Alright, so I think i've just discovered a big problem. See, I have two hard drives, a C: (IDE) and D: (SATA) drive. For some reason, D: is my main drive (just installed that way, I guess). My C: drive is starting to act up and clicking all over the place, so I want to get rid of it. The problem is, I took a look at the Disk Management tool in XP and it says my C: drive is the system partition! So obviously if I just yank it out Windows won't boot. Is there any way to make my D: partition my system partition so I can safely remove the C: drive?
![[H]ard|Forum](/styles/hardforum/xenforo/logo_dark.png){kind=logo}
XP drive/boot problem in the making
- Thread starter _leech_
- Start date
SultanGris
Limp Gawd
- Joined
- May 14, 2006
- Messages
- 330
You have to install windows on your D drive.
Assuming that nothing is on the C: drive that Windows needs (other than the boot manager): you can try just yanking it out, and booting off of the Windows XP setup disc. You can then try the automated repair, or, go into the recovery console and use it to fix the boot record. (fixboot).
However, back up anything of importance, since this might not work. One other complication is that without the C: drive, it might want to make the D: partition the C: partition, which could cause some applications to become disoriented, confused, and quit working.
Hey, thanks for the suggestion. I looked up fixboot and unfortunately I don't think it'll work:
The problem is that I want to get rid of my current system partition (the clunky C: drive) and the make the D: drive (which is my boot partition) my new system partition.
Which drive is Windows physically installed on? The IDE drive or the SATA drive?
If Windows is physically located on the SATA drive the solution is rather straightforward. Remove the IDE drive from the system. Make any necessary BIOS setup changes to ensure that the SATA drive is the primary boot drive. Run a repair install of Windows to recreate the boot loader files and have Windows bootable again.
If Windows is physically located on the SATA drive the solution is rather straightforward. Remove the IDE drive from the system. Make any necessary BIOS setup changes to ensure that the SATA drive is the primary boot drive. Run a repair install of Windows to recreate the boot loader files and have Windows bootable again.
It boots from the SATA drive. Here's a screenshot of what i'm talking about:
Thanks for the suggestion. If I don't get any more, i'll try it out.
I never asked which drive the system boots from. Your boot drive can merely have the boot loader files on it and nothing else. I asked which drive has the Windows installation on it. That one isn't necessarily the Boot drive. It's the one with the \WINDOWS folder on it!
