Getting rid of bad XP System Partition on Dual Boot PC 1

[Morey]

I have a PC with a 40 gig hd and Windows XP Home installed. The Partition was corrupted by a virus. The partition was so badly damaged that at first Partition Magic 8 was not able to create a second partition to re-install Windows XP. I needed to keep the damaged partition around to retrieve files that were not backed up (I know!!, I now use Drive Image to backup). After running Scandisk, I was finally able to use PM 8 to create a small (6 gig) partition at the end of the drive and re-install Win XP.

After retrieving my data and reinstalling all my software on this small partition, I want to reclaim the space on my hard drive onto my new partition. What is the best way to do this. I'm pretty sure that I can't just delete the corrupt first partition, which has the boot.ini information and is probably the system partition.

Is there any way make my new partition into a system partition?

Thanks,
Morey

 

[wolluf]

Will drive image let you save the partition as an image on CDs (assuming you have a CD writer) & let you restore partition from it (I know you can do this with Ghost - new partition doesn't have to be same size as original). You could do this - wipe out existing partitions and restore from image. If there is a problem booting you can restore xp's boot partition (copy ntldr, ntdetect.com & boot.ini to it, run recovery console - fixboot command).

Note - you can also make a boot floppy - same 3 files copied to newly formatted floppy will boot XP without hard drive boot sector working.

 

[gargouille]

I'm obviously missing something here, 'cause (he says extending his neck) I'd just boot with a bootdisk that had fdisk on it (or the DI floppies after I fixed them so they'd boot) and set the partition active.
Wouldn't it then accept it as the boot partition and ignore the other one?

 

[Morey]

My PC has a CD-RW and Drive Image will let me save to CD's. Where it gets fuzzy is the restore. I don't understand what you mean when you write
"you can restore xp's boot partition (copy ntldr, ntdetect.com & boot.ini to it, run recovery console - fixboot command)."
Can you give me more details how to to this?

Thanks,
Morey

 

[linney]

XP needs those 3 files in the root of your drive to load the operating system.

Some reading for you.

100323 - Intel x86-Based System Boot Sequence and Files

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;100323&FR=1&PA=1&SD=HSCH

314079 - How to Use System Files to Create a Boot Disk to Guard Against Being Unable to Start

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;314079&FR=1&PA=1&SD=HSCH

305595 - HOW TO: Create a Boot Disk for an NTFS or FAT Partition in Windows XP

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;305595&FR=1&PA=1&SD=HSCH

314470 - Definition of System Partition and Boot Partition

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;314470

289022 - HOW TO: Edit the Boot.ini File in Windows XP

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;289022&FR=1&PA=1&SD=HSCH

314058 - Description of the Windows XP Recovery Console

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;314058&FR=1&PA=1&SD=HSCH

307654 - HOW TO: Install and Use the Recovery Console in Windows XP

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;307654&FR=1&PA=1&SD=HSCH