Will my pc boot...

[Guest Xper_me]

:) Hi, can anyone give me some advice about my intentions .My intention is to install xp in my drive D(which is partitioned) and reformat my Drive C where Win me is installed.Will i be still able to boot my Pc when my drive C is format with no OS installed.... The real purpose to reformat my drive C is to clear the junks eg.dill files ect...

[Guest Nellie2]

Is your D drive a seperate HD to your C drive? My understanding is that you can only put your OS on the primary partition of a drive as the primary partition is the only bootable bit.

If it is a seperate drive then as long as your bios is configured to look for all bootable devices you should be ok.

Or, to save a lot of messing you could just re-format your C drive and then pop XP on there when you have done.

[Prince of Calcutta]

it is possible to install windows xp on a D partition but during setup it will copy a few files to the c drive so if you format it after the setup i dont think you'll be able to boot. why not copy your important files to the D drive format C and install windows xp fresh ?

[Guest Xper_me]

But the problem is that i have already installed Xp in my drive D which is on the same HD as where the drive C is.I've also installed all the updates and customised my destop which took many hours to do that.So, is there any other ways... :unsure:

[Prince of Calcutta]

then i think you're out of luck unless someone else here says otherwise.

but what you can do is format your c: drive . then boot from your xp cd rom and then instead of a fresh reinstall of xp, perform a repair install on the installation on your d: drive. this will leave you with an xp installation where all your settings etc are still retained. but i think you'll have to reapply any windows updates that you might have installed.all other programs will continue to work.

[Guest Clint]

Check this link on PCA look at the post by flecc.

http://www.pcadvisor.co.uk/index.cfm?go=di...&threadid=63658

[Guest ellas]

in case you not a member of pca here it is

There's also the option to add the 98 if you have, or are prepared to buy, Partition Magic.

TWO METHODS OF ADDING WINDOWS 98 TO AN EXISTING XP INSTALLATION

THE CONVENTIONAL WAY. As you'll see later this is not without it's risks, and there's a link to an alternative but unconventional method at the end of this detail.

You need a Windows 98 Startup floppy disc for this. First make a fresh backup of all your important data, and copy the NTLDR and NTdetect.sys files from the XP C: root to a floppy disc. Then set up a second partition for Windows 98/ME, this is easiest done with Partition Magic or similar.

We then use the hoot floppy that came with Windows 98 to boot the PC and use the SYS command to transfer DOS to Drive C:, thus:

a:\>sys c:

This will disable the Windows XP boot loader but that's OK for the moment. Reboot the PC and install Windows 98 in the normal way -making sure to install it to the free partition. When this is complete, reboot and make sure all is well. Then reboot from the Windows XP CD-Rom and use Option R to load the recovery console

Once you've logged in, you're then presented with a C:\WINDOWS command prompt. Type in FIXBOOT C: to 'repair' the Windows boot sector

After you've repaired the Windows hoot sector, you then may have to manually edit the boot.ini to include the new Windows 98 boot option. The boot.ini file is a read-only, hidden system file that is located in the root folder of the root drive; so vou'll need to turn off these file attributes first in order to access this text file. Open it in Notepad and add the following line to the boot.ini file under the [operating systems] section:

c:\= "Windows 98"

The next time you reboot the computer, you'll have an option to choose Windows 98 on the Windows Start menu.

BUT, now the potential problem, only fixable if you have a Windows XP CD. If Windows XP doesn't restart, the fall-back is to boot Windows 98 and put the Windows XP CD-Rom in the drive. It will autoload the Windows XP installer, then from the menu don't select Upgrade but select the Fresh Install option and this will 'fix' the damaged version on your hard disk. This method needs a bit of faith and some nerve, it's not guaranteed to work without any damage to your data.

THE UNCONVENTIONAL METHOD I've created is to exploit a peculiarity in Partition Magic which allows an empty primary partition to be set as the boot partition, shown as drive C for installation purposes. Nothing is totally safe but I think this method is the safer, and it's the only option open to you if your XP is using the NTFS file system and you do not have the XP installation CD.

The "click by click" explanation of this can be reached with this link:-

click here

It might look complicated because of the very full detail that I've included, but it is in fact very simple and can be done by anyone regardless of their experience level just by following all the instructions.

[Guest ellas]

and more

This subject keeps cropping up, so this posting is an intended to provide a referable comprehensive step by step answer for users of any experience level to easily achieve a simple dual boot system. This method will cope with NTFS or FAT 32, systems with only a Recovery disc, and users reluctant to delete their existing XP to allow 98/ME to go on first.

