Changing the system disk after install

[Guest Scott S]

I have recently installed a clean copy of XP onto a machine with 2 hard

drives, one is the C: drive with 2 other partitons D: & E:

 

The 2nd hard drive is completly blank and just formatted. The problem is

windows has installed on the C: Drive, but the 2nd hard drive is listed as

the system disk in the device manager and C: is the boot drive.

 

when I boot with recovery coucel and try to fixmbr it states that windows is

installed on F:\windows (Which is the 2nd hard drive).

 

Any ideas on how to change the "system drive" to the C:\ (boot) drive?

[Guest DL]

Re: Changing the system disk after install

 

Disconnect the drive you dont want to use, adjust drive jumpers on the

remaining drive to master, assuming its ide. Clean reinstall winxp, update &

ensure its ok. Shutdown PC, reconnect other drive as slave

 

"Scott S" <scott@tt-newyork.com> wrote in message

news:%233M6luGtIHA.4848@TK2MSFTNGP05.phx.gbl...

> I have recently installed a clean copy of XP onto a machine with 2 hard

> drives, one is the C: drive with 2 other partitons D: & E:

>

> The 2nd hard drive is completly blank and just formatted. The problem is

> windows has installed on the C: Drive, but the 2nd hard drive is listed as

> the system disk in the device manager and C: is the boot drive.

>

> when I boot with recovery coucel and try to fixmbr it states that windows

> is installed on F:\windows (Which is the 2nd hard drive).

>

> Any ideas on how to change the "system drive" to the C:\ (boot) drive?

>

[Guest Big Al]

Re: Changing the system disk after install

 

DL wrote:

> Disconnect the drive you dont want to use, adjust drive jumpers on the

> remaining drive to master, assuming its ide. Clean reinstall winxp, update &

> ensure its ok. Shutdown PC, reconnect other drive as slave

>

> "Scott S" <scott@tt-newyork.com> wrote in message

> news:%233M6luGtIHA.4848@TK2MSFTNGP05.phx.gbl...

>> I have recently installed a clean copy of XP onto a machine with 2 hard

>> drives, one is the C: drive with 2 other partitons D: & E:

>>

>> The 2nd hard drive is completly blank and just formatted. The problem is

>> windows has installed on the C: Drive, but the 2nd hard drive is listed as

>> the system disk in the device manager and C: is the boot drive.

>>

>> when I boot with recovery coucel and try to fixmbr it states that windows

>> is installed on F:\windows (Which is the 2nd hard drive).

>>

>> Any ideas on how to change the "system drive" to the C:\ (boot) drive?

>>

>

>

And when you start the load make sure it says C: on the XP install

screen. like http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/XPpro5setup.jpg

[Guest John John (MVP)]

Re: Changing the system disk after install

 

It's unlikely that the second hard disk is the System disk if you just

formated it, where are the following files:

 

boot.ini

ntldr

NTDETECT.COM

 

These files *always* reside in the root folder of the System partition.

 

John

 

Scott S wrote:

> I have recently installed a clean copy of XP onto a machine with 2 hard

> drives, one is the C: drive with 2 other partitons D: & E:

>

> The 2nd hard drive is completly blank and just formatted. The problem is

> windows has installed on the C: Drive, but the 2nd hard drive is listed as

> the system disk in the device manager and C: is the boot drive.

>

> when I boot with recovery coucel and try to fixmbr it states that windows is

> installed on F:\windows (Which is the 2nd hard drive).

>

> Any ideas on how to change the "system drive" to the C:\ (boot) drive?

>

>

[Guest Andy]

Re: Changing the system disk after install

 

On Mon, 12 May 2008 16:06:27 -0400, "Scott S" <scott@tt-newyork.com>

wrote:

>

> I have recently installed a clean copy of XP onto a machine with 2 hard

>drives, one is the C: drive with 2 other partitons D: & E:

>

>The 2nd hard drive is completly blank and just formatted. The problem is

>windows has installed on the C: Drive, but the 2nd hard drive is listed as

>the system disk in the device manager and C: is the boot drive.

>

>when I boot with recovery coucel and try to fixmbr it states that windows is

>installed on F:\windows (Which is the 2nd hard drive).

>

>Any ideas on how to change the "system drive" to the C:\ (boot) drive?

>

Run Disk Management, and set the C: drive active.

Copy boot.ini, ntldr, and ntdetect.com from the system partition to

C:\.

Reboot, go into BIOS setup and set (Hard Disk Boot Priority) the disk

drive containing partition C: as the boot drive.

[Guest Scott S]

Re: Changing the system disk after install

 

They are both SATA drives and I did the clean install on the primary SATA

drive.

The system files are located on both drives. I tried a fixmbr and this did

not solve the problem.

 

"DL" <address@invalid> wrote in message

news:elw%23i5HtIHA.3804@TK2MSFTNGP02.phx.gbl...

> Disconnect the drive you dont want to use, adjust drive jumpers on the

> remaining drive to master, assuming its ide. Clean reinstall winxp, update

> & ensure its ok. Shutdown PC, reconnect other drive as slave

>

> "Scott S" <scott@tt-newyork.com> wrote in message

> news:%233M6luGtIHA.4848@TK2MSFTNGP05.phx.gbl...

>> I have recently installed a clean copy of XP onto a machine with 2 hard

>> drives, one is the C: drive with 2 other partitons D: & E:

>>

>> The 2nd hard drive is completly blank and just formatted. The problem is

>> windows has installed on the C: Drive, but the 2nd hard drive is listed

>> as the system disk in the device manager and C: is the boot drive.

>>

>> when I boot with recovery coucel and try to fixmbr it states that windows

>> is installed on F:\windows (Which is the 2nd hard drive).

>>

>> Any ideas on how to change the "system drive" to the C:\ (boot) drive?

>>

>

>

[Guest Doum]

Re: Changing the system disk after install

 

Andy <1@2.3> écrivait news:ib3i24dsau24lr0ghh255gh38d8tva42a7@4ax.com:

> On Mon, 12 May 2008 16:06:27 -0400, "Scott S" <scott@tt-newyork.com>

> wrote:

>

>>

>> I have recently installed a clean copy of XP onto a machine with 2

>> hard

>>drives, one is the C: drive with 2 other partitons D: & E:

>>

>>The 2nd hard drive is completly blank and just formatted. The problem

>>is windows has installed on the C: Drive, but the 2nd hard drive is

>>listed as the system disk in the device manager and C: is the boot

>>drive.

>>

>>when I boot with recovery coucel and try to fixmbr it states that

>>windows is installed on F:\windows (Which is the 2nd hard drive).

>>

>>Any ideas on how to change the "system drive" to the C:\ (boot) drive?

>>

> Run Disk Management, and set the C: drive active.

> Copy boot.ini, ntldr, and ntdetect.com from the system partition to

> C:\.

> Reboot, go into BIOS setup and set (Hard Disk Boot Priority) the disk

> drive containing partition C: as the boot drive.

>

 

I would reformat, there must be thousands of references to "F:\Windows"

in the OP's XP registry and changing them manually would take days. It's

a lot faster to reinstall everything from scratch.

 

....Unless there are some kind of third party registry editor that would

include some automatic "search and replace" function, but I didn't search

for that because I thought that could cause more damages.

 

I had a similar issue and XP was very slow to boot with lots of error

messages caused by the wrong references in the registry.

 

HTH

Doum

[Guest John John (MVP)]

Re: Changing the system disk after install

 

Doum wrote:

> Andy <1@2.3> écrivait news:ib3i24dsau24lr0ghh255gh38d8tva42a7@4ax.com:

>

>

>>On Mon, 12 May 2008 16:06:27 -0400, "Scott S" <scott@tt-newyork.com>

>>wrote:

>>

>>

>>> I have recently installed a clean copy of XP onto a machine with 2

>>> hard

>>>drives, one is the C: drive with 2 other partitons D: & E:

>>>

>>>The 2nd hard drive is completly blank and just formatted. The problem

>>>is windows has installed on the C: Drive, but the 2nd hard drive is

>>>listed as the system disk in the device manager and C: is the boot

>>>drive.

>>>

>>>when I boot with recovery coucel and try to fixmbr it states that

>>>windows is installed on F:\windows (Which is the 2nd hard drive).

>>>

>>>Any ideas on how to change the "system drive" to the C:\ (boot) drive?

>>>

>>

>>Run Disk Management, and set the C: drive active.

>>Copy boot.ini, ntldr, and ntdetect.com from the system partition to

>>C:\.

>>Reboot, go into BIOS setup and set (Hard Disk Boot Priority) the disk

>>drive containing partition C: as the boot drive.

