My system has two hard drives.
The first has a Win XP Pro OS on the front of the drive, the letter C: is assigned to this installation.
The second hard drive has another installation of Win XP Pro on the front of it, the letter F: is assigned to this installation.
I made the F: installation after the C: installation; therefore the boot related files are within the C: installation (e.g. boot.ini, ntdlr, ntdetect.com, etc.)
I have imaged the F: installation and tweaked to my liking. What I would like to do now is get rid of the C: installation but I realize that my system won't boot if I do.
What I am trying to figure out is what I need to do to make the F: installation completely self-sufficient (in other words, bootable on its own).
Suppose I just wiped out the C: drive and rebooted using my slipstreamed Win XP Pro-sp2, then log into the Recovery Console and ...what?
Would I have to recreate a MBR?
I would have to use bootcfg to make a boot.ini file
But none of the above get ntdlr, ntdetect.com or other boot dependent files onto my F: installation. Is it possible to simply copy the boot dependent files from C: to F: and then use the Recovery Console to fix the boot.ini file.
Do I have to physically change the hard drive which has the F: partition to my Master drive?
Do I have to flag the F: partition as the active partition (quite sure the answer is, yes) and if so when do I do this?
What I have located and read thus far in regard to all of this has left me with a vague understanding of what I have to do; but I am hoping to get some tailored guidance.
Thanks
The first has a Win XP Pro OS on the front of the drive, the letter C: is assigned to this installation.
The second hard drive has another installation of Win XP Pro on the front of it, the letter F: is assigned to this installation.
I made the F: installation after the C: installation; therefore the boot related files are within the C: installation (e.g. boot.ini, ntdlr, ntdetect.com, etc.)
I have imaged the F: installation and tweaked to my liking. What I would like to do now is get rid of the C: installation but I realize that my system won't boot if I do.
What I am trying to figure out is what I need to do to make the F: installation completely self-sufficient (in other words, bootable on its own).
Suppose I just wiped out the C: drive and rebooted using my slipstreamed Win XP Pro-sp2, then log into the Recovery Console and ...what?
Would I have to recreate a MBR?
I would have to use bootcfg to make a boot.ini file
But none of the above get ntdlr, ntdetect.com or other boot dependent files onto my F: installation. Is it possible to simply copy the boot dependent files from C: to F: and then use the Recovery Console to fix the boot.ini file.
Do I have to physically change the hard drive which has the F: partition to my Master drive?
Do I have to flag the F: partition as the active partition (quite sure the answer is, yes) and if so when do I do this?
What I have located and read thus far in regard to all of this has left me with a vague understanding of what I have to do; but I am hoping to get some tailored guidance.
Thanks