I'm trying to temporarily have the Boot and System disks, NOT be the first
partition on my primary master drive.

The primary master is drive C, the next volume on the same physical disk is
drive S. These are dynamic disks under Windows Server 2000.

I'm about to install Windows Server 2003, and I want it to be installed in
the partition (or volume) with drive letter C, but first I want to delete
the volume and recreate it, in order to completely get rid of all of the
old data and program files that were there.

I have copied everything from C to S. The problem is, even when I boot
from a floppy, and then select disk 0 partition 2, Disk Management STILL
tells me that C is the "System" disk, and S is correctly marked as the
"Boot" disk.

I can't tell what is still being used on the C drive! Or why Windows is
calling it the System disk, since I booted from a floppy.

(I need to keep the Windows Server 2000 system available until I am
completely sure the 2003 system has everything working. I don't have the
luxury of making the new server from completely new hardware.)

How can I tell why Windows is calling the C drive the System volume?


David Walker

"David Walker" <none@none.com> wrote in message
news:Xns9A86767FC2873DavidWalker@207.46.248.16...
| I'm trying to temporarily have the Boot and System disks, NOT be the first
| partition on my primary master drive.

Which partition was Windows originally installed on?

"Calab" <myspam@csd.ca> wrote in
news:e0d8qAxoIHA.3860@TK2MSFTNGP02.phx.gbl:

>
> "David Walker" <none@none.com> wrote in message
> news:Xns9A86767FC2873DavidWalker@207.46.248.16...
>| I'm trying to temporarily have the Boot and System disks, NOT be the
>| first partition on my primary master drive.
>
> Which partition was Windows originally installed on?
>

It was originally installed on the C partition/volume, the first one on the
primary master disk.

That shouldn't matter if I boot the server from a floppy and then select
the second partition/volume on the primary master disk, should it?

Thanks.

David

"David Walker" <none@none.com> wrote in message
news:Xns9A8685D64985DavidWalker@207.46.248.16...
| "Calab" <myspam@csd.ca> wrote in
| news:e0d8qAxoIHA.3860@TK2MSFTNGP02.phx.gbl:
|
| >
| > "David Walker" <none@none.com> wrote in message
| > news:Xns9A86767FC2873DavidWalker@207.46.248.16...
| >| I'm trying to temporarily have the Boot and System disks, NOT be the
| >| first partition on my primary master drive.
| >
| > Which partition was Windows originally installed on?
| >
|
| It was originally installed on the C partition/volume, the first one on
the
| primary master disk.

That is why it's the system volume. You won't be able to move it to a new
partition and change the new partition to C:

| That shouldn't matter if I boot the server from a floppy and then select
| the second partition/volume on the primary master disk, should it?

Yes... The system partition is treated differently from any other
partitions.

Is there any reason you can't install to a different partition and leave the
current C: partition alone?

"Calab" <myspam@csd.ca> wrote in
news:emW8X1xoIHA.524@TK2MSFTNGP05.phx.gbl:

>
> "David Walker" <none@none.com> wrote in message
> news:Xns9A8685D64985DavidWalker@207.46.248.16...
>| "Calab" <myspam@csd.ca> wrote in
>| news:e0d8qAxoIHA.3860@TK2MSFTNGP02.phx.gbl:
>|
>| >
>| > "David Walker" <none@none.com> wrote in message
>| > news:Xns9A86767FC2873DavidWalker@207.46.248.16...
>| >| I'm trying to temporarily have the Boot and System disks, NOT be
>| >| the first partition on my primary master drive.
>| >
>| > Which partition was Windows originally installed on?
>| >
>|
>| It was originally installed on the C partition/volume, the first one
>| on
> the
>| primary master disk.
>
> That is why it's the system volume. You won't be able to move it to a
> new partition and change the new partition to C:
>

What do you mean "that's why it's the system volume"? How does windows
know what volume it was "originally" installed on? I am booting from an
exact duplicate that I created while running from a third, unrelated
partition.


>| That shouldn't matter if I boot the server from a floppy and then
>| select the second partition/volume on the primary master disk, should
>| it?
>
> Yes... The system partition is treated differently from any other
> partitions.
>

I know that, but how is it determined that this volume IS the "system"
partition? I am not booting the OS from it, and I am not booting the
hardware from it.

According to http://support.microsoft.com/kb/314470, "The system volume
refers to the disk volume that contains the hardware-specific files that
are needed to start Windows, such as Ntldr, Boot.ini, and Ntdetect.com".

That means that the floppy disk should be called the System volume, not
the first hard disk partition. I *know* that Boot.ini was read from the
floppy, because I marked the entries in there slightly differently, so I
could tell it apart from the boot.ini in the first partition on the hard
disk.

So I don't understand why you are saying the "system volume is treated
differently". I'm trying to figure out why the first hard disk
partition IS the system volume, in spite of KB article 314470.

> Is there any reason you can't install to a different partition and
> leave the current C: partition alone?
>

There are several reasons -- I want the eventual Server 2003 partition
to have the drive letter C; I want it to be in the first partition on
the primary master disk; and I want to make absolutely sure that
everything from the old system is (eventually) gone -- therefore, I want
to delete and recreate the partition in the first 24 GB of the primary
master disk.

If I install to a different partition, I will always have the first
partition holding Boot.ini, Ntldr, and ntdetect.com, and nothing else of
any use, and it will always have drive letter C. That "wastes" a whole
partition and offends my sense of order!


David Walker

OK, does anyone else have any suggestions? Thanks.

