not looking to change XP x64's drive letter assignment from D: back to
> C:...in fact if it does that, that'll screw up *all* references pretty
> good. I just want the C: partition to go away.
>
> I know that at least one of these steps isn't supported by Disk Manager
> itself (resizing my D: partition), so I'm looking for a good tool
> (Partition Magic, or something from Acronis?) that is *known* to be able
> to do these sort of changes intelligently and won't leave me with a system
> that won't boot...
>
> Anybody gone through this process?
>
 
Re: Getting rid of an old bootable partition...

Hi Homer,

You are running Windows XP Professional x64 Edition Service Pack 2. Are
you able to download directly into your Briefcase Folder within this
operating system?

Now if you want to get rid of Drive C:, you can and have it part of
Drive D:. However, you will need to reinstall Windows XP Professional x64
Edition Service Pack 2. Why? Because all the programs you have installed in
X64 Edition were installed pointing to their location on Drive D: and not on
Drive C:

You can use Acronis Disk Director Suite to decease the size of C: or you
can just delete the files and sub-folders of Drive C: and use Drive C: as a
storage Drive. Move your Documents folder to Drive C:, freeing up more space
on Drive D: for additional program files.


--
thecreator



"Homer J. Simpson" <root@127.0.0.1> wrote in message
news:%232RNyjDCIHA.4476@TK2MSFTNGP06.phx.gbl...
> Hi all,
>
> I used to have XP 32-bit on my C: drive. Shortly after XP 64-bit came
> out, I installed in on D: and started dual-booting. It didn't take long
> after I've completed my migration that I started using x64 exclusively.
> My system's gone through a few hardware changes since then, but I've never
> bothered to reboot in XP 32-bit to install drivers and such. A while ago
> I did try to boot into XP 32-bit (can't remember why I would do such a
> foolish thing) ;-) but I found out at that time that my 32-bit
> installation was corrupted.
>
> I can't say I cared enough about it to try to fix it or even figure out
> why it wasn't functional anymore. In fact I'd prefer to have it gone
> completely.
>
> Both partitions (C: and D:) are 30GB in size, on the same physical hard
> drive (250GB SATA). The C: partition (obviously in such a setup) contains
> the boot.ini file. Given that I have no need for XP 32-bit, and my D:
> partition could use the space, I thought I could get rid of the C:
> partition entirely.
>
> So I'm asking for advice on exactly how I could proceed, given that XP's
> disk manager doesn't really have the smarts to do such a thing.
>
> At a minimum I would expect I would have to copy the boot.ini,
> ntdetect.com and ntldr files from C: to D: before I blow away the C:
> partition (and resize D: to take up that free space)...maybe edit the
> boot.ini so any reference to ...rdisk(0)partition(2) becomes
> rdisk(0)partition(1)...but then I'm pretty sure I'll run into further
> problems because C: drive is currently a primary partition, while D: (and
> E:, F:, G:, and a couple more) are all logical partitions grouped within
> one extended partition.
>
> I'm not looking to change XP x64's drive letter assignment from D: back to
> C:...in fact if it does that, that'll screw up *all* references pretty
> good. I just want the C: partition to go away.
>
> I know that at least one of these steps isn't supported by Disk Manager
> itself (resizing my D: partition), so I'm looking for a good tool
> (Partition Magic, or something from Acronis?) that is *known* to be able
> to do these sort of changes intelligently and won't leave me with a system
> that won't boot...
>
> Anybody gone through this process?
>
 
Re: Getting rid of an old bootable partition...

And that would be Acronis Disk Director Suite 10.0
http://www.acronis.com/enterprise/products/diskdirectorsuite/
:)
Carlos

"Charlie Russel - MVP" wrote:

