Moving the OS to another partition.

[Guest bhk]

I wish to move the XP Home OS from one partition on disk 0 to the primary

partition on disk 1. Is there a simple way of doing this or does one have to

re-install again from scratch, please?

By way of explanation, the computer in question is an old one with a small

12GB HD and was supplied with Win 98 installed on C drive. Four years ago I

bought a retail XP disk and attempted to do a clean install. For some reason

it would not install on C drive over the original OS but installed itself on

a logical partition D resulting in a dual boot system. Now D partition is

nearly full and there is little room for movement. There is a second 80GB HD

installed - connected via a Promise Ultra 100 card. This has around 50GB of

free space on the first primary partition and it seems to me more sensible

to install the OS there - if it will work.

This is not the main computer in the house but is used by my wife as a

glorified typewriter!

Any advice will be welcomed.

Thanks

Kenneth

[Guest Rich Barry]

Re: Moving the OS to another partition.

 

Kenneth, there are a few good programs that will let you do this.

Partition Magic and Acronis are two. If you move XP to the D: partition on

disk 1 it would make it much more reliable a transfer. Unlike Win98, WinXP

doesnt care what partition you install it to. Check here for more info

http://www.thefreecountry.com/utilities/backupandimage.shtml

 

 

"bhk" <unvalid@yahoo.co.uk> wrote in message

news:uHwdndX$IHA.1452@TK2MSFTNGP02.phx.gbl...

>I wish to move the XP Home OS from one partition on disk 0 to the primary

>partition on disk 1. Is there a simple way of doing this or does one have

>to re-install again from scratch, please?

> By way of explanation, the computer in question is an old one with a small

> 12GB HD and was supplied with Win 98 installed on C drive. Four years ago

> I bought a retail XP disk and attempted to do a clean install. For some

> reason it would not install on C drive over the original OS but installed

> itself on a logical partition D resulting in a dual boot system. Now D

> partition is nearly full and there is little room for movement. There is a

> second 80GB HD installed - connected via a Promise Ultra 100 card. This

> has around 50GB of free space on the first primary partition and it seems

> to me more sensible to install the OS there - if it will work.

> This is not the main computer in the house but is used by my wife as a

> glorified typewriter!

> Any advice will be welcomed.

> Thanks

> Kenneth

>

[Guest Patrick Keenan]

Re: Moving the OS to another partition.

 

 

"bhk" <unvalid@yahoo.co.uk> wrote in message

news:uHwdndX$IHA.1452@TK2MSFTNGP02.phx.gbl...

>I wish to move the XP Home OS from one partition on disk 0 to the primary

>partition on disk 1. Is there a simple way of doing this or does one have

>to re-install again from scratch, please?

> By way of explanation, the computer in question is an old one with a small

> 12GB HD and was supplied with Win 98 installed on C drive. Four years ago

> I bought a retail XP disk and attempted to do a clean install. For some

> reason it would not install on C drive over the original OS but installed

> itself on a logical partition D resulting in a dual boot system. Now D

> partition is nearly full and there is little room for movement. There is a

> second 80GB HD installed - connected via a Promise Ultra 100 card. This

> has around 50GB of free space on the first primary partition and it seems

> to me more sensible to install the OS there - if it will work.

> This is not the main computer in the house but is used by my wife as a

> glorified typewriter!

> Any advice will be welcomed.

> Thanks

> Kenneth

 

Some programs say they can do this, and they are not free. However, if you

want to try this, be sure that you back up your data first.

 

Another question is whether the Promise card would be properly recognised

during Setup. To test this, after backing up, boot from the XP CD and

walk through Setup to the point where you can select drives. If the drive

on the Promise card isn't seen, you can't install there.

 

HTH

-pk

[Guest philo]

Re: Moving the OS to another partition.

 

 

"bhk" <unvalid@yahoo.co.uk> wrote in message

news:uHwdndX$IHA.1452@TK2MSFTNGP02.phx.gbl...

