Archived from groups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.storage (More info?)

I have cloned my C drive by going into DOS and removing the clone before
going into Windows. What would happen if I went into Windows with both the
original and the clone and therefore two C drives?


--
Jim Walker
Northern Virginia

Archived from groups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.storage (More info?)

Well, only one drive is going to be designated your master boot up drive.
Windows will automatically reassign drive letters to other drives, including
partitions.

"Jim Walker" <walkerjd1@worldnet.att.net.net> wrote in message
news:L7_sd.1041489$Gx4.956525@bgtnsc04-news.ops.worldnet.att.net...
> I have cloned my C drive by going into DOS and removing the clone before
> going into Windows. What would happen if I went into Windows with both
the
> original and the clone and therefore two C drives?
>
>
> --
> Jim Walker
> Northern Virginia
>
>

Archived from groups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.storage (More info?)

That is what I thought. If a drive is reassigned a drive letter, can it be
changed back to C in any way, obviously with the other C drive removed.


--
Jim Walker
Northern Virginia
"Martin Williams" <martywill@comcast.net> wrote in message
news:jNGdnXT4qKRS7yncRVn-3w@comcast.com...
> Well, only one drive is going to be designated your master boot up drive.
> Windows will automatically reassign drive letters to other drives,
including
> partitions.
>
> "Jim Walker" <walkerjd1@worldnet.att.net.net> wrote in message
> news:L7_sd.1041489$Gx4.956525@bgtnsc04-news.ops.worldnet.att.net...
> > I have cloned my C drive by going into DOS and removing the clone before
> > going into Windows. What would happen if I went into Windows with both
> the
> > original and the clone and therefore two C drives?
> >
> >
> > --
> > Jim Walker
> > Northern Virginia
> >
> >
>
>

Archived from groups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.storage (More info?)

"Jim Walker" <walkerjd1@worldnet.att.net.net> writes:

>That is what I thought. If a drive is reassigned a drive letter, can it be
>changed back to C in any way, obviously with the other C drive removed.

Drive letter assignment is done by the operating system "on the
fly" during startup, depending on partition type and cable position;
nothing is written internally to a relocated drive that would give it a
fixed new letter. As long as the drive has a primary partition defined
and set "active," and is set as master on the first controller cable, the
operating system will see that as partition C:, even if it had been
reassigned D: when temporarily made the slave of a new C:.
--
--Donald Davis

[To respond by e-mail, remove "blackhole." from the address.]

Archived from groups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.storage (More info?)

"Donald G. Davis" wrote:
> Drive letter assignment is done by the operating system "on the
> fly" during startup, depending on partition type and cable position;
> nothing is written internally to a relocated drive that would give it a
> fixed new letter. As long as the drive has a primary partition defined
> and set "active," and is set as master on the first controller cable, the
> operating system will see that as partition C:, even if it had been
> reassigned D: when temporarily made the slave of a new C:.


True in the "vanilla" case. Assuming WinXP (and Win2K, maybe
WinNT as well), the boot loader will go to the 1st HD in the boot
sequence - whether it is a Master or Slave makes no difference -
and it will go then to the "active" partition on that HD to start ntldr
which will look in boot.ini to see where to go to find the OS. If the
OS selected by default or by keyboard input is on another partition,
even on another partition on another HD, it will go there to get the
OS to load. The point is that the boot sequence and the boot.ini file
determine from which partition the OS ultimately comes, and Master/
Slave modes of the HDs and their positions on the IDE cable are
arbitrary. (Yes, a Slave can be at the end position on the cable, and
a Slave can contain the booted OS. I've tried it.)

*TimDaniels*

Archived from groups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.storage (More info?)

Many thanks to all. I have learned a lot!!


--
Jim Walker
Northern Virginia
"Timothy Daniels" <TDaniels@NoSpamDot.com> wrote in message
news:j8ydnW7Nt4wFTyncRVn-3w@comcast.com...
> "Donald G. Davis" wrote:
> > Drive letter assignment is done by the operating system "on the
> > fly" during startup, depending on partition type and cable position;
> > nothing is written internally to a relocated drive that would give it a
> > fixed new letter. As long as the drive has a primary partition defined
> > and set "active," and is set as master on the first controller cable,
the
> > operating system will see that as partition C:, even if it had been
> > reassigned D: when temporarily made the slave of a new C:.
>
>
> True in the "vanilla" case. Assuming WinXP (and Win2K, maybe
> WinNT as well), the boot loader will go to the 1st HD in the boot
> sequence - whether it is a Master or Slave makes no difference -
> and it will go then to the "active" partition on that HD to start ntldr
> which will look in boot.ini to see where to go to find the OS. If the
> OS selected by default or by keyboard input is on another partition,
> even on another partition on another HD, it will go there to get the
> OS to load. The point is that the boot sequence and the boot.ini file
> determine from which partition the OS ultimately comes, and Master/
> Slave modes of the HDs and their positions on the IDE cable are
> arbitrary. (Yes, a Slave can be at the end position on the cable, and
> a Slave can contain the booted OS. I've tried it.)
>
> *TimDaniels*

Archived from groups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.storage (More info?)