>>

>

>

> I would reformat, there must be thousands of references to "F:\Windows"

> in the OP's XP registry and changing them manually would take days. It's

> a lot faster to reinstall everything from scratch.

 

There is *absolutely* no need to reformat! You can change the System

partition from one partition to another or from one disk to another and

the Boot Volume will retain its drive letter when Windows is booted,

that also applies if you make the Boot Volume the System drive.

 

We should make sure that we are on the same page and that we use

the same terms else we will all be hopelessly confused! The Microsoft

nomenclature defines the following:

 

*Boot Partition*

The boot partition contains the Windows operating system and its support

files. By default, the Windows operating system files are in the WINDOWS

folder, and the supporting files are in the WINDOWS\System32 folder.

The boot partition can be, but does not have to be, the same as the

system partition. There will be one, and only one, system partition, but

there will be one boot partition for each operating system in a

multi-boot system.

 

Note On dynamic disks, this is known as the boot volume.

 

*System Partition*

The system partition refers to the disk volume that contains the

hardware-specific files that are needed to start Windows, such as Ntldr,

Boot.ini, and Ntdetect.com. The system partition can be, but does not

have to be, the same volume as the boot partition.

 

Note On dynamic disks, this is known as the system volume.

 

John

[Guest Doum]

Re: Changing the system disk after install

 

"John John (MVP)" <audetweld@nbnet.nb.ca> écrivait

news:udX39JQtIHA.1436@TK2MSFTNGP05.phx.gbl:

> Doum wrote:

>> Andy <1@2.3> écrivait

>> news:ib3i24dsau24lr0ghh255gh38d8tva42a7@4ax.com:

>>

>>

>>>On Mon, 12 May 2008 16:06:27 -0400, "Scott S" <scott@tt-newyork.com>

>>>wrote:

>>>

>>>

>>>> I have recently installed a clean copy of XP onto a machine with 2

>>>> hard

>>>>drives, one is the C: drive with 2 other partitons D: & E:

>>>>

>>>>The 2nd hard drive is completly blank and just formatted. The

>>>>problem is windows has installed on the C: Drive, but the 2nd hard

>>>>drive is listed as the system disk in the device manager and C: is

>>>>the boot drive.

>>>>

>>>>when I boot with recovery coucel and try to fixmbr it states that

>>>>windows is installed on F:\windows (Which is the 2nd hard drive).

>>>>

>>>>Any ideas on how to change the "system drive" to the C:\ (boot)

>>>>drive?

>>>>

>>>

>>>Run Disk Management, and set the C: drive active.

>>>Copy boot.ini, ntldr, and ntdetect.com from the system partition to

>>>C:\.

>>>Reboot, go into BIOS setup and set (Hard Disk Boot Priority) the disk

>>>drive containing partition C: as the boot drive.

>>>

>>

>>

>> I would reformat, there must be thousands of references to

>> "F:\Windows" in the OP's XP registry and changing them manually would

>> take days. It's a lot faster to reinstall everything from scratch.

>

> There is *absolutely* no need to reformat! You can change the System

> partition from one partition to another or from one disk to another

> and the Boot Volume will retain its drive letter when Windows is

> booted, that also applies if you make the Boot Volume the System

> drive.

>

> We should make sure that we are on the same page and that we use

> the same terms else we will all be hopelessly confused! The Microsoft

> nomenclature defines the following:

>

> *Boot Partition*

> The boot partition contains the Windows operating system and its

> support files. By default, the Windows operating system files are in

> the WINDOWS folder, and the supporting files are in the

> WINDOWS\System32 folder. The boot partition can be, but does not have

> to be, the same as the system partition. There will be one, and only

> one, system partition, but there will be one boot partition for each

> operating system in a multi-boot system.

>

> Note On dynamic disks, this is known as the boot volume.

>

> *System Partition*

> The system partition refers to the disk volume that contains the

> hardware-specific files that are needed to start Windows, such as

> Ntldr, Boot.ini, and Ntdetect.com. The system partition can be, but

> does not have to be, the same volume as the boot partition.

>

> Note On dynamic disks, this is known as the system volume.

>

> John

>

>

 

I didn't want to tell my whole story, I thought it was irrelevant but...

 

I have an old motherboard with integrated ATA33 and ATA66 IDE

controllers, I've added a PCI ATA133 controller. There is 1x4.3GB HD

plugged to the ATA33, there was 1x20GB (UDMA4) on the ATA66 and a few

others UDMA5 & 6 on the ATA133.

 

I installed WinME on the 4.3GB (C:), XP Pro on the 20 GB (ATA66) (D:).

After I finished the installations, I installed Ghost 2003 (in XP) and

cloned the XP drive on another 20 GB hard drive (UDMA5) plugged on the

PCI controller and removed that drive from the system.

 

Maybe 10 days later, the XP HD failed (on the ATA66). So I took the

cloned disk and put it back in the system on the ATA133 controller. It

was still the second hard drive that POST showed up.

 

When XP began to load it took an eternity and when it finally came up,

the drive had become H: (remained H:?), ATI MMC didn't work, AVG didn't

work, Ghost didn't work, etc. I went to the registry and found that all

the references to Windows were to "D:". I tried to change the letter "H"

to "D" in Disk Management but Windows wouldn't let me change the system

drive letter.

 

I restarded with the XP CD and the installation would see that disk as

D:, so I reformatted and reinstalled XP and everything is OK.

 

That's why I thought that the OP problem was similar to mine.

 

My apology if I confused someone.

Doum

[Guest John John (MVP)]

Re: Changing the system disk after install

 

Doum wrote:

> "John John (MVP)" <audetweld@nbnet.nb.ca> écrivait

> news:udX39JQtIHA.1436@TK2MSFTNGP05.phx.gbl:

>

>

>>Doum wrote:

>>

>>>Andy <1@2.3> écrivait

>>>news:ib3i24dsau24lr0ghh255gh38d8tva42a7@4ax.com:

>>>

>>>

>>>

>>>>On Mon, 12 May 2008 16:06:27 -0400, "Scott S" <scott@tt-newyork.com>

>>>>wrote:

>>>>

>>>>

>>>>

>>>>>I have recently installed a clean copy of XP onto a machine with 2

>>>>>hard

>>>>>drives, one is the C: drive with 2 other partitons D: & E:

>>>>>

>>>>>The 2nd hard drive is completly blank and just formatted. The

>>>>>problem is windows has installed on the C: Drive, but the 2nd hard

>>>>>drive is listed as the system disk in the device manager and C: is

>>>>>the boot drive.

>>>>>

>>>>>when I boot with recovery coucel and try to fixmbr it states that

>>>>>windows is installed on F:\windows (Which is the 2nd hard drive).

>>>>>

>>>>>Any ideas on how to change the "system drive" to the C:\ (boot)

>>>>>drive?

>>>>>

>>>>

>>>>Run Disk Management, and set the C: drive active.

>>>>Copy boot.ini, ntldr, and ntdetect.com from the system partition to

>>>>C:\.

>>>>Reboot, go into BIOS setup and set (Hard Disk Boot Priority) the disk

>>>>drive containing partition C: as the boot drive.

>>>>

>>>

>>>

>>>I would reformat, there must be thousands of references to

>>>"F:\Windows" in the OP's XP registry and changing them manually would

>>>take days. It's a lot faster to reinstall everything from scratch.

>>

>>There is *absolutely* no need to reformat! You can change the System

>>partition from one partition to another or from one disk to another

>>and the Boot Volume will retain its drive letter when Windows is

>>booted, that also applies if you make the Boot Volume the System

>>drive.

>>

>>We should make sure that we are on the same page and that we use

>>the same terms else we will all be hopelessly confused! The Microsoft

>>nomenclature defines the following:

>>

>>*Boot Partition*

>>The boot partition contains the Windows operating system and its

>>support files. By default, the Windows operating system files are in

>>the WINDOWS folder, and the supporting files are in the

>>WINDOWS\System32 folder. The boot partition can be, but does not have

>>to be, the same as the system partition. There will be one, and only

>>one, system partition, but there will be one boot partition for each

>>operating system in a multi-boot system.

>>

>>Note On dynamic disks, this is known as the boot volume.

>>

>>*System Partition*

>>The system partition refers to the disk volume that contains the

>>hardware-specific files that are needed to start Windows, such as

>>Ntldr, Boot.ini, and Ntdetect.com. The system partition can be, but

>>does not have to be, the same volume as the boot partition.

>>

>>Note On dynamic disks, this is known as the system volume.

>>

>>John

>

>

> I didn't want to tell my whole story, I thought it was irrelevant but...

