new partition for temporary file save/transfer

jcw122 · Jun 30, 2005

OK, here's the deal, I want to reformat/reinstall Windows XP since I got a new motherboard and things are a little messy. I don't have another HD nor 7GB worth of CDs (lol wtf). I'm guessing I can just make a new partition to temporarily store the stuff I NEED saved, kill the old main parititon, and then create a new main partition, and transfer everything back.

First, would this work?

Second, how would I do this? I'm guessing Partition Magic 8 would be the best idea?

TIA!

russ_da_bus · Jun 30, 2005

In theory its sounds fine. Hopefully you have enough free space to create a partition and copy the data across. I believe Partition Magic can do partition resizing so you should be ok.

jcw122 · Jun 30, 2005

Yes, I have 8GB of unformated HD space left.

BrutalDrew · Jun 30, 2005

Yes it will work.

pik4chu · Jun 30, 2005

yes it will work, just pay VERY close attention when reinstalling windows that it reads the partition you want and formats what you want. I've had fdisk format a drive that, w/o drivers Windows XP couldnt even see (was on PCI raid card) that sucked but just pay close attention.

klingens · Jun 30, 2005

It will work but it's not necessary at all.
Create a CD with PEBuilder and boot from it. Rename the following directories to something else: c:\Documents and Settings, c:\Windows, c:\Program Files

After that reinstall Windows WITHOUT formatting the partition.. All your data will be there, you will also have a brand new installed Windows. All you need is ~2 GB free space before you begin for the new Windows

jcw122 · Jun 30, 2005

klingens said:
It will work but it's not necessary at all.
Create a CD with PEBuilder and boot from it. Rename the following directories to something else: c:\Documents and Settings, c:\Windows, c:\Program Files

After that reinstall Windows WITHOUT formatting the partition.. All your data will be there, you will also have a brand new installed Windows. All you need is ~2 GB free space before you begin for the new Windows

Wow thats amazing Klingens! I'll try that out and report back

klingens · Jun 30, 2005

Only thing is, you will have two Windows versions in your bootloader, both pointing to the same installed Windows. So just edit your c:\boot.ini accordingly

jcw122 · Jun 30, 2005

klingens said:
Only thing is, you will have two Windows versions in your bootloader, both pointing to the same installed Windows. So just edit your c:\boot.ini accordingly

OK, but how exactly do I edit that? And I find that inside C:? I don't see it there.

redduc900 · Jun 30, 2005

One way to locate and edit the Boot.ini is to open System Properties | "Advanced" tab | Startup and Recovery-->"Settings" button | System Startup-->"Edit" button. This method opens the Boot.ini in Notepad for editing.

jcw122 · Jun 30, 2005

Alright, thanks redduc, I got to the notepad thingy, doesn't look too friendly, how what exactly would I do from there?

redduc900 · Jun 30, 2005

The Boot.ini looks like this when XP is the only available boot option...

[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1) | WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1) | WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Home (or Professional) Edition" /fastdetect

...I used the "Pipe"(|) character in the "boot loader" menu above instead of the "slash"(\) character so it would be properly formatted.

When you see "Unidentified OS" or a second instance of the same OS/any other OS as a boot menu option, you'll need to delete the last line in the Boot.ini that starts with..."C:\Unidentified operating system on drive C." (or whatever happens to be the second OS choice in your particular case), save the file and reboot.

jcw122 · Jul 5, 2005

Alright Redduc, that confused me a little bit, what do you mean when you said "so it would be properly formatted" do u mean on the forum screen, or the OS install?

I'll prolly IM you over AIM or something when I get the time to do this partition thingy, but so far, thanks.

Mr.Guvernment · Jul 5, 2005

but then you have 2 versions of windows installed on one HD ? - personally 0 just make the sperate partition and move things, then back - then you got 1 single version of windows

redduc900 · Jul 5, 2005

Yeah, I just meant "on the forum screen"...as it would look like this if I didn't use the | character:

[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Professional" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect

Edit: Now that's odd, because when I used to paste the Boot.ini into a post, both \WINDOWS entries would have the space. Now it seems as only the first instance of \WINDOWS does...the second one is formatted correctly. But anyway, there should be no space between the W and the S in the first instance of \WINDOWS (in the third line.) I've included a text file in which I pasted the contents of the Boot.ini, just in case you're still confused...it's properly formatted in the .txt file.

jcw122 · Jul 5, 2005

OK gotcha

klingens · Jul 6, 2005

No you don't have 2 versions installed. the old version is moved out of the way. What you do have is 2 entries for the same Windows install on the same partition which is why you have to edit your boot.ini and delete one of the lines.

Elif Tymes · Jul 6, 2005

or you can type in "msconfig" in the run command for a more GUI version of boot.ini.

jcw122 · Jul 6, 2005

Elif Tymes said:
or you can type in "msconfig" in the run command for a more GUI version of boot.ini.

yup, found that a long time ago, just forgot to mention it LOL.

new partition for temporary file save/transfer

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