> If you're not trying to change the drive letters, make your life easier -
> use one of the smart partition products (I like Acronis), to resize your C:
> down to tiny, and fill up the extra space by growing the D: partition. I'd
> leave C: just big enough to not have it get excited if some ill-behaved
> program decided to dump it's files there, and so that you can have the dump
> file there. Say 5GB?
>
> By doing it this way, you don't have to move any files, just delete all the
> old ones that you don't want that are on there. And, of course, edit your
> boot.ini file to get rid of any reference to that partition. ;)
>
> --
> Charlie.
> http://msmvps.com/xperts64
> http://mvp.support.microsoft.com/profile/charlie.russel
>
>
> "Homer J. Simpson" <root@127.0.0.1> wrote in message
> news:%232RNyjDCIHA.4476@TK2MSFTNGP06.phx.gbl...
> > Hi all,
> >
> > I used to have XP 32-bit on my C: drive. Shortly after XP 64-bit came
> > out, I installed in on D: and started dual-booting. It didn't take long
> > after I've completed my migration that I started using x64 exclusively.
> > My system's gone through a few hardware changes since then, but I've never
> > bothered to reboot in XP 32-bit to install drivers and such. A while ago
> > I did try to boot into XP 32-bit (can't remember why I would do such a
> > foolish thing) ;-) but I found out at that time that my 32-bit
> > installation was corrupted.
> >
> > I can't say I cared enough about it to try to fix it or even figure out
> > why it wasn't functional anymore. In fact I'd prefer to have it gone
> > completely.
> >
> > Both partitions (C: and D:) are 30GB in size, on the same physical hard
> > drive (250GB SATA). The C: partition (obviously in such a setup) contains
> > the boot.ini file. Given that I have no need for XP 32-bit, and my D:
> > partition could use the space, I thought I could get rid of the C:
> > partition entirely.
> >
> > So I'm asking for advice on exactly how I could proceed, given that XP's
> > disk manager doesn't really have the smarts to do such a thing.
> >
> > At a minimum I would expect I would have to copy the boot.ini,
> > ntdetect.com and ntldr files from C: to D: before I blow away the C:
> > partition (and resize D: to take up that free space)...maybe edit the
> > boot.ini so any reference to ...rdisk(0)partition(2) becomes
> > rdisk(0)partition(1)...but then I'm pretty sure I'll run into further
> > problems because C: drive is currently a primary partition, while D: (and
> > E:, F:, G:, and a couple more) are all logical partitions grouped within
> > one extended partition.
> >
> > I'm not looking to change XP x64's drive letter assignment from D: back to
> > C:...in fact if it does that, that'll screw up *all* references pretty
> > good. I just want the C: partition to go away.
> >
> > I know that at least one of these steps isn't supported by Disk Manager
> > itself (resizing my D: partition), so I'm looking for a good tool
> > (Partition Magic, or something from Acronis?) that is *known* to be able
> > to do these sort of changes intelligently and won't leave me with a system
> > that won't boot...
> >
> > Anybody gone through this process?
> >
>
 
Re: Getting rid of an old bootable partition...

I agree with Charlie except I would probably make the C partition smaller.
You have to have the system files on a primary partition in Windows, so you
can't have your system files on D. Files like nVidia drivers are dumb and
have to be on the C drive also. Nothing else I have does, but you ever
know.
My favourite for file and partition manipulation is BootItNG, but Acronis is
supposed to work fine.

"Homer J. Simpson" <root@127.0.0.1> wrote in message
news:%232RNyjDCIHA.4476@TK2MSFTNGP06.phx.gbl...
> Hi all,
>
> I used to have XP 32-bit on my C: drive. Shortly after XP 64-bit came
> out, I installed in on D: and started dual-booting. It didn't take long
> after I've completed my migration that I started using x64 exclusively.
> My system's gone through a few hardware changes since then, but I've never
> bothered to reboot in XP 32-bit to install drivers and such. A while ago
> I did try to boot into XP 32-bit (can't remember why I would do such a
> foolish thing) ;-) but I found out at that time that my 32-bit
> installation was corrupted.
>
> I can't say I cared enough about it to try to fix it or even figure out
> why it wasn't functional anymore. In fact I'd prefer to have it gone
> completely.
>
> Both partitions (C: and D:) are 30GB in size, on the same physical hard
> drive (250GB SATA). The C: partition (obviously in such a setup) contains
> the boot.ini file. Given that I have no need for XP 32-bit, and my D:
> partition could use the space, I thought I could get rid of the C:
> partition entirely.
>
> So I'm asking for advice on exactly how I could proceed, given that XP's
> disk manager doesn't really have the smarts to do such a thing.
>
> At a minimum I would expect I would have to copy the boot.ini,
> ntdetect.com and ntldr files from C: to D: before I blow away the C:
> partition (and resize D: to take up that free space)...maybe edit the
> boot.ini so any reference to ...rdisk(0)partition(2) becomes
> rdisk(0)partition(1)...but then I'm pretty sure I'll run into further
> problems because C: drive is currently a primary partition, while D: (and
> E:, F:, G:, and a couple more) are all logical partitions grouped within
> one extended partition.
>
> I'm not looking to change XP x64's drive letter assignment from D: back to
> C:...in fact if it does that, that'll screw up *all* references pretty
> good. I just want the C: partition to go away.
>
> I know that at least one of these steps isn't supported by Disk Manager
> itself (resizing my D: partition), so I'm looking for a good tool
> (Partition Magic, or something from Acronis?) that is *known* to be able
> to do these sort of changes intelligently and won't leave me with a system
> that won't boot...
>
> Anybody gone through this process?
>
 
Re: Getting rid of an old bootable partition...

