Removing Primary Boot drive questions

I currently have this set up:

Primary Master: Win 98SE
Primary Slave: Win XP

I want to get rid of the Win98 drive completly and move the Slave Drive to my Primary Master position. I currently have a boot menu to select OS.

How can I accomplish this without re-installing XP?

Thanks for your time.

Sincerely,

Matt Werbin

 

Hi Matt,

Welcome to the BBS.

I've never run a dual boot system, but it seems to me that all you would need to do is remove both the power cable and the ribbon cable from the Win98 drive and make sure that the XP drive is properly jumpered. If you jumper for Cable Select, make sure that you have an 80-conductor cable and use the end connector. If you jumper the drive for Master you can use either one.

Not sure what to do about the boot menu, but I'm sure someone else will know.

 

I think you cannnot just simply remove the master drive. Some files are there to boot up XP. So, you can try remove the master, do a XP repair install. It should work.

 

Mirror ...

You may be right, but it sounds to me as though Matt has two distinctly separate installations, and that all the boot menu (which is probably on the Win98 drive) does is allow the choice of which drive/OS to boot from.

If that's the case, I would think that everything he needs for XP to boot is already on the XP drive. In any event, he could try what I first suggested (unplugging the Win98 drive and setting the XP drive as master) and, if that doesn't work, then do the repair install.

(And, of course, I could be completely out in left field. )

 

Thanks for your replies!

Yes, I used to run Win 98, and then I bought a larger drive, put it on primary slave and installed XP on that drive from Windows 98. So now when I boot up, I'm pretty sure the boot menu has to reside on the Primary Master drive with Win 98.

So, I will remove the win 98 primary master drive from the equation and set the XP drive to master. Then I'll run the repair XP program. However, won't setting the drive to master change it's drive lettering? Thus rending XP inoperable? I guess if I run the repair program it will fix that? And then I can just scan the registry and change all the drive lettering instances for other programs?


Thanks again,

Matt Werbin

 

Matt - it's even easier to change the boot drive so XP can potenitally start.

If you have a normal install where you added XP to a system that already had an OS on the C:\ drive/partition and XP is on another one like D:\ or something, then yes, you do have a few essential startup files on C:\ that will be lost when you change the drives around.

However, after you do the drive changes if you boot from the
CD and go into the recovery console, you can run the command fixboot from the command prompt and get that part fixed. It will place copies of the required files on your XP drive. Not sure but you may also need to run fixmbr.

Then bootcfg /rebuild to reset a boot.ini file.

More details Here.

I'm not nearly so confident about the registry changes you'll need to make though. There is a Microsoft how-to Here.

Is there any real reason you need to physically remove the existing C: drive? Easy enough to remove the 9X OS from it and change your boot.ini file so it only looks at the XP install on D: and starts it. You could use the existing drive for storage or just ignore it altogether.

 

MIRROR
Matt said he had a different OS, each on it's own drive. He also said he has Win98 set as the master. Therefore, the last paragraph of Newt's post describes the most efficient way to accomplish Matt's goal- dump 98 and boot straight into XP.

Newt said:

MIRROR
Why would Matt want to do a repair install on XP when nothing's broken? Do you do a lot of work on computers, or are you on drugs? Seems that a simple question got overcomplicated here. If you don't know anything helpful, don't post. If you do have something relevant to contribute, try not to be vague. Step by step instructions, assuming the user knows nothing, and being very specific help more than just the original poster- there is always going to be someone grateful, down the road, when they use the "Search Function" on the BBS for help and answers. Try to include reference links in your posts, if you can. That helps everyone.
Johanna

 

Thanks for you help. I'll try that as soon as I have a chance.

In response to the other suggestions, the drive has to go; it's too noisy. Keeping it in the system is not an option.

 

Hi Johanna,

I see you name is bolder than mine but it does not mean you do not have to be polite to people.

He has dual system installed on two disks. The registry of XP knows the system folder is d:/windows. After hs changed the disk, how can XP know that? Did you try just remove the 98 disk and XP running fine? You do not know either. JSS3rd gave a good solution. I just told what I thought. Not every body knows nothing. If Thraddash does not know how to repair XP, I believe he will say "Hello mirror, how to repair it?" Then I will search a detailed KB article for him and tell the address. I wont just scrach my head and tell people 1,..2,...3,...

 

I am Sorry, Mirror

My intention was not to be impolite. Please understand that I am trapped in a house with four kids who are out of school for the summer, and my patience is wearing thin. I am not offering this as an excuse, just an explanation. Please forgive me for being rude. Welcome to the BBS! This is a great place, full of interesting people with an amazing repository of collective knowledge. I hope you keep contributing yours.

Johanna

 

Never mind Johanna.

 

My thoughts and IF THIS IS THE CASE Then Thraddash has A LOT of work to do.

If the XP drive is indeed a Slave drive and is indeed known to the system as D: then everything on it ( OS and Software ) will be looking for D: which will no longer exist if it is moved to a Master C: drive.

Also a Question. Is the 2nd HD all in one partiton ? Or is it more than one. If more than one there will be MANY, MANY files and/or Programs that may come up with the error message " Windows can't find " or something similiar.

I learned that lesson the hard way when I took and actaull slave drive ( no OS on it ) with the 1st partition known as F:. Put it in another machine where is was known as E: It took 3-4 days to get the reg in 98SE changed so it was correct.

BillyBob

 

It also MIGHT require some software to be re-install so that it works.

BB

 

For XP users, the Microsoft how-to page cited by Newt in post #6 has some bad/erroneous/misleading (take your pick) information, even though it was reviewed by Microsoft on 6-11-04.

In XP regedt32.exe no longer exists as an independent command. Instead, it acts only as a shortcut to regedit.exe. Consequently, the steps in the MSKB article should read (changes in red, renumbered starting with step 8):

1. Make a full system backup of the computer and system state.
2. Log on as an Administrator.
3. Start Regedit.exe.
4. Go to the following registry key:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\MountedDevices​

5. Click MountedDevices.
6. On the Edit menu, click Permissions.
7. Verify that Administrators have full control.
8. Find the drive letter you want to change to (new). Look for "\DosDevices\C: ".
9. Right-click \DosDevices\C:, and then click Rename.
10. Rename it to an unused drive letter "\DosDevices\Z: ".

This frees up drive letter C.​

11. Find the drive letter you want changed. Look for "\DosDevices\D: ".
12. Right-click \DosDevices\D:, and then click Rename.
13. Rename it to the appropriate (new) drive letter "\DosDevices\C: ".
14. Click the value for \DosDevices\Z:, click Rename, and then name it back to "\DosDevices\D: ".
15. Change the permissions back to the previous setting for Administrators if they were changed in step 7 (this should probably be Read Only).
16. Restart the computer.​

HTH