Moving primary start-up partition to another drive?

Hi! I'm running XP HE Sp2 on a fairly ancient machine with two hard drives. C: is the original 10 Gig drive (with 6 Gig used). Then I bought the second, which is a 40 Gig drive with two almost equal partitions of around 20 Gig each (D: and E: ), each with about 2 Gig used. In other words, I've got enough space to shift things around from one disk to another without losing anything (if I'm careful!).

Stupidly, when I moved from Win98SE to XP, I instinctively installed it on the old C: drive . It now occurs to me that I ought to have installed it on the newer (and thus presumably much faster - I don't know how to check disk speed) 40 Gig drive, and gained some much-needed speed.

Is there any way I can move stuff around and rename one of the partitions D: or E: to C: without having to reinstall XP from scratch? Or will that totally **** up the Registry?

And a second, related question: while I'm at it, would it make sense to keep only XP and the pagefile on one partition, and move everything else to another one (software on D:, data and stuff on E:, for example, as I've seen some members advocating here)?

Grateful as ever for any guidance...

 

Geoffrey, check out xxclone. There is a free version you can download from that site.

You can use it to clone your C: drive to one of your other drives, either one you prefer. Do be aware that you will need to move the data off of the target drive or else it will be lost. If you set the options correctly in xxclone, the target drive will be a bootable copy of your system drive.

The unique thing about xxclone is, if you choose to dual boot the original with the clone, which ever drive you select to boot will be dubbed the C: drive. The other will adopt the letter vacated by the former. In other words, the drive letters will swap around, depending on which one you select to boot. That eliminates any registry path cross ups.

Furthermore, if you remove the original source drive or delete the data from it, the clone will be a stand alone bootable drive dubbed C: drive. It will require you to also delete the appropriate line from the boot.ini file so the old source drive system is no longer listed as an option.

Of course there are other ways to do what you want such as using a disk imaging software like Acronis true image to make an image of the C: drive andd then deploying that image onto one of your other drives, again choosing either one you prefer. Be sure you answer yes when asked by Acronis if you want to set the target drive "active," otherwise it won't be bootable. Same warning applies, all data existing on the target will be lost. With this method, you will have to manually edit the boot.ini file in order to set up a dual boot, if that be your desire. If not, just deploy the clone, shut down and disconnect the source drive and connect the target drive in its place and reboot to the imaged drive. After rebooting twice to initialize the drive, shut down and reconnect the old source drive to the connector that was vacated by the clone target drive. Then boot up and delete the system files on the old source so you can use the space for other data.

Another method would be to use the manufacturers software to copy the files from one drive to the other. Just visit the drive manufacturers site for your chosen target drive and the necessary software should be there for free downloading.

Now you have a few possibilities to consider. Read up and give it a go. Good luck.

 

Many thanks for swift, detailed response, Surferdude2! Looks pretty clear on the whole, less scary than I was anticipating. I'll grab xxclone and read up on it before I try anything I can't undo, and report back here for others interested in the same problem.

No, I don't need a dual boot system: I've got only the one OS and can't imagine why a dual boot might be useful to me.

Before I start, a supplementary question: As I said, I've used only about 2 Gig out of 20 on each of the two partitions (D: and E: ) of my second hard drive, so it would be no problem to shift stuff around first and free up one partition - say, D: - to become the "new C:" drive.

So, say I shift everything from D: to E: so that D: is empty and ready to be renamed C: - what happens to all the registry entries which used to point to D:? Will they automatically get amended? Or should I do a very careful Registry First Aid after completion and check that the changes RFA suggests do nothing more than change the drive prefix?

A good day to you and all from sunny Rome...

 

Geoffrey, I'm glad you asked since I was assuming your target drive would have only stand-alone data and not programs installed.

If you have any programs installed to the drive that you propose to use as the Target drive of the cloning operation, you will need to either uninstall them and reinstall them after the cloning operation or else rely on some software program to change the path info after you move them. I much prefer the uninstall/reinstall method since it is more reliable. However, if you have confidence in Registry First Aid, I'll not discredit it. If you choose to do so, do it before the cloning operation and verify that it all works correctly.

