Changing the active partition and a boot dvd question?

joemardo1

Member
Hi folks,

I posted a few weeks ago and thank you for your help then.

Briefly I have xp on C, windows 7 on D and also E, windows 8 on F.

All partitions on the one hard drive, with xp as the active partition so basically if I loose everything if xp partition becomes corrrupted.

A few questions,

1 If I ever decide to get rid of xp altogether (format that partition) Do I just go into one of the other windows before doing so in disk management in computer and set one of the other windows partitions as active? Is there a bootable DVD available that would enable me to do that at boot time?

2 In Easy BCD backup/repair options I notice that there is a change boot drive option. Would using this accomplish what I am asking above?

Thanks a lot
Joe

Addendum

Seems I may have asked something along these lines in this post,


https://neosmart.net/forums/showthread.php?t=12140

the old memory isn't good :smile:
But still anything further that anyone can think of will help me.

Many thanks
Joe
 
"Change boot drive" will copy all the the necessary files to another partition and set it active, so that it takes over the boot.
http://neosmart.net/wiki/display/EBCD/Changing+the+Boot+Partition
Just setting a partition active with no other action would break the boot.
If you tell the MBR (which interrogates the "active" flag) that the boot files are on a partition which doesn't contain them, that's as far as you'll get. The MBR goes where you pointed it, finds nothing, then gives up.

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"
 
"Change boot drive" will copy all the the necessary files to another partition and set it active, so that it takes over the boot.
http://neosmart.net/wiki/display/EBCD/Changing+the+Boot+Partition
Just setting a partition active with no other action would break the boot.
If you tell the MBR (which interrogates the "active" flag) that the boot files are on a partition which doesn't contain them, that's as far as you'll get. The MBR goes where you pointed it, finds nothing, then gives up.

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"

Thank you get again Terry for your answer. I think I am slowly getting to grips with a basic understanding of how the boot sequence works with your help and the link to the multibooters page you gave me earlier in the year.

One question if I may,

I have 2 HDD on my computer all my OS and boot records are on Disk 1 in computer management, the other Disk 0 contain four data partitions with acronis backup etc on them, and one of the partitions is a primary active one.

Now is it possible for me to copy using Easy bcd the boot sequence to my Disk 0 active partition just to use as a backup in case anything goes wrong on my Disk 1 MBR and boot programs, and then should the need arise just change the boot in the bios to Disk 0? I would just use Easy BCD to copy over the boot program as a backup (if possible) but then revert to using my present setup.

I hope that I am explaining ok what I am trying to do.

Thanks a lot Terry

Joe
 
No problem with doing that.
A duplicate set of boot files on the 2nd HDD could be used to boot the OSs on the 1st.
You'd have to remember to keep them sync'd with the other HDD if you make any future changes.
Just use "change boot drive" but don't swap the HDD sequence in the BIOS.
EasyBCD copies (not moves) the files and sets the partition active, but, as the wiki link says, if the files are moved to a different HDD, you must switch the BIOS to complete the switch, or the system will continue to boot from the (unaltered) boot files on the original HDD.
 
Thanks a lot Terry :smile:

I have copied the boot sequence over. Just out of interest when I open the drive and I have show hidden files and folders ticked to view, I don't see any thing there boot related.

Is that normal enough?

Cheers
Joe
 
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The boot items are not only under hidden files but they are also System Protected Files. So you will have to not only check the option to show hidden files but the system protected files in order to view them.
 
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