Move OS from System Partition (Win XP & Win 7 Dual Boot)

What you could do is create a small 200GB primary partition. Make sure though that you do not have already more than 3 primary partitions on that disk (check in Disk Management). Give that little partition a letter and copy the bootmgr there (see tutorial). Use the letter of this little partition in lieu of C:\.

Bootmgr - Move to C:\ with EasyBCD

The bootmgr will be copied and the little partition will be activated and the XP partition will be deactivated. The original bootmgr will still remain on the XP partition, but it serves no function any more since the partition will be deactivated. Should anything ever happen to your little partition, you could reactivate the XP partition (and deactivate the little partition) and things would be as they are now.

Note: If you already have 4 primary partitions on that disk, post back and we will fix that first. Under no circumstance try to create any additional partition if you have already 4 primaries. You would end up in deep yogurt with all dynamic partitions.

And may I ask why you want to do that ??

Hi - thanks for the quick reply.

First, I do already have four partitions on that HDD:

1. Disk 0 - WinXP (Active, Primary, System)
2. Disk 0 - Win7 (Boot, Primary, Page File, Crash Dump) - I suspect it says "Boot" because I'm currently using Win7 and booted into this partition)
3. Disk 0 - Data (Primary)
4. Disk 0 - Media (Logical Drive)

Second, will using EasyBCD and following the instructions move the hidden BOOT folder, bootmgr. ntldr, boot.ini, etc. all to the small partition? And does this small partition become a System partition as well as being "Active?" And, since its currently not used, can I call this new partition "S" Drive?

Will the system boot up to the same black screen menu I currently see; with WinXP Drive D, Win7 Drive C? And, could I then delete the Boot and NST folders, etc. from the WinXP partition?

To answer you last question, at some point I suspect I may have to reformat that old original partition and knew all the boot information was "living" there and I was afraid I would not be able to boot, even into the Win7 side.

Hmm, not good because you have 3 primaries and 1 extended (logical) partition. Do the following:

1. Download the .iso for the bootable CD of Partition Wizard from here (last box on the webpage)

2. Burn this .iso to CD - e.g. with ImgBurn

3. Boot your PC with this CD

4. Highlight the Data Partition (click on it) and click on the Partition tab above

5. Go to Modify and click on ' Set partition as logical'

6. Click on Apply (top left)

You will then be OK. You could do the same with the Windows 7 partition. No need to have any primary partitions except for the active partition.

You can chose any free letter for the little partition.

Once you copied the bootmgr, the boot sequence should be the same as now.

PS: you did not tell me why you are doing that - just curious.

Well, in that case I would just copy the bootmgr to the Windows 7 partition. Then you need not go thru all those procedures.

It`s a matter of choice Roxie, but whs will give you sound advice.

Primary partitions are all I ever use.

AddRAM said:

It`s a matter of choice Roxie, but whs will give you sound advice.

Primary partitions are all I ever use.

That's OK if you have only 2 or 3 partitions on the disk. But there is really no need for primaries except for the active partition.

The OEMs have started that nuisance to make all partitions as primaries and usually 4 of them. That's why so many people end up with dynamic partitions if they want to create an extra partition.