An alternate method of handling that would be to move all data from the Target drive onto another drive - then do the cloning operation. Then after finishing the operation as outlines before and reinstalling the old Source drive - move the file back to the drive that now has the same letter designation as the initial Target drive had. So you see, the possibilities abound!

If you don't want to dual boot, then just don't select the option to have xxclone add a test entry into the boot.ini file. There is a option to do that under "Cool Tools." I often choose to dual boot the clone just to test it but it's not necessary. The On-Line Manual for xxclone is very informative and clearly written. If you read through it, you'll not likely have any problems. Always double check your Source and Target selection before doing the final go-ahead. That's where the most disasterous mistake can occur. There are adequate warnings about that throughout the process.

I have used xxclone many times without any problems and will likely buy the full version so as to be able to have the incremental ability that is lacking with the free version. I'll likely do that when my Acronis goes out of touch with the times.

All the best.

 

OK, got the program, read all the info on their site, ready to go. Forgive me for being a pain, but one last doubt assails me (and may interest others as dumb as me) before I press the START button:

This sounds like the answer to a maiden's prayer, but unfortunately I don't understand dual booting - I thought it was a way to select one or another OS you have installed on different drives (or partitions).

Let's say I've xxcloned, and now have a clone of C: on my E: drive. After that, how do I boot from E:? By hitting DEL during bootup, in the BIOS options I can choose to boot first from A:, HD0, HD1, HD2, CD-ROM, etc. (and then try x, and then try y, and so on) - is this where I make the selection?

I guess my confusion is because I don't really understand partitions, either . OK, so HD0 (my current, obvious first choice) = C:. So far, that's easy . Will my BIOS recognise, say, D: as HD1 and E: HD2, even though they're on the same physical disk?

 

The easy way to do that is, either when doing the clone operation or after, under "Cool Tools" press the button labeled "Add Test Boot. "

It will modify the boot.ini by adding the appropriate command line to allow you to select which partition to boot by presenting a menu at boot time. When you want to abandon the dual boot, just edit the boot.ini file to remove that line. Voila!

As I mentioned before, it will then switch your drive letters around so that whichever partition you boot will become the C: drive. That function saves a lot of crossups in Shortcuts and Registry files.

There is nothing to worry about in the BIOS, it stays as is and operates the same as usual. Do not change your present sequence settings.

You can check in Disk Management to verify that the swap has been made and that the drive letters have changed.

 

Great - it worked a dream! I am now writing from by new C: drive, which was the old D: drive. A great program - I am also thinking of buying the full version for backups. Many thanks for the tipoff and personal guidance, Dude!

That was the good news. Now for the bad news. I'm just glad all you guys can't see my face, and I can't hear your jeers. Can't say you didn't tell me. Can't say there were no adequate warnings throughout the process.

Yep, I did it ! I cleaned out my E: drive ready to be the target, set all the options, hit START, and sat and watched as it neatly cloned everything onto my D: drive where, among other things, were a few years of bank statements, several months of family pictures, a list of passwords and internet banking codes (suitably disguised) and all the useful stuff I'd saved off the E: drive.

I guess that's about the most stupid thing I've done since getting pie-eyed at the office Christmas party. So for anyone else considering using xxclone, learn from my stupidity.

Maybe if there are enough idiots like me out there, they might consider not setting the default target drive to D:, but forcing you to type in the target drive manually as the very last step.

Happy cloning, y'all, while I do my penance about not having done adequate backups, not following the instructions, RTFM, etc., etc. The program's great - pity about the user

Oh, and no snappy replies please...

 

Well Geoffrey, I'll not make any cracks about your hot licks with the cloning program. I've made my share of blunders too. Actually, I did exactly what you did one time. One time is enough - I still miss that stuff.

I'm happy the program did well otherwise and appreciate you posting back so others may profit from your experience.

All the best, Dude.

ps. ALL EXISTING DATA WILL BE WIPED OUT ON THE TARGET DRIVE!

 

If you have not written to the old E: drive yet , you files may still be recoverable, but I have never tried on a NTFS drive system. If the important data was on D: , then they are lost.

I bet 90%+ of us have done mistakes like that.

 

Thanks for solidarity, guys!

What was the old joke? - "Apart from that, Mrs Lincoln, what did you think of the play" "...