>

> [snip...]

>

> I installed WinME on the 4.3GB (C:), XP Pro on the 20 GB (ATA66) (D:).

> After I finished the installations, I installed Ghost 2003 (in XP) and

> cloned the XP drive on another 20 GB hard drive (UDMA5) plugged on the

> PCI controller and removed that drive from the system.

>

> Maybe 10 days later, the XP HD failed (on the ATA66). So I took the

> cloned disk and put it back in the system on the ATA133 controller. It

> was still the second hard drive that POST showed up.

>

> When XP began to load it took an eternity and when it finally came up,

> the drive had become H: (remained H:?), ATI MMC didn't work, AVG didn't

> work, Ghost didn't work, etc. I went to the registry and found that all

> the references to Windows were to "D:". I tried to change the letter "H"

> to "D" in Disk Management but Windows wouldn't let me change the system

> drive letter.

 

That is a well known problem that could have easily been fixed by

reassigning the drive letter back to its original designation by editing

the Mount Manager database in the registry.

 

How to restore the system/boot drive letter in Windows

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/223188/

 

John

[Guest Anna]

Re: Changing the system disk after install

 

> Doum wrote:

>> I didn't want to tell my whole story, I thought it was irrelevant but...

>>

>> [snip...]

>>

>> I installed WinME on the 4.3GB (C:), XP Pro on the 20 GB (ATA66) (D:).

>> After I finished the installations, I installed Ghost 2003 (in XP) and

>> cloned the XP drive on another 20 GB hard drive (UDMA5) plugged on the

>> PCI controller and removed that drive from the system.

>>

>> Maybe 10 days later, the XP HD failed (on the ATA66). So I took the

>> cloned disk and put it back in the system on the ATA133 controller. It

>> was still the second hard drive that POST showed up.

>>

>> When XP began to load it took an eternity and when it finally came up,

>> the drive had become H: (remained H:?), ATI MMC didn't work, AVG didn't

>> work, Ghost didn't work, etc. I went to the registry and found that all

>> the references to Windows were to "D:". I tried to change the letter "H"

>> to "D" in Disk Management but Windows wouldn't let me change the system

>> drive letter.

 

 

"John John (MVP)" <audetweld@nbnet.nb.ca> wrote in message

news:eEUkvtQtIHA.5832@TK2MSFTNGP02.phx.gbl...

> That is a well known problem that could have easily been fixed by

> reassigning the drive letter back to its original designation by editing

> the Mount Manager database in the registry.

>

> How to restore the system/boot drive letter in Windows

> http://support.microsoft.com/kb/223188/

>

> John

 

 

First of all my apologies to the OP (Scott) if we're going off on a slight

tangent here and not being responsive to his query (problem). Hopefully one

or more of the responses he's already rec'd have resolved his problem. But

if not, I trust we'll hear from him again.

 

What possibly occurred in Doum's case was that after he/she cloned the

contents of his/her 20 GB HDD containing the XP OS to another 20 GB HDD,

he/she uninstalled that "destination" HDD (the recipient of the clone) from

the system. What he *should* have done prior to uninstalling the drive from

the system was to (temporarily) disconnect the "source" HDD from the system

*immediately* following the successful (we'll assume it was successful)

disk-cloning operation and boot directly to the newly-cloned HDD. Assuming

that boot went without incident and that newly-cloned HDD apparently

functioned without any problems, he/she then could have uninstalled that

latter HDD from the system, reconnected the original source HDD, and

continue to work with that HDD (presuming that's what he/she wanted to do).

 

I have the feeling - and perhaps Doum can correct me if I'm wrong about

this - that immediately following the disk-cloning operation, *both* HDDs,

i.e., the source & destination disks, were connected and the system booted.

Under those circumstances there would be a normal boot to the source HDD. It

was only at some later point that Doum uninstalled the newly-cloned HDD from

his/her system. Am I correct about this Doum?

 

If the scenario was as I have surmised, it's quite possible the newly-cloned

HDD would not boot at some later time even when connected as the sole

primary drive in the system. Assuming the original source HDD was still

functional, i.e., non-defective, and of course still retained the system

(boot) files, e.g., Ntldr, etc., the system would boot as long as *both*

HDDs were connected, however, that newly-cloned HDD would be assigned a

non-C: drive letter. (Moving the system (boot) files from the previous

source HDD to the newly-cloned HDD would not resolve the problem).

 

Let me emphasize that in the *majority* of cases where a disk-cloning

operation followed the scenario I've described above, the problem I've

indicated did *not* occur. That is to say, it didn't seem to matter whether

following the disk-cloning operation the initial boot to the source HDD was

made while the destination HDD (the recipient of the clone) was still

connected. The cloned HDD would subsequently boot & function properly

thereafter with a C: drive letter assignment whether or not another HDD was

also connected in the system at the time. But we did experience this problem

in a significant number of cases involving major disk-cloning programs such

as Symantec's Ghost, Acronis True Image, as well as others. Thus, our

recommendation as stated above.

 

Many commentators have pointed to the MS KB article that John has mentioned

to resolve the problem when it occurred. All I can tell you is that it never

worked for us assuming the problem arose based upon the scenario I've

described above.

 

I might mention in closing that the problem we've been discussing has

*never* occurred while using the Casper 4 program - the disk-cloning program

that we highly recommend. We've been using that program for about two years

now and that problem has never arisen in all our tests in which we tried to

duplicate the problem.

Anna

[Guest John John (MVP)]

Re: Changing the system disk after install

 

Anna wrote:

> Many commentators have pointed to the MS KB article that John has mentioned

> to resolve the problem when it occurred. All I can tell you is that it never

> worked for us assuming the problem arose based upon the scenario I've

> described above.

 

I can assure you that it has worked for us in many instances! Another

fix is to use a Windows 98 setup disk and rewrite the MBR with the fdisk

/mbr command, this will rewrite the disk signature an invalidate the

Mount Manager database. It is no secret why the drive letter problem

occurs with some cloning utilities, it can occur because both hard disks

have the same signatures, as a "true" clone would. If the parent disk

remains in the computer the fix is to make sure that any hard disks on

the computer don't have the same signature, in the case of Doum the MS

fix would certainly have worked because the original (parent) disk with

an identical signature had failed and was removed from the computer, the

MS article pointed to would have fixed the problem.

 

John

[Guest Scott S]

Re: Changing the system disk after install

 

I'm back again guys, I came across the support article that you linked to,

this process would work if you wanted to change the system/boot drive from

one letter to another, I have done this before successfully. And I actually

tried this on my current system, now maybe it will make this a bit easier to

explain...

 

Windows Device Manager:

 

C:\ (Boot Drive)

Contains C:\windows etc... also contains Ntldr, Boot.ini, and

Ntdetect.com,

D:\(System Drive)

Completely blank except for folder "System Volume info Ntldr, Boot.ini,

and Ntdetect.com.

E:\(Just DATA MY DOCS ETC...

F:\(Music)

 

When I load up Recovery Council there is only one windows that I can log

into 1.) D:\WINDOWS (wierd right?) ok so I log into that cd C:windows,

fixmbr...overwrite the existing mbr?...yes.

 

Restart windows and still the same results as perviously... I am quite

experianced in IT and networking, and I have never came across this problem.

 

Any suggestions would be great.

 

 

"John John (MVP)" <audetweld@nbnet.nb.ca> wrote in message

news:eEUkvtQtIHA.5832@TK2MSFTNGP02.phx.gbl...

> Doum wrote:

>

>> "John John (MVP)" <audetweld@nbnet.nb.ca> écrivait

>> news:udX39JQtIHA.1436@TK2MSFTNGP05.phx.gbl:

>>>Doum wrote:

>>>

>>>>Andy <1@2.3> écrivait

>>>>news:ib3i24dsau24lr0ghh255gh38d8tva42a7@4ax.com:

>>>>

>>>>

>>>>>On Mon, 12 May 2008 16:06:27 -0400, "Scott S" <scott@tt-newyork.com>

>>>>>wrote:

>>>>>

>>>>>

>>>>>

>>>>>>I have recently installed a clean copy of XP onto a machine with 2

>>>>>>hard drives, one is the C: drive with 2 other partitons D: & E:

>>>>>>

>>>>>>The 2nd hard drive is completly blank and just formatted. The

>>>>>>problem is windows has installed on the C: Drive, but the 2nd hard

>>>>>>drive is listed as the system disk in the device manager and C: is

>>>>>>the boot drive.

>>>>>>when I boot with recovery coucel and try to fixmbr it states that

>>>>>>windows is installed on F:\windows (Which is the 2nd hard drive).