There are complicated methods of overcoming these difficulties using imaging programs, but these aren't without risk, and a boot manager must still be provided since XP cannot provide one with this type of installation.

However, there is a very easy workaround made possible by a peculiarity in Partition Magic which enables a Primary partition to be made the active boot partition even when no operating system exists on it. This has to be done by running Partition Magic from the floppy discs, which means that any version of PM from number 5 onwards can be used, even though that is normally not compatible with ME or XP.

Therefore the recent free issue of Partition Magic 5 on a PC Magazine disc is fine if you have access to a Windows 98/ME computer on which to temporarily install it to make the floppies. You will need the CD as well though, as you'll see later. Alternatively, any user of PM 5 can now run off the two floppies and a copy of the PM CD for you with no piracy risk since it's been made a free issue. If you wish, you can of course purchase the current version 7 and install that on the XP to produce the floppy discs. You will also need a Windows 98/ME Startup Floppy Disc which can be made on any Windows 98/ME computer.

The procedure is this. First make sure your hard drive has space to spare for both the XP and for the 98/ME installation with it's programs. Then boot with the first Partition Magic floppy disc, changing to the second floppy when prompted. When PM has loaded to the opening screen, click on the bar representing your hard drive to give it the focus, then click Operations, Resize/move on the dropdown menu. A new drive bar window will appear.

Move your mouse pointer over the right hand end of the bar until it turns into a double arrow, not four arrow. Then left click and hold on the mouse to grasp the end of the bar and slide it back to the left until the "Free size after" in the box below is the amount you want for the 98/ME installation. It's in megabytes, so it will show 3000 for a 3 gigabyte space, probably about right for your 98/ME. You can use the up/down arrows in the sizing box below for fine adjustment. Then click OK and you’ll return to the main bar window where you’ll see the reduced partition, which will be Drive C, and unallocated space alongside it to the right.

Note that none of this is happening yet, you’re only setting things up to be applied later, so you can readjust if necessary. Although it’s unlikely, if you do get in a mess, just close Partition Magic and reopen it to start again with no damage done.

Click on that unallocated space and then click Operations, Create. On the box that appears, select Primary as the partition type and FAT 32 as the file type. The new partition will automatically fill the space that you've made. Then click OK and you'll return to the main bar showing the two partitions. Placing your mouse pointer stationary over a partition gives it’s size details. The size may not be exactly what you set since partitions have to start and end on internal boundaries.

To part 2

flecc Fri, 24.05.02 | 16:48

Part 2

Now to get Partition Magic to actually do the job, look along the tool bar at the top and you’ll see a circle emblem near the right hand end. Click that and Partition Magic will tell you how many operations there are to be done. Click OK to that and PM will carry out the operations, displaying the progress continuously.

When it indicates that it's finished, click the second Primary partition on the bar where the 98/ME is to go to give it the focus, then click Operations. You'll see that "Advanced" at the foot is no longer greyed out, so click that, then click "Set Active". Now click the Circle on the toolbar again to complete that, it only takes a moment. When done, eject the last PM floppy, insert the Windows 98/ME Startup Floppy Disc, and exit Partition Magic to reboot. The 98/ME startup floppy will load, commencing the 98/ME installation routine.

Select "Start with CD ROM Support" when the choice screen appears, load your Windows 98/ME CD, and at the A:> prompt that appears, type the line below exactly, but replacing the asterisk with the CD ROM drive letter indicated to you onscreen:-

*:\SETUP

For example, if your ROM drives (CD/DVD-ROM and CD Writer) are shown on that screen as drives E and F, the first one with the 98/ME CD in it will be the letter to use thus:-

E:\SETUP

Press Enter, and a moment later when queried, Enter to confirm. Scandisc will examining your drives and when it's finished, press X to exit. Then as the installation progresses in the next few moments you'll be asked for the Windows Keycode and installation type, choose Typical. Carry on following the onscreen instructions, and when it indicates that the installation will be to drive C, leave it at that. Your second Primary partition IS drive C for the moment, since it was set active and the XP is hidden, so has no letter while it's hidden.

Windows may pick up your existing details from the computer, but if not, you may need to make the United Kingdom choice for the keyboard to be correct and Greenwich Mean Time selection, but when prompted to make a startup floppy disc, click Cancel and remove the one you already have from the floppy drive.

When the 98/ME installation is complete, you will automatically boot into it, but leave any display adjustments until later. Load the Partition Magic CD, choose "Install" on the menu, then on the next screen, uncheck Partition Magic for the moment, you can install that at a later time if wanted, but check Boot Magic and install that only. When that's installed, you'll see it's configuration screen showing your XP as NT and the 98/ME as Windows 9x.