Yup. That it would. :)

--
Charlie.
http://msmvps.com/xperts64
http://mvp.support.microsoft.com/profile/charlie.russel


"Carlos" <Carlos@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:6B7961E2-0C2B-4FE0-98C6-5D3CC8EE4694@microsoft.com...
> And that would be Acronis Disk Director Suite 10.0
> http://www.acronis.com/enterprise/products/diskdirectorsuite/
> :)
> Carlos
>
> "Charlie Russel - MVP" wrote:
>
>> If you're not trying to change the drive letters, make your life easier -
>> use one of the smart partition products (I like Acronis), to resize your
>> C:
>> down to tiny, and fill up the extra space by growing the D: partition.
>> I'd
>> leave C: just big enough to not have it get excited if some ill-behaved
>> program decided to dump it's files there, and so that you can have the
>> dump
>> file there. Say 5GB?
>>
>> By doing it this way, you don't have to move any files, just delete all
>> the
>> old ones that you don't want that are on there. And, of course, edit your
>> boot.ini file to get rid of any reference to that partition. ;)
>>
>> --
>> Charlie.
>> http://msmvps.com/xperts64
>> http://mvp.support.microsoft.com/profile/charlie.russel
>>
>>
>> "Homer J. Simpson" <root@127.0.0.1> wrote in message
>> news:%232RNyjDCIHA.4476@TK2MSFTNGP06.phx.gbl...
>> > Hi all,
>> >
>> > I used to have XP 32-bit on my C: drive. Shortly after XP 64-bit came
>> > out, I installed in on D: and started dual-booting. It didn't take
>> > long
>> > after I've completed my migration that I started using x64 exclusively.
>> > My system's gone through a few hardware changes since then, but I've
>> > never
>> > bothered to reboot in XP 32-bit to install drivers and such. A while
>> > ago
>> > I did try to boot into XP 32-bit (can't remember why I would do such a
>> > foolish thing) ;-) but I found out at that time that my 32-bit
>> > installation was corrupted.
>> >
>> > I can't say I cared enough about it to try to fix it or even figure out
>> > why it wasn't functional anymore. In fact I'd prefer to have it gone
>> > completely.
>> >
>> > Both partitions (C: and D:) are 30GB in size, on the same physical hard
>> > drive (250GB SATA). The C: partition (obviously in such a setup)
>> > contains
>> > the boot.ini file. Given that I have no need for XP 32-bit, and my D:
>> > partition could use the space, I thought I could get rid of the C:
>> > partition entirely.
>> >
>> > So I'm asking for advice on exactly how I could proceed, given that
>> > XP's
>> > disk manager doesn't really have the smarts to do such a thing.
>> >
>> > At a minimum I would expect I would have to copy the boot.ini,
>> > ntdetect.com and ntldr files from C: to D: before I blow away the C:
>> > partition (and resize D: to take up that free space)...maybe edit the
>> > boot.ini so any reference to ...rdisk(0)partition(2) becomes
>> > rdisk(0)partition(1)...but then I'm pretty sure I'll run into further
>> > problems because C: drive is currently a primary partition, while D:
>> > (and
>> > E:, F:, G:, and a couple more) are all logical partitions grouped
>> > within
>> > one extended partition.
>> >
>> > I'm not looking to change XP x64's drive letter assignment from D: back
>> > to
>> > C:...in fact if it does that, that'll screw up *all* references pretty
>> > good. I just want the C: partition to go away.
>> >
>> > I know that at least one of these steps isn't supported by Disk Manager
>> > itself (resizing my D: partition), so I'm looking for a good tool
>> > (Partition Magic, or something from Acronis?) that is *known* to be
>> > able
>> > to do these sort of changes intelligently and won't leave me with a
>> > system
>> > that won't boot...
>> >
>> > Anybody gone through this process?
>> >
>>
 
Re: Getting rid of an old bootable partition...