>>>>>>

>>>>>>Any ideas on how to change the "system drive" to the C:\ (boot)

>>>>>>drive?

>>>>>

>>>>>Run Disk Management, and set the C: drive active.

>>>>>Copy boot.ini, ntldr, and ntdetect.com from the system partition to

>>>>>C:\.

>>>>>Reboot, go into BIOS setup and set (Hard Disk Boot Priority) the disk

>>>>>drive containing partition C: as the boot drive.

>>>>>

>>>>

>>>>

>>>>I would reformat, there must be thousands of references to

>>>>"F:\Windows" in the OP's XP registry and changing them manually would

>>>>take days. It's a lot faster to reinstall everything from scratch.

>>>

>>>There is *absolutely* no need to reformat! You can change the System

>>>partition from one partition to another or from one disk to another

>>>and the Boot Volume will retain its drive letter when Windows is

>>>booted, that also applies if you make the Boot Volume the System

>>>drive.

>>>We should make sure that we are on the same page and that we use

>>>the same terms else we will all be hopelessly confused! The Microsoft

>>>nomenclature defines the following:

>>>

>>>*Boot Partition*

>>>The boot partition contains the Windows operating system and its

>>>support files. By default, the Windows operating system files are in

>>>the WINDOWS folder, and the supporting files are in the

>>>WINDOWS\System32 folder. The boot partition can be, but does not have

>>>to be, the same as the system partition. There will be one, and only

>>>one, system partition, but there will be one boot partition for each

>>>operating system in a multi-boot system.

>>>

>>>Note On dynamic disks, this is known as the boot volume.

>>>

>>>*System Partition*

>>>The system partition refers to the disk volume that contains the

>>>hardware-specific files that are needed to start Windows, such as

>>>Ntldr, Boot.ini, and Ntdetect.com. The system partition can be, but

>>>does not have to be, the same volume as the boot partition.

>>>

>>>Note On dynamic disks, this is known as the system volume.

>>>

>>>John

>>

>>

>> I didn't want to tell my whole story, I thought it was irrelevant but...

>>

>> [snip...]

>>

>> I installed WinME on the 4.3GB (C:), XP Pro on the 20 GB (ATA66) (D:).

>> After I finished the installations, I installed Ghost 2003 (in XP) and

>> cloned the XP drive on another 20 GB hard drive (UDMA5) plugged on the

>> PCI controller and removed that drive from the system.

>>

>> Maybe 10 days later, the XP HD failed (on the ATA66). So I took the

>> cloned disk and put it back in the system on the ATA133 controller. It

>> was still the second hard drive that POST showed up.

>>

>> When XP began to load it took an eternity and when it finally came up,

>> the drive had become H: (remained H:?), ATI MMC didn't work, AVG didn't

>> work, Ghost didn't work, etc. I went to the registry and found that all

>> the references to Windows were to "D:". I tried to change the letter "H"

>> to "D" in Disk Management but Windows wouldn't let me change the system

>> drive letter.

>

> That is a well known problem that could have easily been fixed by

> reassigning the drive letter back to its original designation by editing

> the Mount Manager database in the registry.

>

> How to restore the system/boot drive letter in Windows

> http://support.microsoft.com/kb/223188/

>

> John

>

[Guest Doum]

Re: Changing the system disk after install

 

"Anna" <myname@myisp.net> écrivait

news:uY2sQIStIHA.4544@TK2MSFTNGP04.phx.gbl:

>

>> Doum wrote:

>>> I didn't want to tell my whole story, I thought it was irrelevant

>>> but...

>>>

>>> [snip...]

>>>

>>> I installed WinME on the 4.3GB (C:), XP Pro on the 20 GB (ATA66)

>>> (D:). After I finished the installations, I installed Ghost 2003 (in

>>> XP) and cloned the XP drive on another 20 GB hard drive (UDMA5)

>>> plugged on the PCI controller and removed that drive from the

>>> system.

>>>

>>> Maybe 10 days later, the XP HD failed (on the ATA66). So I took the

>>> cloned disk and put it back in the system on the ATA133 controller.

>>> It was still the second hard drive that POST showed up.

>>>

>>> When XP began to load it took an eternity and when it finally came

>>> up, the drive had become H: (remained H:?), ATI MMC didn't work, AVG

>>> didn't work, Ghost didn't work, etc. I went to the registry and

>>> found that all the references to Windows were to "D:". I tried to

>>> change the letter "H" to "D" in Disk Management but Windows wouldn't

>>> let me change the system drive letter.

>

>

> "John John (MVP)" <audetweld@nbnet.nb.ca> wrote in message

> news:eEUkvtQtIHA.5832@TK2MSFTNGP02.phx.gbl...

>> That is a well known problem that could have easily been fixed by

>> reassigning the drive letter back to its original designation by

>> editing the Mount Manager database in the registry.

>>

>> How to restore the system/boot drive letter in Windows

>> http://support.microsoft.com/kb/223188/

>>

>> John

>

>

> First of all my apologies to the OP (Scott) if we're going off on a

> slight tangent here and not being responsive to his query (problem).

> Hopefully one or more of the responses he's already rec'd have

> resolved his problem. But if not, I trust we'll hear from him again.

>

> What possibly occurred in Doum's case was that after he/she cloned the

> contents of his/her 20 GB HDD containing the XP OS to another 20 GB

> HDD, he/she uninstalled that "destination" HDD (the recipient of the

> clone) from the system. What he *should* have done prior to

> uninstalling the drive from the system was to (temporarily) disconnect

> the "source" HDD from the system *immediately* following the

> successful (we'll assume it was successful) disk-cloning operation and

> boot directly to the newly-cloned HDD. Assuming that boot went without

> incident and that newly-cloned HDD apparently functioned without any

> problems, he/she then could have uninstalled that latter HDD from the

> system, reconnected the original source HDD, and continue to work with

> that HDD (presuming that's what he/she wanted to do).

>

> I have the feeling - and perhaps Doum can correct me if I'm wrong

> about this - that immediately following the disk-cloning operation,

> *both* HDDs, i.e., the source & destination disks, were connected and

> the system booted. Under those circumstances there would be a normal

> boot to the source HDD. It was only at some later point that Doum

> uninstalled the newly-cloned HDD from his/her system. Am I correct

> about this Doum?

>

 

<snip>

> Anna

>

>

Hello

 

After the cloning, Ghost restarted the computer automatically and I let

it go, after that I shut it down immediatly and removed the destination

drive. So you're right but it stayed there only one boot cycle.

 

The NTLDR, BOOT.INI, etc. files are not on that disk, it's a double-boot

system with WinME, so those files are on the WinME disk.

 

I didn't come here to try to solve the problem at that time because I had

no internet access while I was trying to solve the issue.

 

Thanks to you and John for these infos, I will save them for later use;

with an old system, I might need them sooner than later. (BTW, I am a

"he")

 

My apology to the OP for hijacking his thread.

 

Doum

[Guest John John (MVP)]

Re: Changing the system disk after install

 

You don't want to and you should never change the boot volume letter

from it's assigned installation letter, like Doum said earlier the

registry is full of entries that point to the drive letter onto which

Windows was installed, Windows must always retain its originally

assigned drive letter, the article mentioned earlier is only to be used

to restore the drive letter to its original assignment, in your case it

*must* retain the C: designation.

 

Before going in too deep you should first go in the BIOS and make sure

that the desired drive is set to be the first hard drive in the boot

order, when the computer boots it should boot to the drive where Windows

is installed. Save the BIOS changes and see if Windows will boot, that

may be all that is needed. If Windows doesn't boot return the boot

order to the second drive and post again.

 

John

 

Scott S wrote:

> I'm back again guys, I came across the support article that you linked to,

> this process would work if you wanted to change the system/boot drive from

> one letter to another, I have done this before successfully. And I actually

> tried this on my current system, now maybe it will make this a bit easier to

> explain...

>

> Windows Device Manager:

>

> C:\ (Boot Drive)

> Contains C:\windows etc... also contains Ntldr, Boot.ini, and

> Ntdetect.com,

> D:\(System Drive)

> Completely blank except for folder "System Volume info Ntldr, Boot.ini,

> and Ntdetect.com.

> E:\(Just DATA MY DOCS ETC...

> F:\(Music)

>

> When I load up Recovery Council there is only one windows that I can log

> into 1.) D:\WINDOWS (wierd right?) ok so I log into that cd C:windows,

> fixmbr...overwrite the existing mbr?...yes.

>

> Restart windows and still the same results as perviously... I am quite

> experianced in IT and networking, and I have never came across this problem.

>

> Any suggestions would be great.

