On a recent reinstall of WinXP Pro SP2 on an elderly laptop we noticed that
these files - ntldr, ntdetect and boot.ini - are now located not on the C
(system) partition but on the D (data) partition! The HDD is sectioned into
these two partitions.
No problems with anything. System boots to C "drive" and everything works
normally. And every application did install correctly on C.
But now we need to format D partition and need to know how to move the
system files to C such that the installation continues working fine.
TIA for any advice on this matter.
Regards.
JP
--

My response at bottom:
"Pegasus (MVP)" <I.can@fly.com.oz> wrote in message
news:%23lHgd5A7IHA.3672@TK2MSFTNGP04.phx.gbl...
>
> "JP" <JP@uinverse.brane> wrote in message
> news:uS8ZbwA7IHA.616@TK2MSFTNGP02.phx.gbl...
>> On a recent reinstall of WinXP Pro SP2 on an elderly laptop we noticed
>> that
>> these files - ntldr, ntdetect and boot.ini - are now located not on the C
>> (system) partition but on the D (data) partition! The HDD is sectioned
>> into
>> these two partitions.
>> No problems with anything. System boots to C "drive" and everything works
>> normally. And every application did install correctly on C.
>> But now we need to format D partition and need to know how to move the
>> system files to C such that the installation continues working fine.
>> TIA for any advice on this matter.
>> Regards.
>> JP
>> --
>
> - Run diskmgmt.msc, then report here which is your active partition.
> - Does your machine have a floppy disk drive?


Thanks for the quick response.
I did as advised and found that D is shown as "Active" in Disk Management.
Yes, the laptop has a floppy drive.
Looking forward to further advice.
Regards and thanks.
JP
--

"JP" <JP@uinverse.brane> wrote in message
news:uS8ZbwA7IHA.616@TK2MSFTNGP02.phx.gbl...
> On a recent reinstall of WinXP Pro SP2 on an elderly laptop we noticed
> that
> these files - ntldr, ntdetect and boot.ini - are now located not on the C
> (system) partition but on the D (data) partition! The HDD is sectioned
> into
> these two partitions.
> No problems with anything. System boots to C "drive" and everything works
> normally. And every application did install correctly on C.
> But now we need to format D partition and need to know how to move the
> system files to C such that the installation continues working fine.
> TIA for any advice on this matter.
> Regards.
> JP
> --

- Run diskmgmt.msc, then report here which is your active partition.
- Does your machine have a floppy disk drive?

"JP" <JP@uinverse.brane> wrote in message
news:uXqjTYC7IHA.2348@TK2MSFTNGP06.phx.gbl...
> My response at bottom:
> "Pegasus (MVP)" <I.can@fly.com.oz> wrote in message
> news:%23lHgd5A7IHA.3672@TK2MSFTNGP04.phx.gbl...
>>
>> "JP" <JP@uinverse.brane> wrote in message
>> news:uS8ZbwA7IHA.616@TK2MSFTNGP02.phx.gbl...
>>> On a recent reinstall of WinXP Pro SP2 on an elderly laptop we noticed
>>> that
>>> these files - ntldr, ntdetect and boot.ini - are now located not on the
>>> C
>>> (system) partition but on the D (data) partition! The HDD is sectioned
>>> into
>>> these two partitions.
>>> No problems with anything. System boots to C "drive" and everything
>>> works
>>> normally. And every application did install correctly on C.
>>> But now we need to format D partition and need to know how to move the
>>> system files to C such that the installation continues working fine.
>>> TIA for any advice on this matter.
>>> Regards.
>>> JP
>>> --
>>
>> - Run diskmgmt.msc, then report here which is your active partition.
>> - Does your machine have a floppy disk drive?
>
>
> Thanks for the quick response.
> I did as advised and found that D is shown as "Active" in Disk Management.
> Yes, the laptop has a floppy drive.
> Looking forward to further advice.
> Regards and thanks.
> JP
> --

I thought this might be so. To play it safe, I suggest you do this:
1. Format a floppy disk while in WinXP.
2. Copy the three system files you mentioned to A:\.
3. Instruct your BIOS to use the FDD as its primary boot device.
4. See if you can boot into WinXP from the FDD.
5. Move the three system files from D:\ to D:\TempDir.
6. See if you can boot into WinXP from the FDD.
7. Mark drive C: as active.
8. Copy the three system files from D:\TempDir to C:\.
9. See if you can boot into WinXP from the hard disk.
10. Reverse Step 3. above.
11. Format drive D:.