Thanks to all who replied. I knew the most straightforward thing to do was
to reduce the size of the C: partition down to nothing (and reallocate its
space to D:), and leave the boot files there, but my preference would've
been to remove it completely. I thought something like Acronis would've
been able to change my D: partition from Extended to Primary, but if it
can't do that, then it looks like I'm really SOL.
 
Re: Getting rid of an old bootable partition...

Acronis will do that, I think. BUT, you'll still end up with problems. Now
the computer will think that your system drive is C: not D: (and you can't
change the assigned drive letter of a system partition.) That would break
way more than just Windows, which could probably sort of cope. And when you
were all done? You'd have an odd machine that didn't behave normally. To my
mind, that leaves two possibilities - leave the legacy C: there, or
re-partition and rebuild.

--
Charlie.
http://msmvps.com/xperts64
http://mvp.support.microsoft.com/profile/charlie.russel


"Homer J. Simpson" <root@127.0.0.1> wrote in message
news:%231$z$xPCIHA.4956@TK2MSFTNGP06.phx.gbl...
> Thanks to all who replied. I knew the most straightforward thing to do
> was to reduce the size of the C: partition down to nothing (and reallocate
> its space to D:), and leave the boot files there, but my preference
> would've been to remove it completely. I thought something like Acronis
> would've been able to change my D: partition from Extended to Primary, but
> if it can't do that, then it looks like I'm really SOL.
>
 
Re: Getting rid of an old bootable partition...

Charlie Russel - MVP wrote:
> Acronis will do that, I think. BUT, you'll still end up with problems.
> Now the computer will think that your system drive is C: not D: (and you
> can't change the assigned drive letter of a system partition.) That
> would break way more than just Windows, which could probably sort of
> cope. And when you were all done? You'd have an odd machine that didn't
> behave normally. To my mind, that leaves two possibilities - leave the
> legacy C: there, or re-partition and rebuild.
>

If the system drive letter has to be manipulated, you go to the registry:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\MountedDevices

disk id + position of partition determines which drive letter is assigned
 
Re: Getting rid of an old bootable partition...

You still have all the shortcuts and other associations in the registry that
would still refer to D. Also, the knowledgebase strongly recommends against
doing that for the system drive unless it can't be booted anyway.


"jorgen" <na@invalid> wrote in message
news:eS9imUSCIHA.4176@TK2MSFTNGP06.phx.gbl...
> Charlie Russel - MVP wrote:
>> Acronis will do that, I think. BUT, you'll still end up with problems.
>> Now the computer will think that your system drive is C: not D: (and you
>> can't change the assigned drive letter of a system partition.) That would
>> break way more than just Windows, which could probably sort of cope. And
>> when you were all done? You'd have an odd machine that didn't behave
>> normally. To my mind, that leaves two possibilities - leave the legacy C:
>> there, or re-partition and rebuild.
>>
>
> If the system drive letter has to be manipulated, you go to the registry:
>
> HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\MountedDevices
>
> disk id + position of partition determines which drive letter is assigned
 
Re: Getting rid of an old bootable partition...

I think you can only do that if you are restoring a backup, but would be
possible that way. I agree 100% that it should be done as you recommended.

"Charlie Russel - MVP" <charlie@mvKILLALLSPAMMERSps.org> wrote in message
news:9EFE9D30-14A4-4578-9846-4F2577BED952@microsoft.com...
> Acronis will do that, I think. BUT, you'll still end up with problems. Now
> the computer will think that your system drive is C: not D: (and you can't
> change the assigned drive letter of a system partition.) That would break
> way more than just Windows, which could probably sort of cope. And when
> you were all done? You'd have an odd machine that didn't behave normally.
> To my mind, that leaves two possibilities - leave the legacy C: there, or
> re-partition and rebuild.
>
> --
> Charlie.
> http://msmvps.com/xperts64
> http://mvp.support.microsoft.com/profile/charlie.russel
>
>
> "Homer J. Simpson" <root@127.0.0.1> wrote in message
> news:%231$z$xPCIHA.4956@TK2MSFTNGP06.phx.gbl...
>> Thanks to all who replied. I knew the most straightforward thing to do
>> was to reduce the size of the C: partition down to nothing (and
>> reallocate its space to D:), and leave the boot files there, but my
>> preference would've been to remove it completely. I thought something
>> like Acronis would've been able to change my D: partition from Extended
>> to Primary, but if it can't do that, then it looks like I'm really SOL.
>>
>
 
Re: Getting rid of an old bootable partition...