>

>

> "John John (MVP)" <audetweld@nbnet.nb.ca> wrote in message

> news:eEUkvtQtIHA.5832@TK2MSFTNGP02.phx.gbl...

>

>>Doum wrote:

>>

>>

>>>"John John (MVP)" <audetweld@nbnet.nb.ca> écrivait

>>>news:udX39JQtIHA.1436@TK2MSFTNGP05.phx.gbl:

>>>

>>>>Doum wrote:

>>>>

>>>>

>>>>>Andy <1@2.3> écrivait

>>>>>news:ib3i24dsau24lr0ghh255gh38d8tva42a7@4ax.com:

>>>>>

>>>>>

>>>>>

>>>>>>On Mon, 12 May 2008 16:06:27 -0400, "Scott S" <scott@tt-newyork.com>

>>>>>>wrote:

>>>>>>

>>>>>>

>>>>>>

>>>>>>

>>>>>>>I have recently installed a clean copy of XP onto a machine with 2

>>>>>>>hard drives, one is the C: drive with 2 other partitons D: & E:

>>>>>>>

>>>>>>>The 2nd hard drive is completly blank and just formatted. The

>>>>>>>problem is windows has installed on the C: Drive, but the 2nd hard

>>>>>>>drive is listed as the system disk in the device manager and C: is

>>>>>>>the boot drive.

>>>>>>>when I boot with recovery coucel and try to fixmbr it states that

>>>>>>>windows is installed on F:\windows (Which is the 2nd hard drive).

>>>>>>>

>>>>>>>Any ideas on how to change the "system drive" to the C:\ (boot)

>>>>>>>drive?

>>>>>>

>>>>>>Run Disk Management, and set the C: drive active.

>>>>>>Copy boot.ini, ntldr, and ntdetect.com from the system partition to

>>>>>>C:\.

>>>>>>Reboot, go into BIOS setup and set (Hard Disk Boot Priority) the disk

>>>>>>drive containing partition C: as the boot drive.

>>>>>>

>>>>>

>>>>>

>>>>>I would reformat, there must be thousands of references to

>>>>>"F:\Windows" in the OP's XP registry and changing them manually would

>>>>>take days. It's a lot faster to reinstall everything from scratch.

>>>>

>>>>There is *absolutely* no need to reformat! You can change the System

>>>>partition from one partition to another or from one disk to another

>>>>and the Boot Volume will retain its drive letter when Windows is

>>>>booted, that also applies if you make the Boot Volume the System

>>>>drive.

>>>>We should make sure that we are on the same page and that we use

>>>>the same terms else we will all be hopelessly confused! The Microsoft

>>>>nomenclature defines the following:

>>>>

>>>>*Boot Partition*

>>>>The boot partition contains the Windows operating system and its

>>>>support files. By default, the Windows operating system files are in

>>>>the WINDOWS folder, and the supporting files are in the

>>>>WINDOWS\System32 folder. The boot partition can be, but does not have

>>>>to be, the same as the system partition. There will be one, and only

>>>>one, system partition, but there will be one boot partition for each

>>>>operating system in a multi-boot system.

>>>>

>>>>Note On dynamic disks, this is known as the boot volume.

>>>>

>>>>*System Partition*

>>>>The system partition refers to the disk volume that contains the

>>>>hardware-specific files that are needed to start Windows, such as

>>>>Ntldr, Boot.ini, and Ntdetect.com. The system partition can be, but

>>>>does not have to be, the same volume as the boot partition.

>>>>

>>>>Note On dynamic disks, this is known as the system volume.

>>>>

>>>>John

>>>

>>>

>>>I didn't want to tell my whole story, I thought it was irrelevant but...

>>>

>>>[snip...]

>>>

>>>I installed WinME on the 4.3GB (C:), XP Pro on the 20 GB (ATA66) (D:).

>>>After I finished the installations, I installed Ghost 2003 (in XP) and

>>>cloned the XP drive on another 20 GB hard drive (UDMA5) plugged on the

>>>PCI controller and removed that drive from the system.

>>>

>>>Maybe 10 days later, the XP HD failed (on the ATA66). So I took the

>>>cloned disk and put it back in the system on the ATA133 controller. It

>>>was still the second hard drive that POST showed up.

>>>

>>>When XP began to load it took an eternity and when it finally came up,

>>>the drive had become H: (remained H:?), ATI MMC didn't work, AVG didn't

>>>work, Ghost didn't work, etc. I went to the registry and found that all

>>>the references to Windows were to "D:". I tried to change the letter "H"

>>>to "D" in Disk Management but Windows wouldn't let me change the system

>>>drive letter.

>>

>>That is a well known problem that could have easily been fixed by

>>reassigning the drive letter back to its original designation by editing

>>the Mount Manager database in the registry.

>>

>>How to restore the system/boot drive letter in Windows

>>http://support.microsoft.com/kb/223188/

>>

>>John

>>

>

>

>

[Guest Scott S]

Re: Changing the system disk after install

 

No the Bios is set fine, that is the 1st thing that I checked, if I switch

it to the 2nd Drive windows will not boot.

 

know of any good disk utilities that will format drive D:\ (NTFS) and remove

the system files off of it completly? This problem is so frustrating.

 

"John John (MVP)" <audetweld@nbnet.nb.ca> wrote in message

news:eJmiPzTtIHA.4528@TK2MSFTNGP03.phx.gbl...

> You don't want to and you should never change the boot volume letter from

> it's assigned installation letter, like Doum said earlier the registry is

> full of entries that point to the drive letter onto which Windows was

> installed, Windows must always retain its originally assigned drive

> letter, the article mentioned earlier is only to be used to restore the

> drive letter to its original assignment, in your case it *must* retain the

> C: designation.

>

> Before going in too deep you should first go in the BIOS and make sure

> that the desired drive is set to be the first hard drive in the boot

> order, when the computer boots it should boot to the drive where Windows

> is installed. Save the BIOS changes and see if Windows will boot, that

> may be all that is needed. If Windows doesn't boot return the boot order

> to the second drive and post again.

>

> John

>

> Scott S wrote:

>

>> I'm back again guys, I came across the support article that you linked

>> to, this process would work if you wanted to change the system/boot drive

>> from one letter to another, I have done this before successfully. And I

>> actually tried this on my current system, now maybe it will make this a

>> bit easier to explain...

>>

>> Windows Device Manager:

>>

>> C:\ (Boot Drive)

>> Contains C:\windows etc... also contains Ntldr, Boot.ini, and

>> Ntdetect.com,

>> D:\(System Drive)

>> Completely blank except for folder "System Volume info Ntldr,

>> Boot.ini, and Ntdetect.com.

>> E:\(Just DATA MY DOCS ETC...

>> F:\(Music)

>>

>> When I load up Recovery Council there is only one windows that I can log

>> into 1.) D:\WINDOWS (wierd right?) ok so I log into that cd C:windows,

>> fixmbr...overwrite the existing mbr?...yes.

>>

>> Restart windows and still the same results as perviously... I am quite

>> experianced in IT and networking, and I have never came across this

>> problem.

>>

>> Any suggestions would be great.

>>

>>

>> "John John (MVP)" <audetweld@nbnet.nb.ca> wrote in message

>> news:eEUkvtQtIHA.5832@TK2MSFTNGP02.phx.gbl...

>>

>>>Doum wrote:

>>>

>>>

>>>>"John John (MVP)" <audetweld@nbnet.nb.ca> écrivait

>>>>news:udX39JQtIHA.1436@TK2MSFTNGP05.phx.gbl:

>>>>

>>>>>Doum wrote:

>>>>>

>>>>>

>>>>>>Andy <1@2.3> écrivait

>>>>>>news:ib3i24dsau24lr0ghh255gh38d8tva42a7@4ax.com:

>>>>>>

>>>>>>

>>>>>>

>>>>>>>On Mon, 12 May 2008 16:06:27 -0400, "Scott S" <scott@tt-newyork.com>

>>>>>>>wrote:

>>>>>>>

>>>>>>>

>>>>>>>

>>>>>>>

>>>>>>>>I have recently installed a clean copy of XP onto a machine with 2

>>>>>>>>hard drives, one is the C: drive with 2 other partitons D: & E:

>>>>>>>>

>>>>>>>>The 2nd hard drive is completly blank and just formatted. The

>>>>>>>>problem is windows has installed on the C: Drive, but the 2nd hard

>>>>>>>>drive is listed as the system disk in the device manager and C: is

>>>>>>>>the boot drive.

>>>>>>>>when I boot with recovery coucel and try to fixmbr it states that

>>>>>>>>windows is installed on F:\windows (Which is the 2nd hard drive).

