Can I move an OS from the first HD to the second HD, and still be bootable?

Dohhboy:

Maybe, but you have several challenges to overcome first.

1. They won't fit. Your XP partition currently uses 55 GB and Vista uses 71 GB, for a total of 126 GB. That won't fit in the 89.6 GB of unallocated space on the second disk.
2. The system currently boots from the active partition (the one labeled "arrrggg") so you would need to do a lot of work to make it boot from another partition, probably the Windows 7 partition would be a good choice. This would involve copying the bootmgr file and the /boot folder from "arrrggg" to "Space47" and then manually editing the BCD to fix the boot entries for those partitions that were moved, and manually editing boot.ini to get XP booting again from its new location.
3. It would be best to remove the first two logical partitions on the second disk ("page file" and "Media") and put them somewhere else. Then you would have 138 GB of unallocated space on disk 2 in which you could create two primary partitions for XP and Vista. However, this is barely enough since the two existing partitions occupy 126 GB. Each OS should have at least 15% free so that defrag will work and you will have some room for growth (log files, Windows Updates, etc.), so you'd need about 145 GB total unallocated space, some of which would have to come from the "Data" partition. Possible, but a tight squeeze.

If you haven't done BCD editing before, getting all 3 operating systems booting properly after the move will be a challenge but it can be done. So overall, yes you can do it but it will be a fair amount of work.

Mark,

Even though the XP partition is Active, I think that's just because it's the one booted. OSS (or some other non-Windows boot manager is being used since the other OS partitions are hidden. If that's the case, the booting files for each OS are (hopefully) already on their own partitions (isolated).

---

Dohhboy,

If it were me, I'd move just the XP partition to the second drive, especially if using OSS. It can be very difficult (or impossible) on some systems to get Vista or Windows 7 to boot from the non-booting drive. Also, with XP, the Disk Order feature of OSS can be used (if desired). This feature does not work with Vista or Windows 7.

As Mark said, be prepared to do boot repairs.

If you need more help, please let us know which boot manager you're using, if the the OS installations are isolated, and if you've previously done successful image backups and restores of any (or all) of your partitions.

I use Acronis OS Selector, and I keep all non-active OS partitions hidden from the active one.
So I guess I will leave Vista where it is, and just steal some of its free space, and try to move XP.
To 'move' XP, can I just copy the partition in Disk Director to the second drive?
I remember trying an image backup before(don't remember what software), and I had no luck with it.
Boot repairs. I have had a lot of trial and error experience with that.

Thanks for your help and advice in advance. I will wait for a response before I give it a go, and if all else fails, I currently have a hard drive that has an exact copy of the first drive to go back on. (It is a temporary loaner)

You should be able to copy the XP partition using DD. However, before you do that, understand what's going to happen. You will be placing the XP partition (a Primary partition) between two Logical partitions. This will result in "mixed" Primary and Logical partitions (this means that there is a Primary partition between two Logical partitions). DD doesn't have a problem handling this type of configuration, but Disk Management does. It will not display the drive information correctly. As a result, it's important NOT to use Disk Management to make partitioning changes to any drive using "mixed" partition types.

If you wish, you could move the J: and P: partitions to the right so they are all together in front of F: and all the Unallocated space is before P:. This would allow the copied XP partition to be "outside" the Logical partitions and also place it in the fastest part of the drive.

This is what I would do:

1. Backup any important file on the drives or create Entire Disk Image backups. Remember that both drives will have changes made to them.
2. Use DD to slide/move the J: partition next to the F: partition (all the way to the right).
3. Use DD to slide/move the P: partition next to the J: partition (all the way to the right).
4. All Unallocated space should now be located before the P: partition.
5. Use DD to copy the XP partition into the Unallocated space on the second drive.
6. Delete the original (source) XP partition.
7. Edit the boot.ini file on the copied XP partition so that it's referencing partition(1).
8. Reboot to OSS. OSS should detect the change. Verify the XP menu entry. The Disk Order option should be enabled and the drive with the XP partition should be first in the list of drives.

Get XP booting correctly before continuing with any changes to the Vista partition. Making too many changes at one time can cause problems.

I did all that you list in 1-7, and rebooted OSS, and it didn't detect XP. Not sure what you mean by disk order option. Is that in BIOS, or in OSS somewhere.
If I press F8 when I start the computer to go to boot menu, If I select the second drive, XP boots up fine. If it isn't too much trouble to see it in OSS, this will be fine because I don't use it too often, and I know how to get to it.

Thanks for your help MudCrab, this isn't the first time you have help. Cheers.

The Disk Order option is in OSS. It's in the Disks section of the Properties of the menu entry.

However, if XP isn't showing up in the menu, you won't be able to check or set the option.

Did the original XP entry disappear? If not, it may have been updated since you "moved" the partition.

If you want me to take a look at the BOOTWIZ.OSS file, attach it to a post along with a current screenshot of what DD shows (in Manual Mode).

Again, thanks for your help. The XP icon in OSS stayed but had a red X through it. I accidentally deleted that icon(rrrr), so I reloaded XP where I had deleted it from on the first drive, to get the icon back in OSS, then deleted the partition again. There is still the icon there, I change the disk order, and made the XP on the second drive active, but all I get is an error in red, in the left column of OSS, saying that the "boot partition is missing". Attatched is the files that you asked for. I hope you can help, cheers.

Try this file and see if it works. I changed the ID and fixed the boot partition link. (For some reason, I can't attach any files to a post. Unzip the linked file to get the BOOTWIZ.OSS file.)

If you get an error message when you try booting XP, post back with it.

MudCrab wrote:

For some reason, I can't attach any files to a post...

I've noticed that also but don't recall when it started. If you're using IE, the "File Attachments" link doesn't work. It works if you're using Firefox. At least that's what I see here.

**Edit - I take it back. Now both browsers are working OK.

I usually use IE8 (my forum helper program won't work with FireFox). The "File attachments" section was working as soon as I posted. Now, it's not enabled again (just plain black text -- can't expand section). After I save this post, it may be working again.

The Comment box also keeps switching between a larger version (which I like) and the small version (which I don't like).

There is an error reported on the page. However, I think that's normally there.

I used the link that you posted to get the file, and it worked flawlessly. Thank you very much.
I read on this forum before somewhere that you could only attach .txt and .jpg files. But you could get around it by simply adding a .txt or .jpg to a file. Don't know if that is any assistance, but thats what I did.