Move boot mgr folder

[PTree]

I have an existing XP install on one physical disk (disk 0 in BIOS). I installed another physical HD (disk 1 in the BIOS) and installed Win7 on this second disk. All worked fine and of course the boot manager “stuff” is located on the XP disk. (dual boot option comes up fine)
However, now I want to re-do the Win7 install (fresh install) on the second HD again, but this time, I will turn off disk 0 (XP) boot up with the Win7 DVD and install Win7 on the second drive (disk 1) which will keep the boot loader etc. on this second drive.

Ultimately what I want to do is to dual boot between these two drives (OS's) via the BIOS (making either Disk 0 or Disk 1 first in the boot order). My question is, what do I do with the existing boot manager folder (C:\boot) that is on the XP HD from the previous Win7 install => just keep it, safe to delete it etc..(so XP just uses the boot.ini file). I hope that makes sense? I’m not very familiar with the Vista/Win7 boot manager.

 

[Jonmor68]

Boot to XP, run "msconfig" eddit the boot file make XP default, delete the line containing the W7 reference, save and exit. Shut down and disconnect the W7 drive and make sure all is well and XP boots ok as it should. If you have a problem booting use the XP cd to boot with, choose the repair mbr option.
Once you have XP booting on it's own, disconnect the XP drive, use the W7 DVD to boot in and start the install process, you can either choose to repair the W7 bootloader or select the Custom Install, Disk Tools, then format and clean install W7.

 

[PTree]

Boot to XP, run "msconfig" eddit the boot file make XP default, delete the line containing the W7 reference, save and exit. Shut down and disconnect the W7 drive and make sure all is well and XP boots ok as it should. If you have a problem booting use the XP cd to boot with, choose the repair mbr option.
Once you have XP booting on it's own, disconnect the XP drive, use the W7 DVD to boot in and start the install process, you can either choose to repair the W7 bootloader or select the Custom Install, Disk Tools, then format and clean install W7.

Thanks . I understand the process of disconnecting the drives and installing etc..I guess I'm still wondering what to do with the "C:\boot" folder (on the XP disk). E.g. is it still being used as part of the boot process for XP, can it be deleted? It doesn't hurt to leave it there I guess, I'm just wanting to understand the background "voodoo" that's going => in my initial scenario with two drives and then installing 7 on a second drive, what files get modified (on the XP drive) that tells XP to use the new boot mgr (obviously C:\boot is created)?

Anyway thanks for the tips.

FYI - My boot.ini doesn't contain any ref to 7 that I see (you mentioned to delete the line ref 7)=> running msconfig > BOOT.ini tab shows the following s

;
;Warning: Boot.ini is used on Windows XP and earlier operating systems.
;Warning: Use BCDEDIT.exe to modify Windows Vista boot options.
;

[boot loader]
timeout=5
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Professional 3gb limited" /fastdetect /3gb /userva=3000 /SOS
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Professional" /fastdetect /SOS
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Professional 3gb" /fastdetect /3gb /SOS
C:\CMDCONS\BOOTSECT.DAT="Microsoft Windows Recovery Console" /cmdcons

 

[Jonmor68]

I see you are using BCDEdit, run it and remove W7 from boot options.
You need to fix the mbr for XP before attempting to remove the folder, remove the file in the folder first, then the folder. If you can't remove it just leave it.

 

[shatru321]

How To remove boot folder and bootmgr files? Here is the solution :

In my case, First of all I just formated that partition in which I have installed windows 2007.

Note : You must remove all files of each sub folder of boot folder before removing boot folder. There is a easy way which I used, just open boot folder and search with key "bootmgr", it will display all files of sub folders because each folder has only one file with name "bootmger..", select all search result,right click > Properties and take ownership of these file as suggested below and delete them.

The same process suggested below you can use for deleting all those file and folder who flash message "Access Denied".

Here is the process to take ownership of a file and folder :

Remove bootmgr file and boot folder created by Vista Installation using following steps from Windows XP :

NOTE : But after doing this u have to fixmbr by windows XP CD otherwise it would not boot.


To resolve this issue, you must turn off Simple File Sharing, and then take ownership of the folder. The steps are as follows:-

Turn off Simple File Sharing:
Click Start, and then click My Computer.
On the Tools menu, click Folder Options, and then click the View tab.
Under Advanced Settings, click to clear the Use simple file sharing (Recommended) check box, and then click OK.
Taking Ownership:
Right-click the folder that you want to take ownership of, and then click Properties.
Click the Security tab, and then click OK on the Security message, if one appears.
Click Advanced, and then click the Owner tab.
In the Name list, click your user name, Administrator if you are logged in as Administrator, or click the Administrators group.
If you want to take ownership of the contents of that folder, click to select the Replace owner on subcontainers and objects check box.
Click OK.
You may receive the following error message, where Folder is the name of the folder that you want to take ownership of:

You do not have permission to read the contents of directory Folder. Do you want to replace the directory permissions with permissions granting you Full Control? All permissions will be replaced if you press Yes.

Click Yes.
Click OK, and then reapply the permissions and security settings that you want for the folder and the folder contents.