Windows 8 Moving Windows

[Llew]

Hi there, I'm really in need of some help with my Windows 8.

When I installed my Windows XP, for some reason my Windows 8 moved to E: Partition, when it previously was on C: Partition, now C: Partition is a System Reserved partition.

Now what I want to know, is moving my Windows 8/E: Files to C: safe? or is there some safe way to do so? (NOTE: I don't really care if I lose Windows XP but I can't afford to lose my Windows 8 files).

Please tell me if I can move Windows 8 back to C: and keep it working.
Because when I try to boot Windows 8 it gives me some hal.dll error, error also changes when I change my boot.ini Windows 8 Partition number.

My partitions are organized as:
C: System Reserved
E: Windows 8
*: Other
H: Windows XP
* Unallocated

My boot.ini is like :

[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(4)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(4)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Professional" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS="Windows 8" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect

Also not sure if Windows 8 is either partition no. 1/2/3/5

By the way I'm not really sure if I'm explaining my problem really well, so if you need to know anything to help me just tell me so I can add it.

Thanks sincerely, waiting anxiously for your response.

 

[MikeHawthorne]

Hi

I've found when dual booting that the operating system that I open is always drive C:\.
It's a little strange to have the System Reserved partition be C:\.

I used to just change the drive letters on the drives to whatever I wanted them to be in disk manager.
If you right click on the drive in Disk Management you will see the option "Change Drive Letters and Paths" .

This can be kind of a task, for instance if I wanted D: to be C: and C: to be D:, it was necessary to change C: to F: or something that isn't used (it won't let you change a drive letter to one that's already being used", and then change D: to C: and then go back and change F: to D: etc.

In your case you would have to start by changing the System Reserved to some drive letter that isn't being use and you can probably leave it that way.

Then change the OS that you are booting into, to C:\

Maybe someone can say whether this is a valid option in Windows 8 but it always worked in earlier versions.

I never had any path issues when I did it.


If that doesn't work then...

Maybe someone else has an idea but I think that you will have to back everything up and then start over.

It is probably possible to create a system image of both of your OS drives and then on a clean hard drive restore them to where you want them, but you will probably have to use something like EasyBCD to get it to boot correctly.

I'd be inclined to create the disk images before you do anything anyway.
It would be good to have a 1TB external drive.

I would try and restore one of the operating systems and get everything working and booting, and then on a separate partition or hard drive restore the other OS.

If you were doing it on another hard drive I'd consider unplugging the first one when you restore the second one.

As I said, I would expect that which ever operating system you boot into will show up as C:\, that's what's always happend to me.
Surprisingly this doesn't seem to cause any link problems for software that's installed or anything.

Things that were previously on drive D:\ still open and run from the icons on the desktop even though they are now on Drive C:\ etc.

Maybe someone else has a better plan, but that's the way I would probably do it.

Mike