Move/change the NST & Boot folders from the root C:\?

LDAsh

Member
Hi, sorry if this has been asked before, maybe it's difficult to search for...

I have a dual-boot setup on my friend's PC with WinXP and 7, and I installed EasyBCD on XP.

It has created 3 folders on the root C:\
\Boot\
\NST\
\Temp\Boot\

Mainly, I just want to keep the root C:\ as clean as possible for the XP setup.

Is there a way I can move these folders, perhaps to inside the C:\Windows\ folder?

If not, despite being worried about the risks involved, I am thinking about starting over fresh, using the Windows 7 partition, because the root C:\ with that is a mess anyway...
 
Boot files must be in the root.
MS architecture.
Normally hidden unless you have folder options set thus
 
Indeed do because I (we) like to know the contents of our HDDs.
It's a shame this can't be customised, but I guess I'll undo the dual-boot on XP and try again on 7. *gulp*

BTW, I'm confused why there is a \Temp\Boot\ full of the same stuff that seems to already be in \Boot\, but I can't delete either of them, even in safe mode, even plugged in as an external HDD.
 
Boot files have to be in the root of the HDD you're booting, but there's no problem making that a different HDD.
Changing the Boot Partition
Any folder ....\temp\.... should be removable (pretty stupid giving it that name, if not), but it might just be a case of ownership.
You should be able to authorize your admin ID to remove it.
 
Hey there. I tried following the steps on the page, now it says when booting XP:-
Invalid BOOT.INI file
Booting from C:\windows\
NTDETECT failed

I installed onto the Win7 partition because it said I couldn't do it under XP, then followed the steps to change the boot partition to Windows 7.

BTW, I still can't delete these folders (even \Temp\) from the XP C:\, even from Windows 7. And now I can't even get into safe mode with XP. Bad advice...
 
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An update - I tried to use the WinXP install disc to do a repair and it's telling me:-
The file pciide.sys is corrupted.
Press any key to continue.
Setup failed. Press any key to restart your computer.
So I assume it's actually looking at the partition that Windows 7 is on, and no way in BIOS I can change which partition to boot from, only which drive...
 
What are you actually trying to do ?
I said those boot files must be in the root, you don't have the option to delete them or move them other than into the root of a different system and boot from there instead.
That won't remove them from the root, just place them in a different root.
Post a screenshot of your disk management, and include the EasyBCD "view settings" (detailed mode) and we'll take a look at where you are currently.
 
Your Windows XP setup CD doesn't have the drivers needed to access the disks/partitions in question.

Are you using EasyBCD's automatic Windows XP boot mechanism or did you try to do anything manually? Our wiki at NeoSmart Knowledgebase has all of these XP errors very well documented.
 
We recovered the files from a backup and can boot into XP again, luckily, and rewrite the boot.ini file. We're back to where we were before but found a program that can hide these folders on the C:\, which isn't a great solution but at least makes things tidy. I'd really like to get this stuff onto the Windows 7 partition, like I said, it's such an ugly mess anyway it really wouldn't matter, but unless there is a clear way to do this, we'd really rather not screw around with it anymore...
 
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The next version of EasyBCD will, God willing, automatically hide all its helper files and folders so most users will never have to see them.
 
Nice idea, but if it's at all possible, moving them into the \Windows\ folder would be more ideal. If they are hidden, a user may wish to unhide them from time to time, for whatever reason. I don't know about you guys, but I really like my root C:\ to be as clean as possible, without needing to hide ALL system and hidden files from view.
 
As @Terry60 already explained, it isn't possible. We wouldn't have put them there if it were (believe me, I still cringe in memory of Windows 95 apps installing to the drive root).

The amount of space in memory is limited to only supporting a few characters for the bootloader path (under 8 or so). Once upon a time EasyBCD did what every other bootloader app in the universe does: put *boot* files in the root of the *boot* drive. Then we decided to bring some measure of sanity to the world, and introduced the NST folder.

The right answer is for your boot drive to be separate from your Windows drive and to have your boot drive mounted and accessible by a letter when using EasyBCD to avoid having anything on your drive C:

It is unfortunate that users are virtually never content with what developers have provided them with; even (or somehow, especially) in he case of software they didn't pay a cent for.
 
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