Previously Jim Walker <walkerjd1@worldnet.att.net.net> wrote:
> I have cloned my C drive by going into DOS and removing the clone before
> going into Windows. What would happen if I went into Windows with both the
> original and the clone and therefore two C drives?

The second "c" gets moved to "d" and all your other partitions
are shifted. An unfortunate consequence of the not well-designed
drive-letter concept.

Arno
--
For email address: lastname AT tik DOT ee DOT ethz DOT ch
GnuPG: ID:1E25338F FP:0C30 5782 9D93 F785 E79C 0296 797F 6B50 1E25 338F
"The more corrupt the state, the more numerous the laws" - Tacitus

Archived from groups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.storage (More info?)

"Timothy Daniels" <TDaniels@NoSpamDot.com> writes:

>"Donald G. Davis" wrote:
>> Drive letter assignment is done by the operating system "on the
>> fly" during startup, depending on partition type and cable position;
>> nothing is written internally to a relocated drive that would give it a
>> fixed new letter. As long as the drive has a primary partition defined
>> and set "active," and is set as master on the first controller cable, the
>> operating system will see that as partition C:, even if it had been
>> reassigned D: when temporarily made the slave of a new C:.

> True in the "vanilla" case. Assuming WinXP (and Win2K, maybe
>WinNT as well), the boot loader will go to the 1st HD in the boot
>sequence - whether it is a Master or Slave makes no difference -
>and it will go then to the "active" partition on that HD to start ntldr
>which will look in boot.ini to see where to go to find the OS. If the
>OS selected by default or by keyboard input is on another partition,
>even on another partition on another HD, it will go there to get the
>OS to load. The point is that the boot sequence and the boot.ini file
>determine from which partition the OS ultimately comes, and Master/
>Slave modes of the HDs and their positions on the IDE cable are
>arbitrary. (Yes, a Slave can be at the end position on the cable, and
>a Slave can contain the booted OS. I've tried it.)

Thanks for this comment; I have never used the WinNT-based
operating systems and was not familiar with their boot procedure. Can
something other than the first active primary partition be designated as
drive C: on NT-based systems? Win9x can also boot from a partition above
C:, but it still designates the first active primary partition as drive
C:, from which its underlying MS-DOS will boot. Returning to the original
poster's question as I understood it: under either the DOS/Win9x or WinNT
systems, drive lettering is determined dynamically by the OS during
startup; relocating a drive when cloning it does not "brand" it with a
new fixed letter that could cause any future relocation difficulty.
--
--Donald Davis

[To respond by e-mail, remove "blackhole." from the address.]

Archived from groups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.storage (More info?)

"Donald G. Davis" wrote:
> "Timothy Daniels" writes:
>
> [.....] Assuming WinXP (and Win2K, maybe
>>WinNT as well), the boot loader will go to the 1st HD in the boot
>>sequence - whether it is a Master or Slave makes no difference -
>>and it will go then to the "active" partition on that HD to start ntldr
>>which will look in boot.ini to see where to go to find the OS. If the
>>OS selected by default or by keyboard input is on another partition,
>>even on another partition on another HD, it will go there to get the
>>OS to load. The point is that the boot sequence and the boot.ini file
>>determine from which partition the OS ultimately comes, and Master/
>>Slave modes of the HDs and their positions on the IDE cable are
>>arbitrary. (Yes, a Slave can be at the end position on the cable, and
>>a Slave can contain the booted OS. I've tried it.)
>
> Thanks for this comment; I have never used the WinNT-based
> operating systems and was not familiar with their boot procedure. Can
> something other than the first active primary partition be designated as
> drive C: on NT-based systems? Win9x can also boot from a partition above
> C:, but it still designates the first active primary partition as drive
> C:, from which its underlying MS-DOS will boot.


I'm not sure what you mean by "FIRST active primary partition".
AFAIK, there can be only one partition marked "active" on a
HD, but that partition need not be the 1st one on the drive. And,
as I pointed out, the boot.ini file in that partition can designate
another partition as being the source of the OS, and that OS
will designate itself as the C: drive. Then it will designate other
partitions as being other drives, i.e. "Local Disks", with other
drive letters.


> Returning to the original poster's question as I understood it
> under either the DOS/Win9x or WinNT systems, drive lettering
> is determined dynamically by the OS during startup; relocating
> a drive when cloning it does not "brand" it with a new fixed letter
> that could cause any future relocation difficulty.


That has been my experience, although it hasn't been
exhaustive (just exhausting). :-)

*TimDaniels*