Advice please on swapping Win7 and XP drive letters (separate disks)

Thanks for the reminder Si that Win7 doesn't absolutely need to be on C. It's just that after offering the choice for so long with very few wanting it on another letter, I finally gave up mentioning it. But I edited my post to be correct.

I'm not sure why XP needs to have its boot restored, ComputerGeek, since it is currently booting all OS's from C as signified by the System flag. C should be Partition Marked Active however. In addition, running Startup Repair while XP HD is still plugged in will only reassert the multi-boot from XP even if Win7 is marked Active. This is why the need to unplug the XP HD to run Startup Repair - Run 3 Separate Times to make Win7 independently bootable. It is already marked Active as also required.

If Gromwood chooses to keep Win7 booting as D, but wants to make the drives separately bootable as I've suggested, then any stray boot listings should be deleted in EasyBCD Edit OS Menu tab. However, again, if having the OS's independently bootable via the BIOS is not to his liking, he can add them back from EasyBCD on Win7. The backup XP partition on Disk1 can even remain hidden until needed.

Guys,

Many thanks to you all for taking the trouble to post really helpful replies and suggestions. Yes, will make sure I get SP1 on. (And I see SP2 is around also ?)

I will carefully study all the good stuff I've been sent and then tread carefully. I'll post back when I've done, although may not be for a few days as herself demands I get on with some decorating and attempts to ban me from the pc for longer that a half-hour session.

You are quite right, there is no reason at all why Win 7 (or XP) has to be on any particular drive letter - it was just something I preferred to have Win 7 on C going forward.


Thanks again all.

Regards

gregrocker said:

I'm not sure why XP needs to have its boot restored

Yep. You're right. Rebuilding XP boot loader wouldn't help.

Though just editing OS drive letter assignments using EBCD may be the simplest solution? (certainly easy to try) - if that met the user's needs.

In any case, gromwood: hope all goes well!

I know of no way to change a booting OS drive letter except to reinstall. To try will often ruin the OS, so be sure to back up User data and a System Image if you try.

gregrocker said:

I know of no way to change a booting OS drive letter except to reinstall. To try will often ruin the OS, so be sure to back up User data and a System Image if you try.

My bad. I'm batting 0 for 2 on this one. Sorry.

I removed my 2 earlier posts