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Thread: Removing dual boot setup

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    Removing dual boot setup

    I have a computer running Windows 98 (on a small hard disk C and Windows XP (on a larger hard disk D and I've been asked to remove the smaller hard disk, to be left with a single disk machine running XP (on drive C: I would imagine?)...

    Obviously the physical removal of the smaller drive is easy... and booting into the XP Recovery Console to rewrite the MBR on drive D: is no problem... but what will happen with the drive lettering? Will D: automatically be renamed as C:? Will it stay as D:? Will any application mappings screw up?

    Sorry if any of this is answered elsewhere.

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    Hope you get an answer to this as I have the exact same problem, heres hoping.....

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    If XP is on a primary active partition that is a separate physical disk I would expect the BIOS to letter the disk "C:", yes.

    As Windows makes a reference of paths when it is installed, it will have references to "D:\Windows", "D:\Windows\System32" and "D:\Program Files" so I would be surprised if it did work.

    Then there are all the applications you have installed which will probably have references to "D:\Program Files" in .ini files and registry entries.
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    If you physically remove the drive that is c: then the primary partition of the other drive will become c: and everything will move 'up a letter', e: to d: and so on.

    As for applications, anything in the program files directory will be fine as that is stored as a relative address. As for anything outside that then you may run into problems as you'll have to change the drive letter that the program thinks it's on.

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    Can you remove the 98 disk, then run the XP repair and do fixmbr ?

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    What's the best way to proceed? Would it be best just to leave the additional drive in there, format it and remove the current boot menu?

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    Quote Originally Posted by Reaps
    If you physically remove the drive that is c: then the primary partition of the other drive will become c: and everything will move 'up a letter', e: to d: and so on.

    As for applications, anything in the program files directory will be fine as that is stored as a relative address. As for anything outside that then you may run into problems as you'll have to change the drive letter that the program thinks it's on.
    Doesn't the Windows installation itself work through relative addresses? Isn't everything stored relative to systemroot? If so then the only problems should be programs that are NOT installed in Program Files?

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    Quote Originally Posted by Firebar
    Can you remove the 98 disk, then run the XP repair and do fixmbr ?
    What exactly does a Repair installation do? I assumed it would reconfigure XP to all the defaults, default drivers, etc? OR will it simply correct any path issues within the OS?

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    That's what i meant heh

    Another thing, If the other drive was your boot drive previously then they'll be no xp bootstrap on the new c: drive so you'll need to tackle that accordingly. Oh and make sure the partition on the new drive is set to 'active'.

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    Quote Originally Posted by imroberts
    What exactly does a Repair installation do? I assumed it would reconfigure XP to all the defaults, default drivers, etc? OR will it simply correct any path issues within the OS?
    I think Firebar has it right - a fixmbr/fixboot on the second disk, then a repair using the XP CD, which basically blitzes portions of the registry and key system files with "known good" copies from the installation media.


    This presents some things to bear in mind:

    1. You have probably regressed your system in terms of SP and/or hotfixes

    2. You have overwritten portions of the registry to make the system "work" but your applications are not part of the core OS so anything that has written an entry using the D: drive will be unchanged (and be incorrect)

    3. Any shortcut on the system is stored as a file, so will have an incorrect path unless they refer to "%systemdrive%", "%systemroot%" or "%programfiles%" (typically OS shortcuts)

    4. Any application that creates or relies on .ini files will be untouched, so incorrect and may cause them to fail to launch if they refer to a wrong or non-existant drive


    %systemroot%, %systemdrive% and %programfiles% are system environment variables which installation programs may use but they most often dereference them and set the paths to the value of the variable and don't refer to the variables themselves.

    Check the properties on some of your shortcuts and browse the registry and you will find a mixture of (e.g.) "%systemroot%\system32\rundll32.exe" and "d:\program files\myapplication\myapp.exe" entries - the first type will be okay as they are relative, but the second type won't work.

    What apps will work and what will fail?
    Impossible to say, it depends on how the app handles incorrect settings - does it fail to run, crash immediately, crash when you click File/Open, default to the desktop, prompt you for the location of the application... that is down to the guy that programmed it.

    If a shortcut is wrong then Windows will try to locate the nearest match (assuming a user dragged & dropped the folder by mistake, or forgot to update the shortcut), so some might repair themselves.


    Personally I would back up any data you want to keep, and when you take out the drive with '98 on it you reinstall XP from scratch.
    Download and copy away SP2 if your install CD does not have it built-in, and apply that immediately after installation before you go near the Internet.
    ~ I have CDO. It's like OCD except the letters are in alphabetical order, as they should be. ~
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