By clicking on each of those and using the Properties button, you can rename them as you wish. The default button sets which will be booted to by default. On the "Options" dropdown menu at the top, set "Advanced Partition Hiding" by clicking it to apply a tick. That's important to allow the 98/ME at the end of the drive to boot reliably. Then at the foot of the configuration screen, you can change the default 30 seconds menu delay to a shorter time, about 4 or 5 seconds is enough, and finally click Save/Exit at the foot. There will be a Boot Magic shortcut in your Start, Programs list for you to re-access the configuration at any time for changes.

When you reboot you'll see a boot menu with your two systems. You can opt to do nothing and after the delay you set it will boot to the one set as the default, or you can click your choice with the mouse and go straight into it without waiting for the menu time to lapse. Now you can return to your 98/ME installation and adjust the display settings if necessary and install your programs.

To part 3

flecc Fri, 24.05.02 | 16:49

Part 3

MORE ADVANCED

If your XP system only came with a Recovery disc, changing the hard drive partitions makes that unusable. There are two solutions to that.

Solution 1) Load Partition Magic again using the floppy discs, click the 98/ME partition and click Operations, Delete. Then click the XP partition, click Operations, Resize, hold the bar end with the double arrow showing at the mouse pointer, and adjust it out to refill the space. Make sure you don't accidentally move the XP partition by gripping it when there's a four way arrow showing at the mouse pointer. Now click the circle icon to apply those changes, and affterwards your restore disc will work again.

Solution 2) You can avoid that loss of the 98/ME system by adding Drive Image to your computer. This can create restorable images of your systems, so replacing the function of the Restore disc in a better way, since the Drive Images will also restore your programs at the same time. The images can be written to CD-R(W) or to a data partition. Incidentally, the newest 2002 version of Drive Image offers to make you a backup partition for your image automatically when you install it, but you won't be able to use this feature when you have 98/ME on the end of the drive. You would have to use your Partition Magic to provide a backup partition.

You will notice that only one system shows at any time in Windows Explorer or My Computer, and whichever you boot into will always be the C drive at that time. Since the other system is hidden, you cannot transfer items between the XP and 98/ME partitions. That can only be done via a CD-R or floppy disc or, if the XP is using FAT 32, an extra data partition which both systems will see.

With the confidence gained from this exercise, newer users can use Partition Magic at a future time to add Logical partitions to separate their own data from the two operating systems or provide backup storage areas. However, remember that if the XP installation is using NTFS, the 98/ME installation will not be able to share those files, so anything you want 98/ME to have access to, programs or files, must be put in the 98/ME partition after booting to it.

To add data and/or backup partitions later, start Partition Magic, either from Windows if you have it installed, or from the floppy discs. Then click on the first (XP) partition and click Operations, Resize/Move. Then on the new bar that appears, grasp the right hand end with the double arrow showing as before and adjust it back by the amount of space you want for the data/backup partition(s), clicking OK. Now click the second (98/ME) partition, place your mouse pointer roughly central over the new bar that appears, so that you see a four arrow symbol at the pointer, grip the bar and slide it to the left to rejoin the end of the reduced XP partition.

Now click the empty space at the end, click Operations, Create, and in the box that appears, enter Logical as the partition type and set the file type to that which your XP is using, NTFS or FAT 32. You can let that take the whole of the space, or change the size to a smaller amount if you want to create more partitions in the same way. Then click to apply the changes.

Although your 98/ME won't be able to use those data partitions if they are NTFS, Drive Image can write a restore image into them, even if it's an image of the 98/ME, and subsequently restore it from there

[Guest ellas]

hope flecc won't mind :huh:

[Prince of Calcutta]

but it looks like he currently has a dual boot system with me and xp and wants to get rid of windows me?

[Guest Xper_me]

Which is the date that flecc posted his message??? :unsure:

[Guest ellas]

21-11-2002 and 24-5-2002

[Guest Xper_me]

;) What Prince of Calcutta said, is it 100% realiable??? Sounds like it's a good idea,but i want to make sure that i can use the repair option for the Xp after i've reformated the C drive.But my greatest fear is that when my pc can't boot in xp. :(

[Guest ellas]

not sure if its 100% but what other option have you,I have done a repair on 1 of my xp systems and you will lose all you updates such as service pack 1,wmp9 etc but keep your desktop settings and installed programs.

[Guest Xper_me]

O.k then tomorrow i will do my job and see how it goes...Thanks to the people who replied to help me... :) :) :)