Replacing the boot drive, w/o reinstalling Windows and the apps?

"Bill Blanton" wrote in message
...
|
| "PCR" wrote in message
...
| "Bill in Co." wrote in message
| ...
|
| | Item#2: The old drive showed this information in BING, some of
which
| I
| | don't understand:
| |
| | Partitions: Type:
File
| | System:
| | ROOT DRIVE Partition FAT32 12/Ch: FAT32
| | MBR1 Entry1 Partition Extended 15/Fh:
Extended
| | NONAME Volume FAT32 11/Bh: FAT32
| | I am guessing that those hex values are based on the specific type
of the
| | partition.
| |
| | My new drive has two FAT32 partitions, with File System: 12/Ch:
FAT32.
| | Maybe 11/Bh means a "Volume" in the old drive. That must be it.
|
| Yes. Note 11 is decimal for "B" in hex. They are all like that.
|
| If a primary partition, 0xB is used for systems that don't support int
0x13
| extentions (8GB), and 0xC is for systems that do. Only important to
the
| loader code, fwiu, and are both equal otherwise.

I see. But I can't quite recall what my numbers are. Let me see whether
they are in a Partinfo...
"File System ID: 0xC" &
"File System ID: 0xB" &
"File System ID: 0xC" &
"File System ID: 0xB" four more times.
....It looks to me all my Primaries are "0xC", & all my Volumes are
"0xB". This is in keeping with only the Primaries may boot, as you said.

|
|
| | Item#3:
| |
| | PCR, you left out some useful settings in BING. Specifically, I
would
| | also check the "Limit Primaries" checkbox, which limits the HD to
4 primary
| | partitions, so that it will be compatible with other partitioning
programs.
|
| Yeah, I definetly wouldn't go there. The only "use", I can think of is
| if you want to be able to multi-boot more than 4 OSs that require
themselves
| to be loaded from a primary partition. Even then, I would try to work
around
| it.

I am still in agreement, but more out of cowardice than what you said.

|
|
| Well, you are right, for perfect compatibility to Windows, it is
| imperative to limit primaries-- 4 per hard drive. That is what I
have
| done, BUT I do not recall pressing a button for it. I THINK it was
the
| default.
|
| It asks when you install if you want to "limit parimarys". Or if you
don't
| install, it will ask when you try to create primary #5

PHEW! That one is not checked by default, & I never checked it! So, I
was beginning to wonder about the possible implications, now that
Colorado made me go look. Hitherto, I presumed it wouldn't come into
play, until BING were installed &/or one did go above four. I suppose I
have no EMBR!

I do know I am running from a native BIOS boot off a partition that was
created in BING & shrunk. If it's good enough for that, it's good enough
for me.


--
Thanks or Good Luck,
There may be humor in this post, and,
Naturally, you will not sue,
should things get worse after this,
PCR