Making a partition as bootable

I used to use Windows ME, and a while ago upgraded to Windows XP. As you may guess, this was less than troublefree. So I installed a fresh copy of XP into a new drive on the same computer, and so I've now got a dual boot system.

The plan is to reinstall everything into the new XP copy, and then remove the old XP from the older drive then use the drive for data storage.

The problem is if I remove the original copy of XP then the new copy won't boot anymore. I've looked in computer management in the new copy, and the original drive is set as boot and the new drive is set as system. I also have partition magic 7 and boot magic 7, so when I try to boot directly to the new drive with boot magic, it won't alow me to.

I think I need to somehow make the new drive bootable, so boot magic can boot from it, I would use the "sys d:" command, but that no longer exists in XP as far as I can find. So does anyone know what I can do, or any other suggestions?

Thanks,
Paul

 

On your current "boot drive" (call it c you will have a file boot.ini that tells XP where to look for startup information. You will also have a file ntldr and a couple others. Without these, XP can't start.

I'm not at all sure but it is possible that with both files located on the other drive and the boot.ini entry pointing correctly to the drive & location, you might boot OK from the new load. Also not sure if simply copying the files to the new load drive will work.

It is also possible that with the information currently in your MBR, you can't fix things without wiping out the MBR and doing a new, new install of XP.

Maybe someone who knows the details of dealing at that level will post your answers (cause mine are really WAGs) but if not, you might want to consider getting a good backup of all the data you want to save and starting from scratch. XP CD in, format both drives, install XP on the drive you want for a system drive, etc.

 

I've put the following files into the new drive's root directory:
boot.ini
ntldr
ntdetect.com
BOOTSECT.DOS.

When I try to boot into the partition using boot magic, i get the "non system disk or disk error" etc error message. Do you know what other files I need to make it a proper bootable disk?

I am very sure that there isn't a problem in the MBR because since boot magic overwrites it anyway, I should be able to choose between disks to boot off.

Thanks for the reply, you got me thinking about the boot files, I'm pretty sure thats got something to do with it.

 

Did you edit boot.ini to reflect the new location you want to use?

 

The long way maybe the short way.

(If you) Open your box (pwr off & full ESD proceedures please) and yank the IDE cable to the existing boot drive.

Then boot to the XP cd and proceed like you are doing an install, after a while it will get to the point were it asks you where you want to install to. - It should have allready located the existing install and warn you about overwriting it, but there should be a repair option. - This is what you want. - It goes thru like a complete install - but will not change any of your existing settings.

It will however setup and make active a paging (swap) file on that drive and configure NTLDR.

If there is no issue with the paging file (but I tend to think it is a factor) you could also boot to the cd and start the recovery console - once at the CMD prompt (can't call it DOS anymore...) you could try fixmbr and fixboot.

Now if you want to wipe the other drive for use as data storage... Pwr off - disconnect the drive which you just fixed and connect the drive to be wiped. Boot to the XP cd again and when it gets to the install location question - use the option to delete the existing partition. - Deleting the partition should only take a few seconds. Pwr off, and connect both HDD's - Boot normally into XP from the Hdd - then R-click on "My Computer" and select manage.

Use the disk management console ( if the new disk partition Wizard hasn't jumped up in your face...) and create a dynamic NTFS partition. - it will format the drive in less than a minute (usually) and your done.

(( I recommended deleting the partition from the install cd as it will not scream rape over deleting a bootable active system partition the way it can from within XP.))