John Barnes wrote:
> You still have all the shortcuts and other associations in the registry
> that would still refer to D. Also, the knowledgebase strongly
> recommends against doing that for the system drive unless it can't be
> booted anyway.


The point was, if Windows wants to call the new system partition for C:
(it can happen) you can change it back to D: by editing the registry
 
Re: Getting rid of an old bootable partition...

Sorry, interpreted you differently.

"jorgen" <na@invalid> wrote in message
news:eincSZZCIHA.3400@TK2MSFTNGP03.phx.gbl...
> John Barnes wrote:
>> You still have all the shortcuts and other associations in the registry
>> that would still refer to D. Also, the knowledgebase strongly recommends
>> against doing that for the system drive unless it can't be booted anyway.
>
>
> The point was, if Windows wants to call the new system partition for C:
> (it can happen) you can change it back to D: by editing the registry
 
Re: Getting rid of an old bootable partition...

> Acronis will do that, I think. BUT, you'll still end up with problems. Now
> the computer will think that your system drive is C: not D: (and you can't
> change the assigned drive letter of a system partition.) That would break
> way more than just Windows, which could probably sort of cope. And when
> you were all done? You'd have an odd machine that didn't behave normally.
> To my mind, that leaves two possibilities - leave the legacy C: there, or
> re-partition and rebuild.

What, exactly, would cause the drive letter reassignment? Windows itself?
Acronis?

I'm asking 'cuz I remember a coworker of mine a couple of years ago had a
machine with a multiboot setup, with his main OS on a separate drive (H:)
and after much hardware shuffling, he ended up with his primary OS still on
H: drive, and without a C: partition at all (eg, the C: drive/partition was
removed and nothing ever attempted to reassign a different drive letter to
the OS). So I'm guessing it's not entirely impossible...

Mind you, I'm not *that* hell-bent on getting rid of the partition; I'd
rather leave it at that than find out the hard way it's not gonna work. A
reinstall is the last thing on my to-do list right now...
 
Re: Getting rid of an old bootable partition...

Homer J. Simpson wrote:

> What, exactly, would cause the drive letter reassignment? Windows itself?
> Acronis?

The way Windows identify partitions is by disk id (stored in MBR) and
where the partition starts (sector count). So when you move the
partition, the signature in registry is no longer valid, and it will
reassign.
 
Re: Getting rid of an old bootable partition...

Homer:
If I were you, I would simply use partition C: for valuable data storage.
My Documents, Outlook database (oulook.pst file) or whatever database your
e-mail/contacts program uses, etc., etc., etc., can be relocated there.
That way...
1.- Backing up your important info is just backing up C:
2.- You can always wipe out your OS from drive D: (because of reinstalling,
new OS, etc.) without being afraid of losing all that you care for.
Carlos

"Homer J. Simpson" wrote:

> > Acronis will do that, I think. BUT, you'll still end up with problems. Now
> > the computer will think that your system drive is C: not D: (and you can't
> > change the assigned drive letter of a system partition.) That would break
> > way more than just Windows, which could probably sort of cope. And when
> > you were all done? You'd have an odd machine that didn't behave normally.
> > To my mind, that leaves two possibilities - leave the legacy C: there, or
> > re-partition and rebuild.
>
> What, exactly, would cause the drive letter reassignment? Windows itself?
> Acronis?
>
> I'm asking 'cuz I remember a coworker of mine a couple of years ago had a
> machine with a multiboot setup, with his main OS on a separate drive (H:)
> and after much hardware shuffling, he ended up with his primary OS still on
> H: drive, and without a C: partition at all (eg, the C: drive/partition was
> removed and nothing ever attempted to reassign a different drive letter to
> the OS). So I'm guessing it's not entirely impossible...
>
> Mind you, I'm not *that* hell-bent on getting rid of the partition; I'd
> rather leave it at that than find out the hard way it's not gonna work. A
> reinstall is the last thing on my to-do list right now...
>
>
>
 
Re: Getting rid of an old bootable partition...

Your problem is the logical drive that you can't put your system files on
and boot. Acronis does not assign drive letters.

