Moving Systen & Bootmgr from D to C drive

greshoff

Member
I noticed that the system file & Bootmgr is on my D drive. How can I move this successfully to the C drive. Can EasyBCD to this? If so are there clear instructions on the steps involved?

Here is a screen shot from Disk Management
Untitled5
Which shows the the C drive is the boot drive

When I searched the D drive I found the following
Publication1
Which seems to indicate that the boot files are indeed on D drive.
Many thanks
 
Thank you. Could the 450mb unallocated partition on the C drive (See screenshot above (Untitled5) be used as the system and bootmgr partition? How much space in needed to move the system and bootmgr. Many thanks
 
Please ignore previous post -
Thank you. Could the 450mb unallocated partition on the C drive (See screenshot in initial post (Untitled5) be used as the system and bootmgr partition? How much space in needed to move the system and bootmgr. Would EasyBCD move the system and bootmgr partition to the C Drive using the method in your link. Would I need to purchase the paid version to work with Windows 10 Professional - I will be using the software in a home environment.
I have downloaded the free version and selected 'Change Boot Drive' - See screenshot below. Do I need to click 'Preform Action' to get the 'Select New Partition' window to appear? Many thanks.
Untitled3.jpg
 
A quick read of the EasyBCD help and looking at the GUI should answer youi. No you can't move an entire system to another drive. If one has several OS's installed, then one can make another one of those the default boot but the software is not the right tool to move a system.
The paid version applies only when it's used commercially.
You CAN however store the boot manager elsewhere, but that's only a small part of the system and the drive would have to be allocated and given a letter using Disk Management.
 
I looked art the link Terry60 gave but I am still unsure how to proceed . I only have one OS, Windows10. It appears that the boot files are on my D drive & OS is on the C drive. The D drive is marked as 'system' and 'active' in Disk Management - See image. Do I need to click 'Preform Action' to get the 'Select New Partition' window to appear?Untitled5.jpg
 
It appears to me your system is on D and your boot is in C: EasyBCD is only useful with 2 or more operating systems in play.
Regarding the technicalities I'll leave that to Terry, who I will page for you.
@Terry60 can you help please?
 
Thank you for your reply. - Please see my original post -
I noticed that the system file & Bootmgr is on my D drive my OS, Windows 10 is on C drive. When I disconnect the D drive the computer won't boot with a message - "Bootmgr is missing Press Ctrl+Alt+Del to restart".

Here is a screen shot from Disk Management
Untitled5
Which shows the the C drive is the boot drive

When I searched the D drive I found the following - Bootmgr files
See Image below
Which seems to indicate that the boot files are indeed on D drive.

If possible I would like all OS files, including bootmgr, system, on on the C drive.
Publication1.jpg
 
Last edited:
You can move the boot files to the unallocated space if you wish.
By default Windows only allocates 100Mb to the "System Reserved" boot partition it allocates during a normal installation, so 450Mb is plenty.
You will however need to give it a letter (in Disk Management) first, because the next step when you "perform action" is to ask you the drive letter to which you want the boot files copied.

Disk Management flags have the following meanings

"boot" = "this is the system you're running"
"system" = "this is where I found the boot files for the currently running system"
"active" (on the first HDD in the BIOS boot sequence) = "this is where I started the search for the boot files"
"active" (on subsequent HDDs in the BIOS boot sequence) ="this is where I will look if I don't find something in the MBR on the first HDD"

so "change boot drive" is going to set the newly lettered 450Mb "active" instead of C.
However, note the fact mentioned in the previous link. EasyBCD will set the target partition "active" and copy the boot files, but it won't alter or remove the original boot files, so you will continue to boot from them (D will still be flagged "system") until you change your BIOS to boot from the other HDD.
Once you have successfully booted from the copied files (confirm that "system" flag has moved there), then you can manually clean up the boot files from your D drive.

Sorry for the tardy reply. I've been busy knocking down a wall and taking up a floor all this week. Haven't been on the PC much. Better half will confirm that new kitchen trumps PC.
 
Thank you for your explanation, after being unsure how to proceed using EasyBCD I discovered that I could achieve the desired goal using the cmd command - bcdboot c:\windows /s C:
This moved the boot & system files to the C drive and computer booted OK. Boot files & system files are now on C drive.
Hope your renovations go well
 
Glad you got that working; for the record, EasyBCD invokes that command plus others for safety/redundancy with the change boot drive option.
 
I made an account on this forum to thank you @Terry60 .
I've been struggling with this on three lenghty DIY sessions and you solved my problem in an instant.
Thank you!
I hope the renovations went well :smile:
 
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