Vista - copy to new hard drive.

Dual boot system setup.. Xp on C:, D: is data and Vista on E:.. I have to
replace the D: drive and want to move Vista to it and use E: for storage.. I
can do a disk copy easy enough, but what do I do to make sure the system
still dual boots..

bw

bigbw wrote:
> Dual boot system setup.. Xp on C:, D: is data and Vista on E:..

That description is ambiguous, unfortunately -- typically the letters
will change when you boot the opposite OS. Normally, Vista will call
its own partition C: and re-letter everything else as needed.

> I have to
> replace the D: drive and want to move Vista to it and use E: for storage.

Is E: a third hard drive, or is it a second partition on one of the
other drives?

> can do a disk copy easy enough, but what do I do to make sure the system
> still dual boots..

The important thing: where are Vista's \boot directory and bootmgr.exe
located? And ntldr and boot.ini also, of course.

"Don" wrote:

> bigbw wrote:
> > Dual boot system setup.. Xp on C:, D: is data and Vista on E:..
>
> That description is ambiguous, unfortunately -- typically the letters
> will change when you boot the opposite OS. Normally, Vista will call
> its own partition C: and re-letter everything else as needed.
>
> > I have to
> > replace the D: drive and want to move Vista to it and use E: for storage.
>
> Is E: a third hard drive, or is it a second partition on one of the
> other drives?
>
> > can do a disk copy easy enough, but what do I do to make sure the system
> > still dual boots..
>
> The important thing: where are Vista's \boot directory and bootmgr.exe
> located? And ntldr and boot.ini also, of course.
>
> Sorry..
C: and D: are separate physical hard drives.. There is also a D: which is a
physical drive also..

What I want to do is partition the C: into two partitions.. one will be c:
and one will be D:, then copy E: to D:, or would i have to reinstall vista..
Not likely the programs installed on E: would work after copying to D:
anyway..

hope this is a little clearer..

bw

On Fri, 6 Apr 2007 18:28:00 -0700, bigbw
<bigbw@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote:

>
>
>"Don" wrote:
>
>> bigbw wrote:
>> > Dual boot system setup.. Xp on C:, D: is data and Vista on E:..
>>
>> That description is ambiguous, unfortunately -- typically the letters
>> will change when you boot the opposite OS. Normally, Vista will call
>> its own partition C: and re-letter everything else as needed.
>>
>> > I have to
>> > replace the D: drive and want to move Vista to it and use E: for storage.
>>
>> Is E: a third hard drive, or is it a second partition on one of the
>> other drives?
>>
>> > can do a disk copy easy enough, but what do I do to make sure the system
>> > still dual boots..
>>
>> The important thing: where are Vista's \boot directory and bootmgr.exe
>> located? And ntldr and boot.ini also, of course.
>>
>> Sorry..
>C: and D: are separate physical hard drives.. There is also a D: which is a
>physical drive also..
>
>What I want to do is partition the C: into two partitions.. one will be c:
>and one will be D:, then copy E: to D:, or would i have to reinstall vista..
>Not likely the programs installed on E: would work after copying to D:
>anyway..
>
>hope this is a little clearer..
>
>bw
You would have to modify the "default" WINDOWS behavior of drive
letter assignments. (standard IDE layout, Normal hard drives only for
simplicity)

C: is the FIRST partition on the First (boot order) hard drive on the
FIRST channel.
D: is the FIRST drive partition of the FIRST drive (Master) on the
SECONDARY channel
E: is typically the SECOND (Slave) Drives First partition on the
Primary channel.
and so on.
Letters are First assigned to the first partition on all drives.
Then they are assigned to the second (if used) partition of each
drive.
Then the 3rd partitions (if used).
Then the 4th (I believe that 4 partitions is still the limit of the
partition table. I could be out of date :/ )

IIRC DOS does not recognize the reassigned drive lettering.
What might be a (resigned) D: in XP, might be E: in W98/DOS