O/s boot files query/doubt

A

anfjavid

Skilled
hello TEvians,

Having this doubt for a long time.

If i install windows 7 or win XP (any one) in drive D and subsequently if drive C gets corrupted or if i format it, will i be able to boot to windows ?. My question is, where will the boot record informaton be stored ?. If m not wrong, irrespective of any partition where the O/s is installed, drive C will be essential to store data like MBR info, boot info, ect.,

Could any of you explain this and tell me whether drive C will be required or not in the above case.
 
See MBR is stored in the C drive. First when you install win Xp i C drive then Win 7 in D drive, the required boot infos for win7 is stored in C drive. So when the C drive is corrupted, and when you reinstall win XP in C drive, then the previous win7 boot informations are erased.

To solve this problem and to boot into win7, all you have to do is to insert win7 DVD and boot from it. In the subsequent options just choose to repair your win7 installation.

I hope you problem is solved and i have properly answered you questions, thereby clearing your doubts.

If i have failed to do so, please be humble enough to reply
 
You dint understand my query m8. I know pretty well that when win 7 is installed after win xp (WIN XP - drive C , WIN 7 - drive D) and subsequently if drive C get corrupted i wont be able to enter WIN 7 or even WIN XP. In this case i know pretty well that the boot files pertaining to Win XP and Win 7 are stored on Drive C only (though the program files /windows directory of Win 7 are stored in drive D)

My question is if i am going to buy a new hdd , partition it into C, D, E, F and G , and install WIN 7 via DVD on drive D and thereafter my Drive C gets corrupted or formatted, I will be able to enter Win 7 or not ?. In this case where will the boot files be stored ? drive C or drive D ?
 
My question is if i am going to buy a new hdd , partition it into C, D, E, F and G , and install WIN 7 via DVD on drive D and thereafter my Drive C gets corrupted or formatted, I will be able to enter Win 7 or not ?. In this case where will the boot files be stored ? drive C or drive D ?
Click to expand...

See if partition you are mentioning about partitioning the same HDD into C,D,E... etc. then the pervious rule applies,, the boot infos for winXP as well as win7 will be stored in C drive.

If you use 2 HDD and install winXP and win7 seperately in the 2 HDD C drive then the boots record will be safe even if either of then gets corrupted. But in this case you have to select the HDD at BIOS boot menu screen which is generally achieved either by pressing F8/F11/F12
 
anfjavid said:
My question is if i am going to buy a new hdd , partition it into C, D, E, F and G , and install WIN 7 via DVD on drive D and thereafter my Drive C gets corrupted or formatted, I will be able to enter Win 7 or not ?. In this case where will the boot files be stored ? drive C or drive D ?
Click to expand...

after formating the C drive if you do repair with with the win 7 dvd and repair the mbr then you will be able to boot into it
 
IMO irrespective of whatever partition in which any O/S (WIN7 or WINXP) is installed, the boot files will be stored in drive C only. Right ?.

Even if there are two harddisks, the O/s files will be stored in drive C only and whether the O/s is installed in 1st hdd or 2nd hdd doesnt matter, Right ?.

@CA50, M8 you tell that the boot files will be stored in both the hdds when 2 hdds are there. How is this possible ?. IMO boot files will be stored (only in 1 location) in the partition which is drive C at the time of installing the O/s.

So if drive C comes under the 1st Hdd at the time of installing O/s, then boot files will be stored there (1st hdd's C drive). And if the same comes under the 2nd hdd at the fime of installing o/s, the boot files will be stored there (2nd Hdd's C drive). Not both.

Correct me if i am wrong..
 
anfjavid said:
IMO irrespective of whatever partition in which any O/S (WIN7 or WINXP) is installed, the boot files will be stored in drive C only. Right ?

Even if there are two harddisks, the O/s files will be stored in drive C only and whether the O/s is installed in 1st hdd or 2nd hdd doesnt matter, Right ?.
Click to expand...

Correct AFAIK..

