Moving BOOT.INI, NTDETECT.COM, NTLDR

  • Thread starter Thread starter Calvin Lai
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C

Calvin Lai

I have a C: and D: partition, both NTFS. I just noticed that the
boot.ini, ntdetect.om, and ntldr is on the D: partition. My WINDOWS
folder is in C:\

My boot.ini file:

[boot loader]
timeout=1
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS="Windows Server 2003,
Enterprise" /fastdetect

If I were to relocate those files to C:, other than editing the boot.ini
file so that partition(2) becomes partition(1), is there anything else I
have to do???

I don't have to use a Windows 98 boot disk and FDISK and set the
partition active do I?
 
Calvin said:
I have a C: and D: partition, both NTFS. I just noticed that the
boot.ini, ntdetect.om, and ntldr is on the D: partition. My WINDOWS
folder is in C:\

My boot.ini file:

[boot loader]
timeout=1
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS="Windows Server 2003,
Enterprise" /fastdetect

If I were to relocate those files to C:, other than editing the boot.ini
file so that partition(2) becomes partition(1), is there anything else I
have to do???

I don't have to use a Windows 98 boot disk and FDISK and set the
partition active do I?
Click to expand...

If there are no issues with Windows 2000 running in this way, then leave it
alone. The "fix" is more trouble than it is worth. Drive D is the system partition
and it happened this way because the initial installation of Windows 2000 made
it so. The appropriate way to make this correcction is really to start out with
a brand new, install to a freshly wiped HD.
 
Calvin Lai said:
I have a C: and D: partition, both NTFS. I just noticed that the
boot.ini, ntdetect.om, and ntldr is on the D: partition. My WINDOWS
folder is in C:\

My boot.ini file:

[boot loader]
timeout=1
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS="Windows Server 2003,
Enterprise" /fastdetect

If I were to relocate those files to C:, other than editing the boot.ini
file so that partition(2) becomes partition(1), is there anything else I
have to do???
Click to expand...

I don't know how you ended up with that configuration
but I'm quite sure that if you move your boot files to a different drive...
your system will no longer boot
 
It would boot if you replace MBR and change active partition using fixmbr
and fixboot from RecoveryConsole. W9x fdisk could help only if your current
say, C: partition is the primary one. Record what you're doing step by step
and you'll be able roll back the changes if the things would go wrong (and
they will :).
 
Calvin - what you propose is a really, really bad idea. It's not at all
like moving the sofa closer to the window to satisfy some creative urge.
You'll blow up the house.
 
Jetro said:
It would boot if you replace MBR and change active partition using fixmbr
and fixboot from RecoveryConsole. W9x fdisk could help only if your current
say, C: partition is the primary one. Record what you're doing step by step
and you'll be able roll back the changes if the things would go wrong (and
they will :).
Click to expand...

This suggestion will not work because Drive D had been made the system
partition during the initial setup and installation of Windows 2000. There
can be only one system partition and this was designated with the original
fdisk of the HD after Windows 2000 setup had started. Nor would using
a DOS-based (i.e., Win9X) system boot track help because Win2000 is
a derived from Windows NT; the boot track is entirely different. The only
way to make Drive C the system partition is to re-install entirely, to a clean
HD, i.e., one without any pre-existing partitions of any type. This is what
had happened to cause Drive D to become the system partition.
 
The system partition refers to the disk volume containing hardware specific
files needed to boot Windows (NTLDR, BOOT.INI, and so on). On Intel
x86-based machines, it must be a primary partition that has been marked
active. On x86 machines, this is always drive 0, the drive the system BIOS
searches during system boot for the operating system.
The boot partition contains the Windows operating system files (usually
\WINNT) and it support files (usually \WINNT\SYSTEM32). It can be the same
partition as the system partition.
Simply put, the system partition is an active primary partition with NT
loader files and this is described in partition table. The boot partition is
the one which has the pointer in boot.ini file.
 
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