Removing C drive from Dual Boot scenario
 

I have a machine with Win98 on the C drive and Win XP Pro (the version I use) on F. I would like to take out the C drive, so I can use it in another machine.

It can see I would need to:
1. make the F drive bootable (I guess it becomes C)
2. patch winxp registry to make the programs on the new C drive work.

Am I just kidding myself? (as I type this, it sounds more and more implausible).

One possibilty is just installing windows inplace again on your "F" drive. I think that it would pretty much just overwrite in place and add a new MBR somewhere. But don't take my word for it.

Have you tried just taking that hard drive out? It should just boot from the other hard drive. Not sure if it changes the drive letter, but I doubt it. It should stay F, and work just fine.

Give what spived2 said a try, but I think it won't work since the MBR is most likely on the 1st (removed ) drive.

What you're asking is theoretically possible, however it would be a complete bitch.

Like RageAngel said, you'd need to redirect the MBR (master boot record) and move the function of the ntldr file onto the other drive. By the time that you got done fiddling with it, assuming that it ever worked right because of the changes you've made to all of your paths, it probably would've been better to have started out reformatting the machine and saving yourself the trouble.

At $30-50 for a new 80GB drive, it's hard to justify the work required to make your F drive into your C drive. Getting it to boot is relatively simple but making Windows function, along with your apps, will be painful. Better to accost friends and find a spare drive from their cast-off pile.

I'm with spived..


If windows is installed on it, which it sounds like it is, and you don't need anything on the old drive...

I don't know what the hell you other guys are talking about, maybe you don't use windows or something, but it sounds like 'version I use' means the version it boots off of, and even if that isn't the case all you would have to do is get into the BIOS and change the 1st boot drive.

So it sounds to me like all you have to do is physically remove the old drive, and I bet you cash money the computer will figure out it's gone and boot from the sole remaining drive (sure it may try to boot off cd but I doubt you will randomly have a bootable cd in the drive)

Thanks guys - I will try and remove the C drive and see if it still boots
- plan B is to see if the thing I want working in the old machine will function in a new machine (only have software for Win95, and really not sure it will function in XP)
- plan C is beg/borrow/steal a small old drive from friends as cyrnel said.

Just to finish this off - I tried the old card I wanted to use in my current XP machine, so I don't need the small hard drive anymore, so I think I've saved myself some headaches :)