David

Hello David,
The "system" volume should be identified as the first active primary
partition.
It may or may not have files on it. I have not seen the floppy disk
listed as the "System" disk.
The fact that the system sees it as the "system disk" does not mean that
there are files on it.
We record some of the disk information in the registry such as the drive
letter to use based on the volume GUID.
This does not mean that the new installation would use the same drive
lettering unless setup was started from within the existing OS.

Now you want to remove the existing volume and create a new volume. That
has to be done outside of setup.
When you boot to the cd or DVD to start setup we enumerate the drives, if
you delete the volume the drive letter of that volume is already reserved,
so you would get the next available drive letter, not reuse the drive
letter of the deleted volume. Since this presumed to be the first primary
volume it would get drive letter C. If it's deleted during setup and
recreated as a new volume ( formating does not remove the volume, you would
have to delete the volume and recreate it), and was assigned C, then it
cannot use C unless you restart setup and re-enumerate the drives.

Thanks,
Darrell Gorter[MSFT]

This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights
--------------------
| >Subject: Re: Drive is marked "system" even though it's not where I booted
| >From: David Walker <none@none.com>
| >References: <Xns9A86767FC2873DavidWalker@207.46.248.16>
<e0d8qAxoIHA.3860@TK2MSFTNGP02.phx.gbl>
<Xns9A8685D64985DavidWalker@207.46.248.16>
<emW8X1xoIHA.524@TK2MSFTNGP05.phx.gbl>
<Xns9A87564682F59DavidWalker@207.46.248.16>
| >Message-ID: <Xns9A896E5F0A061DavidWalker@207.46.248.16>
| >User-Agent: Xnews/06.08.25
| >Newsgroups: microsoft.public.windows.server.setup
| >Date: Wed, 23 Apr 2008 09:50:59 -0700
| >NNTP-Posting-Host: 75-146-141-142-newmexico.hfc.comcastbusiness.net
75.146.141.142
| >Lines: 1
| >Path: TK2MSFTNGHUB02.phx.gbl!TK2MSFTNGP01.phx.gbl!TK2MSF TNGP06.phx.gbl
| >Xref: TK2MSFTNGHUB02.phx.gbl microsoft.public.windows.server.setup:4109
| >X-Tomcat-NG: microsoft.public.windows.server.setup
| >
| >
| >OK, does anyone else have any suggestions? Thanks.
| >
| >David
| >
| >

Darrellg@online.microsoft.com ("Darrell Gorter[MSFT]") wrote in
news:vBcDOdZpIHA.3608@TK2MSFTNGHUB02.phx.gbl:

> Hello David,
> The "system" volume should be identified as the first active primary
> partition.
> It may or may not have files on it. I have not seen the floppy disk
> listed as the "System" disk.
> The fact that the system sees it as the "system disk" does not mean
> that there are files on it.
> We record some of the disk information in the registry such as the
> drive letter to use based on the volume GUID.
> This does not mean that the new installation would use the same drive
> lettering unless setup was started from within the existing OS.
>
> Now you want to remove the existing volume and create a new volume.
> That has to be done outside of setup.
> When you boot to the cd or DVD to start setup we enumerate the drives,
> if you delete the volume the drive letter of that volume is already
> reserved, so you would get the next available drive letter, not reuse
> the drive letter of the deleted volume. Since this presumed to be the
> first primary volume it would get drive letter C. If it's deleted
> during setup and recreated as a new volume ( formating does not remove
> the volume, you would have to delete the volume and recreate it), and
> was assigned C, then it cannot use C unless you restart setup and
> re-enumerate the drives.
>
> Thanks,
> Darrell Gorter[MSFT]
>

Thank you, that was VERY ful. Especially the last part about having
to have the drives re-enumerated.

There are actually files on this drive; I have not removed them YET, but
I plan to. Interesting that in spite of the KB article that I
referenced, and disk that does not contain the Boot.ini, NTLDR, and
other files can still be marked as System. And Windows doesn't like for
you to delete the System volume, even if it's not really being used.

I can perhaps temporarily un-mark the disk active (which is harder than
marking a disk active, BTW).

Thanks.


David Walker




> This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no
> rights --------------------
>| >Subject: Re: Drive is marked "system" even though it's not where I
>| >booted From: David Walker <none@none.com>
>| >References: <Xns9A86767FC2873DavidWalker@207.46.248.16>
> <e0d8qAxoIHA.3860@TK2MSFTNGP02.phx.gbl>
> <Xns9A8685D64985DavidWalker@207.46.248.16>
> <emW8X1xoIHA.524@TK2MSFTNGP05.phx.gbl>
> <Xns9A87564682F59DavidWalker@207.46.248.16>
>| >Message-ID: <Xns9A896E5F0A061DavidWalker@207.46.248.16>
>| >User-Agent: Xnews/06.08.25
>| >Newsgroups: microsoft.public.windows.server.setup
>| >Date: Wed, 23 Apr 2008 09:50:59 -0700
>| >NNTP-Posting-Host: 75-146-141-142-newmexico.hfc.comcastbusiness.net
> 75.146.141.142
>| >Lines: 1
>| >Path:
>| >TK2MSFTNGHUB02.phx.gbl!TK2MSFTNGP01.phx.gbl!TK2MS FTNGP06.phx.gbl
>| >Xref: TK2MSFTNGHUB02.phx.gbl
>| >microsoft.public.windows.server.setup:4109 X-Tomcat-NG:
>| >microsoft.public.windows.server.setup
>| >
>| >
>| >OK, does anyone else have any suggestions? Thanks.
>| >
>| >David
>| >
>| >
>
>