Vista moved to D:/

I was trying to do a dual boot for two separate OSs and messed up along the way. I did not get the dual boot process done right and ended up moving Vista, which used to be on C drive over to D drive. Now I can't boot up because I get an invalid disk error.

I really want to fix this and just use my Vista

 

A lot more info required Mojo before anything but guessing would be possible. What was your original set up "“ partitions, OSes, hard drives? What did you do during the attempts to dualboot "“ partitioning, OS, apps used?

 

Original setup was Vista on one 300GB partition. I created a new partition and formatted it for mac. I tried to install Leopard but the installation failed. I could never get the Darwin Dual Boot to work. Somehow doing all that my drive letters changed and left no OS on C....Vista moved it to D. I have since deleted the 15GB partition, or at least formatted it to be unallocated.

I really think my boot.ini got messed up and the computer cannot find the OS now. Taking the drive out and viewing it on another computer shows everything is still there but on the wrong drive.

I've tried fixing it with my boot disk and it goes through the motions, says it is fixed and to reboot. Rebooting gets me back to a black screen with no operating system or invalid disk error.

 

As long as the partition with Vista is still there then don’t worry what drive letter is allocated to it when viewed from another system. Drive letters are not fixed to partitions, they are only the way Windows labels partitions for its own use, they can change when viewed from a different Windows. When you boot back into Vista is should still see itself as the C: drive. Also, there is no boot.ini anymore in Vista, it uses a completely different system. What boot disk are you using?

The most obvious thing that might be wrong is that the Vista partition is no longer set as the active one on the hard drive. Do you know how to change or set the active partition? Either with a tool from a boot disk or when the drive is connected into another computer? What partitioning tool do you normally use?

If that alone does not fix things then you may have to re-write the MBR, which can be done from the Vista DVD with the bootrec /fixmbr command. http://support.microsoft.com/kb/927392

If you don’t have a full Vista DVD then you can make a disk that contains the necessary parts of the Vista DVD to do repairs. http://neosmart.net/blog/2008/windows-vista-recovery-disc-download

 

Both partitions were active until today when I formatted the 15GB partition to unallocated...

I will stick the drive back in the computer tonight and see what happens

 

It is possible you created your partition at the beginning of the Drive instead of the end.

To see if so. Go to start Run paste

diskmgmt.msc
click ok.

In the row that says Disk 0 click to Highlight the first block, if it is has a purple Bar when you click it, it is a Primary partition.

If it has a Blue Bar enclosed by a Green frame then it is a Logical Drive in an extended partition. Likely your small created partitiion.

If this is the case and D is a Primary partition do the below.

If it has no drive letter assigned (possible) then just change the drive letter of the D to C.

If it has the drive letter of C then assign it a drive letter of say X to free the C.

Then just change the drive letter of the D to C.

If D (Vista drive) is not a primary partition then do nothing and get back with more info.

Mike

 

It is possible you created your partition at the beginning of the Drive instead of the end.

To see if so. Go to start Run paste

diskmgmt.msc
click ok.


Mike, I can't boot into windows to get to the run box...

 

Ghezz!

I really read your post this time!

I was thinking you could boot but it was drive d:

Best way to fix this is to create a Boot CD.

I suggest UBCD4Win at: http://www.ubcd4win.com/

You will need an XP cd at least sp1 but sp2 is better and a CDRW.

Everything else is in the download. And good instructions on the site.

You can not use a Vista "install CD" to build a UBCD4Win but you can build the CD in Vista using an XP CD as the source.

This disk will boot from the CD and give you all sorts of repair options.

But your plan should be to just completely remove the drive you created.

Get the CD built boot it and get back with Info on the HD partitions.

You will be able after booting to UBCD and going to Control panel and doing exactly as I posted in my last post.

Mike

 

From the "no operating system or invalid disk error." that you are seeing I’d say most likely to be the active partition or the MBR. Sorry Mike but I think you still haven’t got a handle on the situation.

 

Of course that is what I am saying!

The partition he created is now the active boot partition which is now empty.

Empty has no Operating system or boot loader etc.

And of course this comes from the MBR!

Once he removes this bad partition D will fall into the c slot. He may then need to rename it back to C and Primary and/or Active.

But UBCD will allow him to do this easily!

Mike

But who am I, you must already know I don't know nuthin bout machinery!

 

Sorry Mike but changing drive letters as you suggest would not be possible from within Windows and pointless from the UBCD as you would just be changing them in the OS running in RAM and not the OS on the hard drive.

 

Mike,
When I took the drive out and hooked it up to another computer I saw that "E ", which Vista is on, is 280GB and "F" which is the partition I created had 15GB on it. Wouldn't the 15GB partition have shown up as "E" in the scenario you are describing?

 

Forget about drive letters guys, this situation has nothing to do with them. What they appear to be from anything other than inside Vista itself does not matter and any attempts to change it now is impossible except by remote editing the Vista registry. If Vista does have a changed drive letter you will still be able to partly boot it and the errors will be completely different and obvious.

 

That depends on the computer you attached the drives to. The OS is going to assign it drives based on its own existing existing drives..

Don't let drive letters fool you.

The 280 g drive you know is your Vista.

But if you have it in another XP or 2K computer you can fix it from here.

In disk managment this drive should show up as Disk 1.

1st. Remove the small partition.

Then Using disk Management set the Vista partition to Primary and active.

Below I edited the disk number

What you need to end up with in disk management on Disk 1 is for the Vista partition be the first partition set to Primary and active. Before it goes back to the other computer.

Now based on what happened in the original attempt to dual boot after you get the Vista partition set to be the first partition primary and active you may still need to run a Fixboot utility.

Mike

 

Mojo I will be away for errands for a couple hours. Will check back in asap.

Mike

 

Well guys, I hooked it to an XP computer. The drive was already marked primary but not active...I made it active, slipped it back into the tower and it booted right up.

Thanks to both of you for the knowledge I have gained from your tips.

 

The obvious thing "“ glad your sorted. If the partition had not been marked as primary then it would have been a major problem that you could not have fixed with Disk Management, if at all.

 

Great Mojo

Mojo has his Mojo!

Mojo if you did not use disk managment how did you remove the problem partition and set the partiton Active??

This will be handy would like to know how to do it!!

Mike

 

I used disk management on the XP computer and once I was back to vista I used it again to extend the partition to its original size...no more experimenting for me.

 

RRRRRReally!

Who wouda thunk!

Ok Man good luck!

Mike