"Homer J. Simpson" <root@127.0.0.1> wrote in message
news:u83A2rcCIHA.4236@TK2MSFTNGP02.phx.gbl...
>> Acronis will do that, I think. BUT, you'll still end up with problems.
>> Now the computer will think that your system drive is C: not D: (and you
>> can't change the assigned drive letter of a system partition.) That would
>> break way more than just Windows, which could probably sort of cope. And
>> when you were all done? You'd have an odd machine that didn't behave
>> normally. To my mind, that leaves two possibilities - leave the legacy C:
>> there, or re-partition and rebuild.
>
> What, exactly, would cause the drive letter reassignment? Windows itself?
> Acronis?
>
> I'm asking 'cuz I remember a coworker of mine a couple of years ago had a
> machine with a multiboot setup, with his main OS on a separate drive (H:)
> and after much hardware shuffling, he ended up with his primary OS still
> on H: drive, and without a C: partition at all (eg, the C: drive/partition
> was removed and nothing ever attempted to reassign a different drive
> letter to the OS). So I'm guessing it's not entirely impossible...
>
> Mind you, I'm not *that* hell-bent on getting rid of the partition; I'd
> rather leave it at that than find out the hard way it's not gonna work. A
> reinstall is the last thing on my to-do list right now...
>
 
Re: Getting rid of an old bootable partition...

> If I were you, I would simply use partition C: for valuable data storage.
> My Documents, Outlook database (oulook.pst file) or whatever database your
> e-mail/contacts program uses, etc., etc., etc., can be relocated there.
> That way...
> 1.- Backing up your important info is just backing up C:
> 2.- You can always wipe out your OS from drive D: (because of
> reinstalling,
> new OS, etc.) without being afraid of losing all that you care for.

Actually, I've been doing this for years. Just not as drive C:.
 
Re: Getting rid of an old bootable partition...

On Sat, 6 Oct 2007 12:49:55 -0400, "Homer J. Simpson" <root@127.0.0.1>
wrote:

>Hi all,
>
>I used to have XP 32-bit on my C: drive. Shortly after XP 64-bit came out,
>I installed in on D: and started dual-booting. It didn't take long after
>I've completed my migration that I started using x64 exclusively. My
>system's gone through a few hardware changes since then, but I've never
>bothered to reboot in XP 32-bit to install drivers and such. A while ago I
>did try to boot into XP 32-bit (can't remember why I would do such a foolish
>thing) ;-) but I found out at that time that my 32-bit installation was
>corrupted.
>
>I can't say I cared enough about it to try to fix it or even figure out why
>it wasn't functional anymore. In fact I'd prefer to have it gone
>completely.
>
>Both partitions (C: and D:) are 30GB in size, on the same physical hard
>drive (250GB SATA). The C: partition (obviously in such a setup) contains
>the boot.ini file. Given that I have no need for XP 32-bit, and my D:
>partition could use the space, I thought I could get rid of the C: partition
>entirely.
>
>So I'm asking for advice on exactly how I could proceed, given that XP's
>disk manager doesn't really have the smarts to do such a thing.
>
>At a minimum I would expect I would have to copy the boot.ini, ntdetect.com
>and ntldr files from C: to D: before I blow away the C: partition (and
>resize D: to take up that free space)...maybe edit the boot.ini so any
>reference to ...rdisk(0)partition(2) becomes rdisk(0)partition(1)...but then
>I'm pretty sure I'll run into further problems because C: drive is currently
>a primary partition, while D: (and E:, F:, G:, and a couple more) are all
>logical partitions grouped within one extended partition.
>
>I'm not looking to change XP x64's drive letter assignment from D: back to
>C:...in fact if it does that, that'll screw up *all* references pretty good.
>I just want the C: partition to go away.
>
>I know that at least one of these steps isn't supported by Disk Manager
>itself (resizing my D: partition), so I'm looking for a good tool (Partition
>Magic, or something from Acronis?) that is *known* to be able to do these
>sort of changes intelligently and won't leave me with a system that won't
>boot...
>
>Anybody gone through this process?
>
You have to, in a nutshell, accomplish two tasks: 1) copy the four XP
x64 folders to the primary partition, and 2) modify the registry of
the copied XP x64 so it sees the primary partition as D: instead of
C:.

One way to perform task 1 is to install another copy of Windows XP in
one of the other partitions, and use the program xxcopy to copy XP x64
from D: to C:.
1. Copy boot.ini, ntldr and ntdetect.com from C:\ to D:\

Microsoft Windows [Version 5.2.3790]
(C) Copyright 1985-2003 Microsoft Corp.

