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Win 7 boot and system files on different drives, want to move system files to C:


Chris Wilson
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I have discovered a problem I wasn't even aware I had until trying to do a system image to a tape drive. It seems when I refurbished my PC I have ended up with the the boot files for Windows 7 Pro 64 bit on my SSD C: Drive, and the system files on a RAID 1 SATA array of two 1 Tb drives. I want to move the system files to my C: Drive , which is the SSD one. In the bios I have confirmed disabling the RAID drives causes Windows to fail to boot.

 

The fact the system files are on a different drive is causing issues when doing a system image as the destination drive also contains said files and some software is saying it cannot do this. Plus I think for best reliability the RAID needs to be independent of Windows boot and system files?

 

For clarity I have put a full screen size shot of Windows 7 Disk Management showing how the drives are currently at http://www.chriswilson.tv/partitions.jpg

 

Can anyone tell me how to safely achieve this movement of the system files to my SSD C: Drive please? Thanks.

 

I Googled this a little and it seems this is possible to do by booting into the Win 7 CD and going to the repair utility. But in all the Googled info the system files seem to be in a separate partition, but according to my Disk Manager mine are not. Will this still work? Do I need to unplug the RAID 1 drives first? Do I need to change the boot order in the bios first (first as in before running the repair utility on the Win 7 CD?), and put C: Drive after the CD drive and disable the RAID 1 Drives in the boot menu? Do I need to make the C: Drive partition "Active, and if so, at what stage of the proceedings? Is this all a risky process? :)

 

Thanks.

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Tricky one. I've got no experience of this but I googled it too: this is one of the google hits: http://www.neowin.net/forum/topic/1084593-move-system-from-d-to-c/

 

As often happens, the people answering in the thread spend most of the time skirting around the problem without fixing it properly. The tenuous consensus at the end seems to be to disconnect all but the C: drive (i.e. your SSD), boot the PC into repair mode (using the Windows 7 DVD I presume), and let it put the system files back onto C:.

 

I would *definitely* make sure I have a good backup of my data before doing any of this.

 

In my experience with older versions of Windows (XP etc, caused by issues like "DLL Hell"), swapping the function of drives between each other (e.g. moving the System partition to another drive/partition) can get problematic, with software occasionally searching on the wrong partition for some files. Maybe it's got better with Win7, maybe not. Well-written software doesn't hard-code paths to system folders (instead using variables like %System%). Less-dligent software writers, on the other hand....

 

What I would do:

1) Make a backup of my data

2) Turn off computer, disconnect all hard drives but the SSD, boot into repair mode using the Win7 DVD (don't know the details of this, a little googling should tell you how to access the repair mode and what's available in it).

3) If that doesn't work, reinstall windows.

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Well, still here, but despite doing all of the above and making the SSD drive 0, and making that partition active, it still won't boot from C: If I make the RAID 1 disks inactive, but connected still, it won't boot. It seems determined to use the system files (*NOT* Windows System* just the boot stuff) from D: still. Windows Repair is now saying it last booted from the drive OK and basically there's nothing wrong. Damend thing!! :) Thanks anyway Steve. Is there a way to force writing of the system files to C: ??

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