Please help me switch my drives!

  • Thread starter Thread starter Joe Samangitak
  • Start date Start date
J

Joe Samangitak

I just installed Win2K for the first time, after partitioning and
formatting my Win2K drive with NTFS (under Partition Magic 7). Problem
is, the drives are not configured correctly. I want my Win2K drive to
be the primary drive, and my Win98SE to be the secondary in the chain.
But somehow, Win2K is always the "D" drive, Win98 is the "C". (It
seems the Win2K drive remains "D" no matter how I try to switch it
around...). If I set the jumpers/cables/BIOS to make the Win2K drive
primary, then I get a problem at boot-up, with an error message if I
try to boot into either OS.

I need to know if the use or lack of a special partition is what's
causing the Win2K to show up as "D" (it was originally the "D" drive
when I installed Win2K), and I need to know what changes must be made
to boot.ini if you change the drive letter that Win2K was originally
installed on. Or whatever else the problem might be. I do not want to
install software until this problem is resolved. Thanks!
 
Joe Samangitak said:
I just installed Win2K for the first time, after partitioning and
formatting my Win2K drive with NTFS (under Partition Magic 7).
Click to expand...

Win2K can do that for itself.
Problem is, the drives are not configured correctly. I want my Win2K drive
to be the primary drive, and my Win98SE to be the secondary in the chain.
Click to expand...

Not too clear what you mean by that with respect to the
ribbon cables and master and slave on each ribbon cable.

The short story is that Win98SE normally wants to be on
the master on the primary IDE ribbon cable, tho its possible
to use other configs, thats the most compatible config.
But somehow, Win2K is always the "D" drive, Win98 is the "C".
Click to expand...

Because thats the most compatible config.
(It seems the Win2K drive remains "D"
no matter how I try to switch it around...).
Click to expand...

Correct. The NT/2K/XP family all fix the drive letters
completely independantly of where the drives are on
the ribbon cables and how they are jumpered.

Thats very different to how the Win9x and ME family do that.
If I set the jumpers/cables/BIOS to make the Win2K
drive primary, then I get a problem at boot-up, with
an error message if I try to boot into either OS.
Click to expand...

How are you 'trying to boot ?', using the Win2K boot menu or what ?
I need to know if the use or lack of a special partition
is what's causing the Win2K to show up as "D" (it was
originally the "D" drive when I installed Win2K),
Click to expand...

Nope, thats specified in the Win2K registry basically.
and I need to know what changes must be made to boot.ini if
you change the drive letter that Win2K was originally installed on.
Click to expand...

It is possible to do that, but non trivial.

And you will likely still have a problem with the Win98SE boot too,
depending on how you are actually specifying what OS to boot.

It can be done with a real boot manager but is it worth the trouble ?
 
Mian said:
I know you can do this in partion magic 8, dunno about 7.

Right click on the partition and click advanced, and then change drive
letter. Otherwise, boot into dos from the 98 partition, start FDISK and then
change the primary partition from here
Click to expand...

Funny thing, I tried Partition Magic 8 and there's no option in the
right click of Advanced to change the drive letter... As for the
FDISK solution, well my Win2K already has the first partition set as
Primary (Active). (The second partition is also primary, but not
active). Am I able to do something in FDISK I can't in Partition Magic
8?
 
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