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I feel like I should (and do) know the answer to this, but I want to get a second opinion.
1. On a system where there is at least one NT-type partition (NT, 2K, XP) there will be a boot.ini file on C:, which lists the available Windows installations to boot from. Yes? (that is, this file is never absent if such an installation is present?)
2. Even if there is only one and has ever been only one (do Windows installations kill each other with big swords?), this file still exists, and just lists the only available partition as default and probably with timeout=0 so it's automatically selected. (this is the one I'm not sure of).
In other words, if I want to swap C and D in my computer so that I am booting from C and not from D (where my Windows XP install is - I want to wipe C with its Windows 2000 install, and have it be D and use it for backup) - do I need to first put a boot.ini on D, even though it's only going to list the one partition? Or if there's just the one, will it be automatically found and booted to as with 98? (neither of my parents' computers has this file, but I have a feeling that's because they're Win98 and not because that's the only Windows install they've had, but then again I'm not sure, so that's why I'm asking.)
1. On a system where there is at least one NT-type partition (NT, 2K, XP) there will be a boot.ini file on C:, which lists the available Windows installations to boot from. Yes? (that is, this file is never absent if such an installation is present?)
2. Even if there is only one and has ever been only one (do Windows installations kill each other with big swords?), this file still exists, and just lists the only available partition as default and probably with timeout=0 so it's automatically selected. (this is the one I'm not sure of).
In other words, if I want to swap C and D in my computer so that I am booting from C and not from D (where my Windows XP install is - I want to wipe C with its Windows 2000 install, and have it be D and use it for backup) - do I need to first put a boot.ini on D, even though it's only going to list the one partition? Or if there's just the one, will it be automatically found and booted to as with 98? (neither of my parents' computers has this file, but I have a feeling that's because they're Win98 and not because that's the only Windows install they've had, but then again I'm not sure, so that's why I'm asking.)
no subject
Date: Sep. 7th, 2005 08:28 pm (UTC)From:2) Perhaps. :)
The PC will always try to boot to whatever the first drive you specify in the bios is (if you don't specify anything, or your Bios doesn't allow you to change the setting, it is the first drive of the primary IDE port.) Windows when you boot seems to always make this your C drive, no matter what drive your actual Windows installation is located at. The Boot.INI, NTDETECT.COM, and NTLDR (at least -- there may be a couple others I'm forgetting) files will be on that initial drive.
So if you want to make your XP drive your C drive, your Boot.ini et al would go on there, and you'd simply switch the boot order. If not, you can actually edit your Boot.ini file to simply default to the Windows XP drive, before wiping out *almost* everything on your Windows 2000 installation (everything but those necessary root files that is).
Windows 98 is not based on the NT operating system like 2000 and XP, therefore it does not have these files on it.
Hopefully this makes some sense... :)
no subject
Date: Sep. 7th, 2005 09:44 pm (UTC)From:It's already in the correct order - the BIOS isn't set to go to the second HD first (what becomes D: when Windows starts) or anything like that, and the boot.ini does default to Windows XP (I changed that manually as soon as everything was running again). The question was essentially do I need to copy that file over to D (or fake a new one which only mentions Windows XP) before doing the physical swap, and the answer appears to be yes.