Having a floppy boot disk means that you will be able to boot
into WinXP even if something goes wrong.

My response at bottom:
"Pegasus (MVP)" <I.can@fly.com.oz> wrote in message
news:eiwlIWE7IHA.2060@TK2MSFTNGP02.phx.gbl...
>
> "JP" <JP@uinverse.brane> wrote in message
> news:uXqjTYC7IHA.2348@TK2MSFTNGP06.phx.gbl...
>> My response at bottom:
>> "Pegasus (MVP)" <I.can@fly.com.oz> wrote in message
>> news:%23lHgd5A7IHA.3672@TK2MSFTNGP04.phx.gbl...
>>>
>>> "JP" <JP@uinverse.brane> wrote in message
>>> news:uS8ZbwA7IHA.616@TK2MSFTNGP02.phx.gbl...
>>>> On a recent reinstall of WinXP Pro SP2 on an elderly laptop we noticed
>>>> that
>>>> these files - ntldr, ntdetect and boot.ini - are now located not on the
>>>> C
>>>> (system) partition but on the D (data) partition! The HDD is sectioned
>>>> into
>>>> these two partitions.
>>>> No problems with anything. System boots to C "drive" and everything
>>>> works
>>>> normally. And every application did install correctly on C.
>>>> But now we need to format D partition and need to know how to move the
>>>> system files to C such that the installation continues working fine.
>>>> TIA for any advice on this matter.
>>>> Regards.
>>>> JP
>>>> --
>>>
>>> - Run diskmgmt.msc, then report here which is your active partition.
>>> - Does your machine have a floppy disk drive?
>>
>>
>> Thanks for the quick response.
>> I did as advised and found that D is shown as "Active" in Disk
>> Management.
>> Yes, the laptop has a floppy drive.
>> Looking forward to further advice.
>> Regards and thanks.
>> JP
>> --
>
> I thought this might be so. To play it safe, I suggest you do this:
> 1. Format a floppy disk while in WinXP.
> 2. Copy the three system files you mentioned to A:\.
> 3. Instruct your BIOS to use the FDD as its primary boot device.
> 4. See if you can boot into WinXP from the FDD.
> 5. Move the three system files from D:\ to D:\TempDir.
> 6. See if you can boot into WinXP from the FDD.
> 7. Mark drive C: as active.
> 8. Copy the three system files from D:\TempDir to C:\.
> 9. See if you can boot into WinXP from the hard disk.
> 10. Reverse Step 3. above.
> 11. Format drive D:.
>
> Having a floppy boot disk means that you will be able to boot
> into WinXP even if something goes wrong.


Perfect !!! Brought back details of something very similar done a couple of
years back when we had copied the boot files from a working PC on floppy to
boot another reluctant PC and restore them! Only that time it was a desktop.
Never occured that the solution now could be so near-identical!
Thanks very very much for the advice. Everything is running perfectly and
the secondary data partition has already been formatted successfully.
How the system files got to the secondary partition might perhaps remain a
mystery. And perhaps another story.
Regards and thanks again.
JP
--

"JP" <JP@uinverse.brane> wrote in message
news:uyLkt6E7IHA.1192@TK2MSFTNGP05.phx.gbl...
>
> Perfect !!! Brought back details of something very similar done a couple
> of
> years back when we had copied the boot files from a working PC on floppy
> to
> boot another reluctant PC and restore them! Only that time it was a
> desktop.
> Never occured that the solution now could be so near-identical!
> Thanks very very much for the advice. Everything is running perfectly and
> the secondary data partition has already been formatted successfully.
> How the system files got to the secondary partition might perhaps remain a
> mystery. And perhaps another story.
> Regards and thanks again.
> JP
> --

Thanks for the feedback.