Help with moving master boot files to another partition

Assuming you're successful in converting the logical
partition C: to a Primary partition, just copy the boot
files from D: to C: and adjust the single option entry
in boot.ini to refer to the C: partition (more on that
further on.). Normally, the MBR will look for the
Primary partition marked "active" and assume that
the boot files are in that partition. But in the case of
only one Primary partition, it may simply assume that
the boot files are in the sole Primary partition. Try
just copying the boot files to C:, edit boot.ini, and
see if that works to boot the OS. If not, use Disk
Management to mark C: as the "active" partition.

You don't say what the numbering of the partitions
is, but since Primary partitions are numbered before
logical partitions, I'll assume that C: is the 1st partition.
To edit the boot.ini file so that it tells ntldr to look in
the C: partition for the OS instead of in the D: partition,
edit the line following "default=" so that what is probably
"partition(2)" is changed to "partition(1)", and do the
same for the line following "[operating systems]".
That will point ntldr to the 1st partition (i.e. "C:").

Let us know how it works.

*TimDaniels*

<rosalind8109.DeleteThis@nospamrodadrunner.net> wrote:
> Initially, I partitioned my hard disk into 5 partitions.
> D: is a Dos fat32 partition...
> [....]
> the D: partition (formatted as Dos - fat32) is listed as
> the primary partition and the others are logical partitions.
> When Win 2000 Pro was installed on the C: partition,
> somehow the Boot.ini, ntldr, and ntdetect.com files were
> loaded on the D: partition.
>
> Assuming that creating a backup disk image of my OS
> might be difficult with the files on two different partitions
> (and even if I can, I'm still not keen on having the bootup
> files on a different partition), I'd like to transfer these files
> to the C: partition, which means adjusting the master boot
> record, among other files.
>
> What I'd like to do:
>
> 1) Convert the logical partition (C) to a primary partition.
> I think that Partition Magic can do this, and Pennywise in
> the Win 2000 group says that Fdisk can, too.
>
> 2) Somehow force the C drive to contain all the necessary
> boot-up files and ensure that the Master boot record has
> been adjutsted correctly.
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"Timothy Daniels" wrote:
> ...but since Primary partitions are numbered before
> logical partitions, I'll assume that C: is the 1st partition.

This may or may not hold if a logical partition is
converted to a Primary partition. The C: partition,
having been a logical partition and probably numbered
"2", may remain as partition #2 even after it has been
converted to a Primary partition. Try booting after
the conversion to Primary partition but before editing
the boot.ini file to see what happens. Please report
your findings.

*TimDaniels*
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