D:\Documents and Settings\Administrator>cd \

D:\>c:

C:\>attrib
A C:\AUTOEXEC.BAT
A SH C:\boot.ini
A C:\CONFIG.SYS
A SHR C:\IO.SYS
A SHR C:\MSDOS.SYS
A SHR C:\NTDETECT.COM
A SHR C:\ntldr
A SH C:\pagefile.sys

C:\>xcopy boot.ini d:\ /h
C:boot.ini
1 File(s) copied

C:\>xcopy nt*.* e:\ /h
C:NTDETECT.COM
C:ntldr
2 File(s) copied

C:\>d:

D:\>attrib
A SH D:\boot.ini
A SH D:\NTDETECT.COM
A SH D:\ntldr
A SH D:\pagefile.sys

D:\>

2. Install XP in E:, and boot XP from it.

3. Install xxcopy.

E:\>xxcopy

XXCOPY == Freeware == Ver 2.95.3 (c)1995-2007 Pixelab, Inc.

============== XXCOPY ==========================================

Welcome to the Wonderful World of XXCOPY

XXCOPY is a feature-packed file management tool for all PC users.
For IT professionals, it's good for system/network administration.
For small business, and home users, XXCOPY offers a wide variety
of functions from a simple file copy to a complex system backup.

Do you want to proceed with XXCOPY installation? (Y/N) : Y

============== Verification of License Status ====================

The current copy of the XXCOPY executable was launched from

E:\

We recommend XXCOPY be stored (with other supporting files)
in the following directory (to become XXCOPY's home)

E:\WINDOWS\system32\

Do you want to make it as XXCOPY's home directory (Y/N) ? Y

Copied E:\WINDOWS\system32\XXCOPY.EXE


XXCOPY installation completed.

4. Use xxcopy to copy XP x64 from D: to C:

E:\>xxcopy d:\*.* c:\ /clone /oNErrorLog.txt

XXCOPY == Freeware == Ver 2.95.3 (c)1995-2007 Pixelab, Inc.


===== Caution!!! ====================================

This version of XXCOPY has never been tested
in the current Operating System environment.
You should acquire the latest version of XXCOPY
from the XXCOPY web site (http://www.xxcopy.com).

Run this program at your own risk.

Press any key except <ESC> within 2 minutes to continue.
Otherwise, the program will terminate automatically.
##### WARNING!!! ##### WARNING!!! ##### WARNING!!! ##### WARNING!!!
#####
Make sure Source (D:) and Destination (C:) are correct.
This command will delete extra files/directories in the destination!
Press Ctrl-C to abort, any other key to begin deleting/copying
file(s).

==== ErrorLog.txt ====
Source base directory = "D:\"
Destination directory = "C:\"
File name template = "*.*"
D:\System Volume Information\MountPointManagerRemoteDatabase Copy
failed
D:\System Volume Information\tracking.log Copy failed
D:\System Volume
Information\_restore{1B224DD8-23C5-47AC-A5FB-39B77F29FB0B}\RP2\change.log
Copy failed
D:\System Volume
Information\_restore{CC4CAC4B-8BBA-48F9-A913-B093E29BE971}\RP2\change.log
Copy failed
D:\WINDOWS\Prefetch\NTOSBOOT-B00DFAAD.pf Copy failed
D:\WINDOWS\Prefetch\SETUP.EXE-393E66AE.pf Copy failed
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Directories processed = 910
Total data in bytes = 2,191,898,696
Elapsed time in sec. = g
Action speed (MB/min) = g
Files examined = 12,126
Files copied = 12,116
Directories created = 485
Directories deleted = 237
Files copy failed = 6
Log File Created = E:\ErrorLog.txt
Exit code = 106 (Exit code is the number of failures plus
100)

To perform task 2 use regedit.
1. Start > Run > regedit
2. Click on HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE
3. File > Load Hive...
4. from C:\Windows\System32\Config\SYSTEM
5. Give it a key name DriveC
6. Click on HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\DriveC\MountedDevices
7. Right click on \DosDevices\D: > Rename to \DosDevices\X:
8. Right click on \DosDevices\C: > Rename to \DosDevices\D:
9. Click on DriveC
10. File > Unload Hive...
11. File > Exit

Reboot. You now have two working copies of XP x64: the original
<http://tinypic.com/view.php?pic=2s00g1x&s=2>
and its copy.
<http://tinypic.com/view.php?pic=x36b9t&s=2>
 
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