>>>>>>>>

>>>>>>>>Any ideas on how to change the "system drive" to the C:\ (boot)

>>>>>>>>drive?

>>>>>>>

>>>>>>>Run Disk Management, and set the C: drive active.

>>>>>>>Copy boot.ini, ntldr, and ntdetect.com from the system partition to

>>>>>>>C:\.

>>>>>>>Reboot, go into BIOS setup and set (Hard Disk Boot Priority) the disk

>>>>>>>drive containing partition C: as the boot drive.

>>>>>>>

>>>>>>

>>>>>>

>>>>>>I would reformat, there must be thousands of references to

>>>>>>"F:\Windows" in the OP's XP registry and changing them manually would

>>>>>>take days. It's a lot faster to reinstall everything from scratch.

>>>>>

>>>>>There is *absolutely* no need to reformat! You can change the System

>>>>>partition from one partition to another or from one disk to another

>>>>>and the Boot Volume will retain its drive letter when Windows is

>>>>>booted, that also applies if you make the Boot Volume the System

>>>>>drive.

>>>>>We should make sure that we are on the same page and that we use

>>>>>the same terms else we will all be hopelessly confused! The Microsoft

>>>>>nomenclature defines the following:

>>>>>

>>>>>*Boot Partition*

>>>>>The boot partition contains the Windows operating system and its

>>>>>support files. By default, the Windows operating system files are in

>>>>>the WINDOWS folder, and the supporting files are in the

>>>>>WINDOWS\System32 folder. The boot partition can be, but does not have

>>>>>to be, the same as the system partition. There will be one, and only

>>>>>one, system partition, but there will be one boot partition for each

>>>>>operating system in a multi-boot system.

>>>>>

>>>>>Note On dynamic disks, this is known as the boot volume.

>>>>>

>>>>>*System Partition*

>>>>>The system partition refers to the disk volume that contains the

>>>>>hardware-specific files that are needed to start Windows, such as

>>>>>Ntldr, Boot.ini, and Ntdetect.com. The system partition can be, but

>>>>>does not have to be, the same volume as the boot partition.

>>>>>

>>>>>Note On dynamic disks, this is known as the system volume.

>>>>>

>>>>>John

>>>>

>>>>

>>>>I didn't want to tell my whole story, I thought it was irrelevant but...

>>>>

>>>>[snip...]

>>>>

>>>>I installed WinME on the 4.3GB (C:), XP Pro on the 20 GB (ATA66) (D:).

>>>>After I finished the installations, I installed Ghost 2003 (in XP) and

>>>>cloned the XP drive on another 20 GB hard drive (UDMA5) plugged on the

>>>>PCI controller and removed that drive from the system.

>>>>

>>>>Maybe 10 days later, the XP HD failed (on the ATA66). So I took the

>>>>cloned disk and put it back in the system on the ATA133 controller. It

>>>>was still the second hard drive that POST showed up.

>>>>

>>>>When XP began to load it took an eternity and when it finally came up,

>>>>the drive had become H: (remained H:?), ATI MMC didn't work, AVG didn't

>>>>work, Ghost didn't work, etc. I went to the registry and found that all

>>>>the references to Windows were to "D:". I tried to change the letter "H"

>>>>to "D" in Disk Management but Windows wouldn't let me change the system

>>>>drive letter.

>>>

>>>That is a well known problem that could have easily been fixed by

>>>reassigning the drive letter back to its original designation by editing

>>>the Mount Manager database in the registry.

>>>

>>>How to restore the system/boot drive letter in Windows

>>>http://support.microsoft.com/kb/223188/

>>>

>>>John

>>>

>>

>>

[Guest John John (MVP)]

Re: Changing the system disk after install

 

Turn the second hard drive off and see if you can boot the computer.

You should be able to turn it off in the BIOS, if not just open the case

and pull the power connector to the drive. Does your computer have a

floppy drive?

 

John

 

Scott S wrote:

> No the Bios is set fine, that is the 1st thing that I checked, if I switch

> it to the 2nd Drive windows will not boot.

>

> know of any good disk utilities that will format drive D:\ (NTFS) and remove

> the system files off of it completly? This problem is so frustrating.

>

> "John John (MVP)" <audetweld@nbnet.nb.ca> wrote in message

> news:eJmiPzTtIHA.4528@TK2MSFTNGP03.phx.gbl...

>

>>You don't want to and you should never change the boot volume letter from

>>it's assigned installation letter, like Doum said earlier the registry is

>>full of entries that point to the drive letter onto which Windows was

>>installed, Windows must always retain its originally assigned drive

>>letter, the article mentioned earlier is only to be used to restore the

>>drive letter to its original assignment, in your case it *must* retain the

>>C: designation.

>>

>>Before going in too deep you should first go in the BIOS and make sure

>>that the desired drive is set to be the first hard drive in the boot

>>order, when the computer boots it should boot to the drive where Windows

>>is installed. Save the BIOS changes and see if Windows will boot, that

>>may be all that is needed. If Windows doesn't boot return the boot order

>>to the second drive and post again.

>>

>>John

>>

>>Scott S wrote:

>>

>>

>>>I'm back again guys, I came across the support article that you linked

>>>to, this process would work if you wanted to change the system/boot drive

>>>from one letter to another, I have done this before successfully. And I

>>>actually tried this on my current system, now maybe it will make this a

>>>bit easier to explain...

>>>

>>>Windows Device Manager:

>>>

>>>C:\ (Boot Drive)

>>> Contains C:\windows etc... also contains Ntldr, Boot.ini, and

>>>Ntdetect.com,

>>>D:\(System Drive)

>>> Completely blank except for folder "System Volume info Ntldr,

>>>Boot.ini, and Ntdetect.com.

>>>E:\(Just DATA MY DOCS ETC...

>>>F:\(Music)

>>>

>>>When I load up Recovery Council there is only one windows that I can log

>>>into 1.) D:\WINDOWS (wierd right?) ok so I log into that cd C:windows,

>>>fixmbr...overwrite the existing mbr?...yes.

>>>

>>>Restart windows and still the same results as perviously... I am quite

>>>experianced in IT and networking, and I have never came across this

>>>problem.

>>>

>>>Any suggestions would be great.

>>>

>>>

>>>"John John (MVP)" <audetweld@nbnet.nb.ca> wrote in message

>>>news:eEUkvtQtIHA.5832@TK2MSFTNGP02.phx.gbl...

>>>

>>>

>>>>Doum wrote:

>>>>

>>>>

>>>>

>>>>>"John John (MVP)" <audetweld@nbnet.nb.ca> écrivait

>>>>>news:udX39JQtIHA.1436@TK2MSFTNGP05.phx.gbl:

>>>>>

>>>>>

>>>>>>Doum wrote:

>>>>>>

>>>>>>

>>>>>>

>>>>>>>Andy <1@2.3> écrivait

>>>>>>>news:ib3i24dsau24lr0ghh255gh38d8tva42a7@4ax.com:

>>>>>>>

>>>>>>>

>>>>>>>

>>>>>>>

>>>>>>>>On Mon, 12 May 2008 16:06:27 -0400, "Scott S" <scott@tt-newyork.com>

>>>>>>>>wrote:

>>>>>>>>

>>>>>>>>

>>>>>>>>

>>>>>>>>

>>>>>>>>

>>>>>>>>>I have recently installed a clean copy of XP onto a machine with 2

>>>>>>>>>hard drives, one is the C: drive with 2 other partitons D: & E:

>>>>>>>>>

>>>>>>>>>The 2nd hard drive is completly blank and just formatted. The

>>>>>>>>>problem is windows has installed on the C: Drive, but the 2nd hard

>>>>>>>>>drive is listed as the system disk in the device manager and C: is

>>>>>>>>>the boot drive.

>>>>>>>>>when I boot with recovery coucel and try to fixmbr it states that

>>>>>>>>>windows is installed on F:\windows (Which is the 2nd hard drive).

>>>>>>>>>

>>>>>>>>>Any ideas on how to change the "system drive" to the C:\ (boot)

>>>>>>>>>drive?

>>>>>>>>

>>>>>>>>Run Disk Management, and set the C: drive active.

>>>>>>>>Copy boot.ini, ntldr, and ntdetect.com from the system partition to

>>>>>>>>C:\.

>>>>>>>>Reboot, go into BIOS setup and set (Hard Disk Boot Priority) the disk

>>>>>>>>drive containing partition C: as the boot drive.

>>>>>>>>

>>>>>>>

>>>>>>>

>>>>>>>I would reformat, there must be thousands of references to

>>>>>>>"F:\Windows" in the OP's XP registry and changing them manually would

>>>>>>>take days. It's a lot faster to reinstall everything from scratch.