And to get rid of this problem, the all you have to do is repair Win7 by choosing repair option in win7 dvd. This will repair the mbr and then you will be able to boot into it no matter even if your C:/ is still corrupted.. :)
 
anfjavid said:
@CA50, M8 you tell that the boot files will be stored in both the hdds when 2 hdds are there. How is this possible ?. IMO boot files will be stored (only in 1 location) in the partition which is drive C at the time of installing the O/s.
Click to expand...

this is absolutely possible. To do this first connect HDD 1(for convenience), then install XP with all the drivers, softwares etc.
Now remove HDD 1 and connect HDD 2 then install win7 there same like xp.
Now connect both the HDD. Configure in BIOS to first HDD to boot from, depends on your choice- if yu want to run xp or 7. Let me assume that you have selected XP. Now say you want to boot to win7, just press f8/f11/f12 at post screen to get the Boot menu, there you can select the other HDD. lo you get 7.:hap2:

The advantage in this method is that, if either of the OS gets corrupts, you can use the other one without any problem, as these OS are on separate HDD, they have nothing in common to share.:hap2:
 
anfjavid said:
hello TEvians,

Having this doubt for a long time.

If i install windows 7 or win XP (any one) in drive D and subsequently if drive C gets corrupted or if i format it, will i be able to boot to windows ?. My question is, where will the boot record informaton be stored ?. If m not wrong, irrespective of any partition where the O/s is installed, drive C will be essential to store data like MBR info, boot info, ect.,

Could any of you explain this and tell me whether drive C will be required or not in the above case.
Click to expand...

Let me try and explain you how it works as far as Microsoft implementation is concerned about Boot and System Partition.

System Partition holds the files Boot.ini, ntldr and ntdetect.com. These files are important for your system to be able to detect the OS. So a partition containing these files is a system partition as far as XP is concerned.

Boot Partition holds the operation system files which is your Windows\system32 folders. So the partition that holds this folder is called boot partition.

A single partition can be both a system as well as a boot partition is when you install the OS on C: itself.

Now coming to your question. If you install your OS on D:\ from the beginning then the easiest way to know if which is your system partition is to check in disk managemet(Start>Run>Diskmgmt.msc). If your C:\ partition shows as system partition(which most likely would be in your case) then if you format it, on next reboot of your system you wont be able to boot your OS.

Hence you will get the following or similar error

"Operating System Not Found"

To fix this you have to boot in recovery console with OS CD and its a long story to tell.

Hope I have answered your query.
 
Code: 
bootsect.exe /?

make sure you always have something to run bootsect.exe and you are golden. it can be the recovery console, any windows install, winpe/bartpe etc.

Code: 
ECHO OFF

TITLE FREE RADICAL's VISTA BOOT SECTOR WIZARD

@COLOR 0A

SET _DRIVE=

CLS

:ASK

@ECHO.

ECHO PLEASE ENTER THE DRIVE YOU WANT TO LOAD THE BOOT SECTOR TO (eg. "C:")...

ECHO.

SET /P _DRIVE= -- 

IF "%_DRIVE%" == "" GOTO ERROR

:LOAD

@ECHO.

ECHO LOADING VISTA BOOTMGR BOOT SECTOR ON %_DRIVE% ...

.\BOOTSECT.EXE /NT60 %_DRIVE% /FORCE

IF ERRORLEVEL 1 GOTO ERROR

IF ERRORLEVEL 0 GOTO END

:ERROR

@ECHO.

@COLOR 0C

ECHO THERE WAS AN ERROR LOADING THE BOOT SECTOR. MAKE SURE BOOTSECT.EXE AND THE DRIVE EXISTS.

GOTO ASK

:END

@ECHO.

@COLOR 0A

ECHO DONE.

PAUSE
 
@tush - Thanx a lot m8.

@Krazzy Warrior-
And to get rid of this problem, the all you have to do is repair Win7 by choosing repair option in win7 dvd. This will repair the mbr and then you will be able to boot into it no matter even if your C:/ is still corrupted..
Click to expand...

So if C drive is corrupted/inaccessible , and if i repair my Win 7 o/s with recovery Win 7 boot DVD , then where will the boot files get restored ?. Drive D: ?