> I wish to move the XP Home OS from one partition on disk 0 to the primary

> partition on disk 1. Is there a simple way of doing this or does one have

to

> re-install again from scratch, please?

> By way of explanation, the computer in question is an old one with a small

> 12GB HD and was supplied with Win 98 installed on C drive. Four years ago

I

> bought a retail XP disk and attempted to do a clean install. For some

reason

> it would not install on C drive over the original OS but installed itself

on

> a logical partition D resulting in a dual boot system. Now D partition is

> nearly full and there is little room for movement. There is a second 80GB

HD

> installed - connected via a Promise Ultra 100 card. This has around 50GB

of

> free space on the first primary partition and it seems to me more sensible

> to install the OS there - if it will work.

> This is not the main computer in the house but is used by my wife as a

> glorified typewriter!

> Any advice will be welcomed.

> Thanks

> Kenneth

>

 

 

Though there is software to clone your drive to another,

since the drive you wish to clone to has data on it,

that will be an unworkable scheme.

 

Additionally you'd need to perform a repair of the boot loader.

 

There would probably be other complications too.

 

A simple thing to do would be to simply make a little more space

on your present XP partition.

 

 

Right click on "My Documents" and under "properties"

and select "move". (Then move to the larger drive.)

 

Also check "system restore" you can probably lower that quite a bit

as by default it's set way higher than is useful...

[Guest bhk]

Re: Moving the OS to another partition.

 

 

"philo" <philo@privacy.net> wrote in message

news:OuP6jek$IHA.4616@TK2MSFTNGP06.phx.gbl...

>

> "bhk" <unvalid@yahoo.co.uk> wrote in message

> news:uHwdndX$IHA.1452@TK2MSFTNGP02.phx.gbl...

>> I wish to move the XP Home OS from one partition on disk 0 to the primary

>> partition on disk 1. Is there a simple way of doing this or does one have

> to

>> re-install again from scratch, please?

>> By way of explanation, the computer in question is an old one with a

>> small

>> 12GB HD and was supplied with Win 98 installed on C drive. Four years ago

> I

>> bought a retail XP disk and attempted to do a clean install. For some

> reason

>> it would not install on C drive over the original OS but installed itself

> on

>> a logical partition D resulting in a dual boot system. Now D partition is

>> nearly full and there is little room for movement. There is a second 80GB

> HD

>> installed - connected via a Promise Ultra 100 card. This has around 50GB

> of

>> free space on the first primary partition and it seems to me more

>> sensible

>> to install the OS there - if it will work.

>> This is not the main computer in the house but is used by my wife as a

>> glorified typewriter!

>> Any advice will be welcomed.

>> Thanks

>> Kenneth

>>

>

>

> Though there is software to clone your drive to another,

> since the drive you wish to clone to has data on it,

> that will be an unworkable scheme.

>

> Additionally you'd need to perform a repair of the boot loader.

>

> There would probably be other complications too.

>

> A simple thing to do would be to simply make a little more space

> on your present XP partition.

>

>

> Right click on "My Documents" and under "properties"

> and select "move". (Then move to the larger drive.)

>

> Also check "system restore" you can probably lower that quite a bit

> as by default it's set way higher than is useful...

>

>

Many thanks to Rich, Patrick and Philo for your useful replies.

 

After considering all the options we decided to try a complete install from

CD to the primary partition on the second disk since all our data and

graphics files were already on the logical drive partition on that disk.

There were also a number of programs, and parts of programs no longer

required, cluttering up the OS drive and registry. I had previously

attempted to make space in the usual way on the old drive but could only

clear in MBytes rather than the couple of GBytes that were required.

 

The install went smoothly without any problems and I had XP up and running

within 90 minutes though updating to SP3 and IE7 took a little longer. Those

programs that we intend to use in the future were then re-installed from

disk, updated and linked to the data files in a couple of hours. The

computer now flies! Altogether a good use of a very rainy day.

 

Thank you for your help.

 

Kenneth