>>>>>>

>>>>>>There is *absolutely* no need to reformat! You can change the System

>>>>>>partition from one partition to another or from one disk to another

>>>>>>and the Boot Volume will retain its drive letter when Windows is

>>>>>>booted, that also applies if you make the Boot Volume the System

>>>>>>drive.

>>>>>>We should make sure that we are on the same page and that we use

>>>>>>the same terms else we will all be hopelessly confused! The Microsoft

>>>>>>nomenclature defines the following:

>>>>>>

>>>>>>*Boot Partition*

>>>>>>The boot partition contains the Windows operating system and its

>>>>>>support files. By default, the Windows operating system files are in

>>>>>>the WINDOWS folder, and the supporting files are in the

>>>>>>WINDOWS\System32 folder. The boot partition can be, but does not have

>>>>>>to be, the same as the system partition. There will be one, and only

>>>>>>one, system partition, but there will be one boot partition for each

>>>>>>operating system in a multi-boot system.

>>>>>>

>>>>>>Note On dynamic disks, this is known as the boot volume.

>>>>>>

>>>>>>*System Partition*

>>>>>>The system partition refers to the disk volume that contains the

>>>>>>hardware-specific files that are needed to start Windows, such as

>>>>>>Ntldr, Boot.ini, and Ntdetect.com. The system partition can be, but

>>>>>>does not have to be, the same volume as the boot partition.

>>>>>>

>>>>>>Note On dynamic disks, this is known as the system volume.

>>>>>>

>>>>>>John

>>>>>

>>>>>

>>>>>I didn't want to tell my whole story, I thought it was irrelevant but...

>>>>>

>>>>>[snip...]

>>>>>

>>>>>I installed WinME on the 4.3GB (C:), XP Pro on the 20 GB (ATA66) (D:).

>>>>>After I finished the installations, I installed Ghost 2003 (in XP) and

>>>>>cloned the XP drive on another 20 GB hard drive (UDMA5) plugged on the

>>>>>PCI controller and removed that drive from the system.

>>>>>

>>>>>Maybe 10 days later, the XP HD failed (on the ATA66). So I took the

>>>>>cloned disk and put it back in the system on the ATA133 controller. It

>>>>>was still the second hard drive that POST showed up.

>>>>>

>>>>>When XP began to load it took an eternity and when it finally came up,

>>>>>the drive had become H: (remained H:?), ATI MMC didn't work, AVG didn't

>>>>>work, Ghost didn't work, etc. I went to the registry and found that all

>>>>>the references to Windows were to "D:". I tried to change the letter "H"

>>>>>to "D" in Disk Management but Windows wouldn't let me change the system

>>>>>drive letter.

>>>>

>>>>That is a well known problem that could have easily been fixed by

>>>>reassigning the drive letter back to its original designation by editing

>>>>the Mount Manager database in the registry.

>>>>

>>>>How to restore the system/boot drive letter in Windows

>>>>http://support.microsoft.com/kb/223188/

>>>>

>>>>John

>>>>

>>>

>>>

>

[Guest Andy]

Re: Changing the system disk after install

 

On Tue, 13 May 2008 15:51:12 -0400, "Scott S" <scott@tt-newyork.com>

wrote:

>I'm back again guys, I came across the support article that you linked to,

>this process would work if you wanted to change the system/boot drive from

>one letter to another, I have done this before successfully. And I actually

>tried this on my current system, now maybe it will make this a bit easier to

>explain...

>

>Windows Device Manager:

Device Manager does not have the capability to show disk partitions.

Disk Management, on the other hand, does.

>

>C:\ (Boot Drive)

> Contains C:\windows etc... also contains Ntldr, Boot.ini, and

>Ntdetect.com,

>D:\(System Drive)

> Completely blank except for folder "System Volume info Ntldr, Boot.ini,

>and Ntdetect.com.

Your story is a little inconsistent. Your initial message said the

first disk contained three partitions: C containing Windows, plus two

other partitions, D and E, and the second disk had only one partition,

the system partition containing the boot files. Now you're saying the

system partition is D.

>E:\(Just DATA MY DOCS ETC...

>F:\(Music)

>

>When I load up Recovery Council there is only one windows that I can log

>into 1.) D:\WINDOWS (wierd right?) ok so I log into that cd C:windows,

>fixmbr...overwrite the existing mbr?...yes.

The reason it's D:\Windows is because Windows is enumerating the other

disk first, the one containing the System partition. This means that

the BIOS is set to boot from that disk (the one containing the System

partition).

 

If you want the partition containing \Windows to be both the system

and boot partition, that partition must be active (look at Disk

Management to verify), and the BIOS must be set to boot from the disk

containing the \Windows partition. Also, the boot sector must contain

the proper boot code that will run ntldr, and boot.ini must correctly

reference the rdisk and partition containing \Windows.

>

>Restart windows and still the same results as perviously... I am quite

>experianced in IT and networking, and I have never came across this problem.

>

>Any suggestions would be great.

>

>

>"John John (MVP)" <audetweld@nbnet.nb.ca> wrote in message

>news:eEUkvtQtIHA.5832@TK2MSFTNGP02.phx.gbl...

>> Doum wrote:

>>

>>> "John John (MVP)" <audetweld@nbnet.nb.ca> écrivait

>>> news:udX39JQtIHA.1436@TK2MSFTNGP05.phx.gbl:

>>>>Doum wrote:

>>>>

>>>>>Andy <1@2.3> écrivait

>>>>>news:ib3i24dsau24lr0ghh255gh38d8tva42a7@4ax.com:

>>>>>

>>>>>

>>>>>>On Mon, 12 May 2008 16:06:27 -0400, "Scott S" <scott@tt-newyork.com>

>>>>>>wrote:

>>>>>>

>>>>>>

>>>>>>

>>>>>>>I have recently installed a clean copy of XP onto a machine with 2

>>>>>>>hard drives, one is the C: drive with 2 other partitons D: & E:

>>>>>>>

>>>>>>>The 2nd hard drive is completly blank and just formatted. The

>>>>>>>problem is windows has installed on the C: Drive, but the 2nd hard

>>>>>>>drive is listed as the system disk in the device manager and C: is

>>>>>>>the boot drive.

>>>>>>>when I boot with recovery coucel and try to fixmbr it states that

>>>>>>>windows is installed on F:\windows (Which is the 2nd hard drive).

>>>>>>>

>>>>>>>Any ideas on how to change the "system drive" to the C:\ (boot)

>>>>>>>drive?

>>>>>>

>>>>>>Run Disk Management, and set the C: drive active.

>>>>>>Copy boot.ini, ntldr, and ntdetect.com from the system partition to

>>>>>>C:\.

>>>>>>Reboot, go into BIOS setup and set (Hard Disk Boot Priority) the disk

>>>>>>drive containing partition C: as the boot drive.

>>>>>>

>>>>>

>>>>>

>>>>>I would reformat, there must be thousands of references to

>>>>>"F:\Windows" in the OP's XP registry and changing them manually would

>>>>>take days. It's a lot faster to reinstall everything from scratch.

>>>>

>>>>There is *absolutely* no need to reformat! You can change the System

>>>>partition from one partition to another or from one disk to another

>>>>and the Boot Volume will retain its drive letter when Windows is

>>>>booted, that also applies if you make the Boot Volume the System

>>>>drive.

>>>>We should make sure that we are on the same page and that we use

>>>>the same terms else we will all be hopelessly confused! The Microsoft

>>>>nomenclature defines the following:

>>>>

>>>>*Boot Partition*

>>>>The boot partition contains the Windows operating system and its

>>>>support files. By default, the Windows operating system files are in

>>>>the WINDOWS folder, and the supporting files are in the

>>>>WINDOWS\System32 folder. The boot partition can be, but does not have

>>>>to be, the same as the system partition. There will be one, and only

>>>>one, system partition, but there will be one boot partition for each

>>>>operating system in a multi-boot system.

>>>>

>>>>Note On dynamic disks, this is known as the boot volume.

>>>>

>>>>*System Partition*

>>>>The system partition refers to the disk volume that contains the

>>>>hardware-specific files that are needed to start Windows, such as

>>>>Ntldr, Boot.ini, and Ntdetect.com. The system partition can be, but

>>>>does not have to be, the same volume as the boot partition.

>>>>

>>>>Note On dynamic disks, this is known as the system volume.

>>>>

>>>>John

>>>

>>>

>>> I didn't want to tell my whole story, I thought it was irrelevant but...

>>>

>>> [snip...]