@CA50 -
Now connect both the HDD. Configure in BIOS to first HDD to boot from, depends on your choice- if yu want to run xp or 7. Let me assume that you have selected XP. Now say you want to boot to win7, just press f8/f11/f12 at post screen to get the Boot menu, there you can select the other HDD. lo you get 7
Click to expand...

Are you stating this based on your experience ?

In this case, windows xp and windows 7 will have their respective bootloaders installed in the hdds ( XP bootloader in 1st hdd & Win 7 bootloader in 2nd hdd). If i connect both the HDDs and set the XP hdd as boot hdd and press F8 i should get the boot options of WinXp only. Because XP bootloader isnt forward compatible with Win 7 bootloader. It might be possible with the 2nd hdd (where Win 7 bootloader is installed) because Win 7 bootloader is backward compatible with Win Xp bootloader.

Moreover, if both the HDDs are connected, then the 1st hdd will have drive C. The 2nd Hdds drive letters will resume from the 1st hdd. For ex. If both the hdds have 3 partitions each, then 1st hdd will have C, D and E drive letters and the 2nd hdd will have F, G and H drive letters. If i set BIOS to boot from 1st HDD (XP) when both the HDDs are connected, how can i boot to Win 7 successfully , where the Win 7 partition will have a different drive letter (for ex. drive F) other than C and all the O/s files relating to Win 7 will be mapped to Drive C ?.

Because you have stated that both the O/ses are installed (without connecting both HDDs) and both the O/s's system files will be mapped to Drive C only.

Correct me if m wrong. I cant understand how, what you state could be possible. I have to check it. Anyway thanx a lot m8..
 
anfjavid said:
@tush - Thanx a lot m8.

@Krazzy Warrior-

So if C drive is corrupted/inaccessible , and if i repair my Win 7 o/s with recovery Win 7 boot DVD , then where will the boot files get restored ?. Drive D: ?

@CA50 -

Are you stating this based on your experience ?

In this case, windows xp and windows 7 will have their respective bootloaders installed in the hdds ( XP bootloader in 1st hdd & Win 7 bootloader in 2nd hdd). If i connect both the HDDs and set the XP hdd as boot hdd and press F8 i should get the boot options of WinXp only. Because XP bootloader isnt forward compatible with Win 7 bootloader. It might be possible with the 2nd hdd (where Win 7 bootloader is installed) because Win 7 bootloader is backward compatible with Win Xp bootloader.

Moreover, if both the HDDs are connected, then the 1st hdd will have drive C. The 2nd Hdds drive letters will resume from the 1st hdd. For ex. If both the hdds have 3 partitions each, then 1st hdd will have C, D and E drive letters and the 2nd hdd will have F, G and H drive letters. If i set BIOS to boot from 1st HDD (XP) when both the HDDs are connected, how can i boot to Win 7 successfully , where the Win 7 partition will have a different drive letter (for ex. drive F) other than C and all the O/s files relating to Win 7 will be mapped to Drive C ?.

Because you have stated that both the O/ses are installed (without connecting both HDDs) and both the O/s's system files will be mapped to Drive C only.

Correct me if m wrong. I cant understand how, what you state could be possible. I have to check it. Anyway thanx a lot m8..
Click to expand...

yes i have written the whole post from my own experience.
By mentioning the boot menu option, i don't mean the safe mode etc menu. But at BIOS Promt it yot press f8 or f11 depending on your mobo. U will get a different menu stating
boot menu
1cd drive
2hdd1
3hdd2
4floppy
5usb
etc here you can select your first n second hdd according to your choice.
 
I think i have such an option in my laptop. But in my motherboard which is ASUS, i have to check it . So it is an alternative/shortcut to what we have in the bios, right ?. Instead of entering the bios and and selecting the 1st boot drive, here in a single press you get the option. Yeah that could be possible. Though i noticed the word POST SCREEN, i thought you may have mistyped that, because i havent heard of any desktop motherboards which equips this option.
 
^sory mate u are wrong.
This option depends on mobo bios n not not what mobo it is.
So my mobo supports it though mine is a desktop. Ur lappy will support it. The key may be f8/f11(in my case)/f12(my friends lappy)
so next time your lappy boot just observe close for the key.
Happy hunting
 
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