Moving Boot Files (Panging?)

Rasta Monsta · May 11, 2006, 12:10 PM

OK, so I just set up an HTPC with Media Center, and for some reason the install didn't want to complete with only an SATA drive connected. So, I ran it again with my big IDE drive attached, and it installed fine to the SATA as the D: drive. However, NTLDR, Boot.ini, etc, all reside on the IDE drive.

The IDE drive is a little small for all my MP3s, and will be replaced eventually. I'm sure if I just copy those system files over to the new drive before the swap, the system will boot fine, but I don't really like that setup.

Questions:

1. If I move system startup files to D:, will the OS look for them there, or stop after not finding them on C: (invalid system disc, blah blah blah).
2. If I can move them to D: and have them work, will boot.ini need to be edited?

Thanks,

rasta

PangingJr · May 11, 2006, 02:42 PM

create a XP boot floppy disk (just in case) - http://www.nu2.nu/bootdisk/ntboot/

do not move the files but copy them from the C (primary partition on the P-ATA drive) to D,

the D (on S-ATA drive) must be "primary partition" and "active".

if the D is not a primary partition, nor has not been set active
and you remove the P-ATA drive from the system you will not be able to boot the Windows on the D/S-ATA drive.

if the D is a primary partition, after you copied the files to this partition you can shutdown/turn off and remove the P-ATA drive...
but make sure that you set active to the D partition before your first attempt to boot the Windows...
and first try this without changing the data in the boot.ini file.

anyway, i still like to see you can install the Windows on the S-ATA drive?

Rasta Monsta · May 11, 2006, 06:44 PM

Hmm, how do you set the SATA drive to active?

I have a feeling the install issue was hardware related. . .I should have removed add-in cards & started again but I was impatient.

TIA

PangingJr · May 11, 2006, 11:21 PM

if you configure SATA to use IDE mode then P-ATA and S-ATA drives are the same in most ways.

since only the active partition is searched for the boot files by the BIOS and NT loader during the boot process,
the boot partition on the S-ATA drive (which is D partition) must be active.

there are several ways to set active to a primary partition...

prefered way is to boot your computer with a third-party partitioning program (like partition magic) bootable diskette/CD...

after the files have been copied to drive D...
(if you don't want to remove the P-ATA drive at this time you can do so, but to test if this will also works after you decide to remove this drive from your machine i like you to set "Hide" to the boot partition on this drive... see below.)
restart your computer with the partition magic boot diskette or CD...
after program loaded, select the S-ATA drive and then select the boot partition on the drive,
R-click the partition... and find an option to configure the partition to Active and then set active to the partition...
(the previous active boot partition on the P-ATA drive will be set to inactive...)
then select the P-ATA drive, R-click the boot partition on this drive and find an option to configure the partition to Hide...

then restart your computer to Windows XP's normal mode...

if you can boot the XP with the boot files in the D partition... this means the computer is booted to Windows on the D drive using boot and system files on this drive alone...
you can then restart your computer with the boot diskette/CD and reset the Hide bit on the boot partition of the P-ATA drive, by select Unhide to the partition, and then if you like to delete the partitions on this drive and re-create some new partitions and format it(them) you can do so at this time. then turn off the computer and completely remove the drive from this computer...

Rasta Monsta · May 26, 2006, 11:49 AM

Finally got it figured out...the SATA drive was not connected to SATA-1, which the BIOS set to configure as IDE1-Master. Windows would see the drive as C: and start the installation process, but at the reboot phase I got an INVALID SYSTEM DISC error, because there was no disc where the BIOS was lookling for a boot device.

DOH!

rsata

PangingJr · May 27, 2006, 03:08 AM

forgot to check back on this thread.
that happens to me all the time when i started to add more hard drives and configure raid volumes on my systems.
like i have SATA drives connected to SATA port 0,1,2 and 3, but i only selected the drives on port 0,1 and 2 for raid volume and leave the drive on port 3 as a non-Raid drive, then after i finished setting up Windows onto the newly created raid volume i'll have to go back into BIOS setup and preset the raid volume to have first priority for hard drives startup and the next priority will be other non-Raid drives (then other drives that's connected with other controllers or on the ports of an add-on card). this because of the BIOS sees the non-Raid drive as it's connected on port 0 and the raid volume is on port 1.

ZeroOne · May 27, 2006, 07:09 AM

I have a Sata Drive 160 GB, and a Pata 80 GB
When i go to install XP on the Sata, windows wanted install some files on the Pata, while the Sata was set to active and the Pata not, i didn't want that happen.
To solve this problem I go to the BIOS and disabled the Pata drive.
I Ran setup again and XP installed fully to the Sata, after XP was installed i enabled the Pata again.
No problems doing it this way.

PangingJr · May 27, 2006, 08:17 AM

if you want to use the P-ATA drive as a non-system drive, then partition the entire space of the drive with an extended partition,
then when the first partition of the S-ATA drive is a primary partition and this partition is only primary partition on the system or at least it's only primary partition that the Windows setup program sees and refers this partition as drive C (this means if there's more than one primary partitions do exist on the system, the other primary partitions have already been set as hidden partition before starting the Windows installation. the Windows setup program will then give a drive letter next to the last logical drives to the hidden partitions) and it has been set active, and the system BIOS has already been preset to boot the S-ATA before the P-ATA drives then the Windows should not have any problem installing both the system files and boot files onto the primary partition of the S-ATA drive.

ZeroOne · May 27, 2006, 02:05 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by PangingJr

if you want to use the P-ATA drive as a non-system drive, then partition the entire space of the drive with an extended partition,
then when the first partition of the S-ATA drive is a primary partition and this partition is only primary partition on the system or at least it's only primary partition that the Windows setup program sees and refers this partition as drive C (this means if there's more than one primary partitions do exist on the system, the other primary partitions have already been set as hidden partition before starting the Windows installation. the Windows setup program will then give a drive letter next to the last logical drives to the hidden partitions) and it has been set active, and the system BIOS has already been preset to boot the S-ATA before the P-ATA drives then the Windows should not have any problem installing both the system files and boot files onto the primary partition of the S-ATA drive.

U are right , but i didn't want to set the P-ata as extended partition , because of data loss so I tought, so i wanna leave it an unactivated primary partition.

Am I right ?, when i set it to an extended partition, i have first delete the primary partition, and loses all the for me important data..? or am I wrong ?

PangingJr · May 27, 2006, 02:18 PM

i was saying in general. i did not say that you were wrong.
you will have to backup your data/files on any drives/partitions before attempting to repartition the hard drive anyway.

still not sure if i did answer your question or not?

ZeroOne · May 27, 2006, 06:34 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by PangingJr

i was saying in general. i did not say that you were wrong.
you will have to backup your data/files on any drives/partitions before attempting to repartition the hard drive anyway.

still not sure if i did answer your question or not?

I know U say it in general ,i only question it to make sure i did it right.

I couldn't back up because my prev. Win HD crashed,
I gonna backup this P-ata verry soon and follow your instructions.

U did answer my question verry well.
Thanks