>>>

>>> I installed WinME on the 4.3GB (C:), XP Pro on the 20 GB (ATA66) (D:).

>>> After I finished the installations, I installed Ghost 2003 (in XP) and

>>> cloned the XP drive on another 20 GB hard drive (UDMA5) plugged on the

>>> PCI controller and removed that drive from the system.

>>>

>>> Maybe 10 days later, the XP HD failed (on the ATA66). So I took the

>>> cloned disk and put it back in the system on the ATA133 controller. It

>>> was still the second hard drive that POST showed up.

>>>

>>> When XP began to load it took an eternity and when it finally came up,

>>> the drive had become H: (remained H:?), ATI MMC didn't work, AVG didn't

>>> work, Ghost didn't work, etc. I went to the registry and found that all

>>> the references to Windows were to "D:". I tried to change the letter "H"

>>> to "D" in Disk Management but Windows wouldn't let me change the system

>>> drive letter.

>>

>> That is a well known problem that could have easily been fixed by

>> reassigning the drive letter back to its original designation by editing

>> the Mount Manager database in the registry.

>>

>> How to restore the system/boot drive letter in Windows

>> http://support.microsoft.com/kb/223188/

>>

>> John

>>

>

[Guest Scott S]

Re: Changing the system disk after install

 

Sorry Andy I should have been a little more elaborate, but I tried changing

drive letters from the registry, I switched drive letters to D:\ and the

system followed.

 

"Andy" <1@2.3> wrote in message

news:tmel24t2mo9if5l1rnevi1p26uq24p0jvh@4ax.com...

> On Tue, 13 May 2008 15:51:12 -0400, "Scott S" <scott@tt-newyork.com>

> wrote:

>

>>I'm back again guys, I came across the support article that you linked to,

>>this process would work if you wanted to change the system/boot drive from

>>one letter to another, I have done this before successfully. And I

>>actually

>>tried this on my current system, now maybe it will make this a bit easier

>>to

>>explain...

>>

>>Windows Device Manager:

> Device Manager does not have the capability to show disk partitions.

> Disk Management, on the other hand, does.

>

>>

>>C:\ (Boot Drive)

>> Contains C:\windows etc... also contains Ntldr, Boot.ini, and

>>Ntdetect.com,

>>D:\(System Drive)

>> Completely blank except for folder "System Volume info Ntldr,

>> Boot.ini,

>>and Ntdetect.com.

> Your story is a little inconsistent. Your initial message said the

> first disk contained three partitions: C containing Windows, plus two

> other partitions, D and E, and the second disk had only one partition,

> the system partition containing the boot files. Now you're saying the

> system partition is D.

>

>>E:\(Just DATA MY DOCS ETC...

>>F:\(Music)

>>

>>When I load up Recovery Council there is only one windows that I can log

>>into 1.) D:\WINDOWS (wierd right?) ok so I log into that cd C:windows,

>>fixmbr...overwrite the existing mbr?...yes.

> The reason it's D:\Windows is because Windows is enumerating the other

> disk first, the one containing the System partition. This means that

> the BIOS is set to boot from that disk (the one containing the System

> partition).

>

> If you want the partition containing \Windows to be both the system

> and boot partition, that partition must be active (look at Disk

> Management to verify), and the BIOS must be set to boot from the disk

> containing the \Windows partition. Also, the boot sector must contain

> the proper boot code that will run ntldr, and boot.ini must correctly

> reference the rdisk and partition containing \Windows.

>

>>

>>Restart windows and still the same results as perviously... I am quite

>>experianced in IT and networking, and I have never came across this

>>problem.

>>

>>Any suggestions would be great.

>>

>>

>>"John John (MVP)" <audetweld@nbnet.nb.ca> wrote in message

>>news:eEUkvtQtIHA.5832@TK2MSFTNGP02.phx.gbl...

>>> Doum wrote:

>>>

>>>> "John John (MVP)" <audetweld@nbnet.nb.ca> écrivait

>>>> news:udX39JQtIHA.1436@TK2MSFTNGP05.phx.gbl:

>>>>>Doum wrote:

>>>>>

>>>>>>Andy <1@2.3> écrivait

>>>>>>news:ib3i24dsau24lr0ghh255gh38d8tva42a7@4ax.com:

>>>>>>

>>>>>>

>>>>>>>On Mon, 12 May 2008 16:06:27 -0400, "Scott S" <scott@tt-newyork.com>

>>>>>>>wrote:

>>>>>>>

>>>>>>>

>>>>>>>

>>>>>>>>I have recently installed a clean copy of XP onto a machine with 2

>>>>>>>>hard drives, one is the C: drive with 2 other partitons D: & E:

>>>>>>>>

>>>>>>>>The 2nd hard drive is completly blank and just formatted. The

>>>>>>>>problem is windows has installed on the C: Drive, but the 2nd hard

>>>>>>>>drive is listed as the system disk in the device manager and C: is

>>>>>>>>the boot drive.

>>>>>>>>when I boot with recovery coucel and try to fixmbr it states that

>>>>>>>>windows is installed on F:\windows (Which is the 2nd hard drive).

>>>>>>>>

>>>>>>>>Any ideas on how to change the "system drive" to the C:\ (boot)

>>>>>>>>drive?

>>>>>>>

>>>>>>>Run Disk Management, and set the C: drive active.

>>>>>>>Copy boot.ini, ntldr, and ntdetect.com from the system partition to

>>>>>>>C:\.

>>>>>>>Reboot, go into BIOS setup and set (Hard Disk Boot Priority) the disk

>>>>>>>drive containing partition C: as the boot drive.

>>>>>>>

>>>>>>

>>>>>>

>>>>>>I would reformat, there must be thousands of references to

>>>>>>"F:\Windows" in the OP's XP registry and changing them manually would

>>>>>>take days. It's a lot faster to reinstall everything from scratch.

>>>>>

>>>>>There is *absolutely* no need to reformat! You can change the System

>>>>>partition from one partition to another or from one disk to another

>>>>>and the Boot Volume will retain its drive letter when Windows is

>>>>>booted, that also applies if you make the Boot Volume the System

>>>>>drive.

>>>>>We should make sure that we are on the same page and that we use

>>>>>the same terms else we will all be hopelessly confused! The Microsoft

>>>>>nomenclature defines the following:

>>>>>

>>>>>*Boot Partition*

>>>>>The boot partition contains the Windows operating system and its

>>>>>support files. By default, the Windows operating system files are in

>>>>>the WINDOWS folder, and the supporting files are in the

>>>>>WINDOWS\System32 folder. The boot partition can be, but does not have

>>>>>to be, the same as the system partition. There will be one, and only

>>>>>one, system partition, but there will be one boot partition for each

>>>>>operating system in a multi-boot system.

>>>>>

>>>>>Note On dynamic disks, this is known as the boot volume.

>>>>>

>>>>>*System Partition*

>>>>>The system partition refers to the disk volume that contains the

>>>>>hardware-specific files that are needed to start Windows, such as

>>>>>Ntldr, Boot.ini, and Ntdetect.com. The system partition can be, but

>>>>>does not have to be, the same volume as the boot partition.

>>>>>

>>>>>Note On dynamic disks, this is known as the system volume.

>>>>>

>>>>>John

>>>>

>>>>

>>>> I didn't want to tell my whole story, I thought it was irrelevant

>>>> but...

>>>>

>>>> [snip...]

>>>>

>>>> I installed WinME on the 4.3GB (C:), XP Pro on the 20 GB (ATA66) (D:).

>>>> After I finished the installations, I installed Ghost 2003 (in XP) and

>>>> cloned the XP drive on another 20 GB hard drive (UDMA5) plugged on the

>>>> PCI controller and removed that drive from the system.

>>>>

>>>> Maybe 10 days later, the XP HD failed (on the ATA66). So I took the

>>>> cloned disk and put it back in the system on the ATA133 controller. It

>>>> was still the second hard drive that POST showed up.

>>>>

>>>> When XP began to load it took an eternity and when it finally came up,

>>>> the drive had become H: (remained H:?), ATI MMC didn't work, AVG didn't

>>>> work, Ghost didn't work, etc. I went to the registry and found that all

>>>> the references to Windows were to "D:". I tried to change the letter

>>>> "H"

>>>> to "D" in Disk Management but Windows wouldn't let me change the system

>>>> drive letter.

>>>

>>> That is a well known problem that could have easily been fixed by

>>> reassigning the drive letter back to its original designation by editing

>>> the Mount Manager database in the registry.

>>>

>>> How to restore the system/boot drive letter in Windows

>>> http://support.microsoft.com/kb/223188/

>>>

>>> John

>>>

>>