China DOS Union

A few days ago, I saw a netizen saying that he wanted to "move XP" (move from one disk to another), but didn't know how to do it. So I spent two or three days specifically trying to solve it.

Here's how it went: for your reference.

(Related disks are all FAT32 or FAT16)

One
Backup the original system registry in DOS (\windows\system32\config)

Two
Go back to WINDOWS, modify the environment variables of the registry (system variables and user variables , in HKEY, LOCAL MACHINE and CURRENT USER), change the original system drive letter (g to the one you want (c

Three
In DOS, use XCOPY from the 98 boot disk (XCOPY32.MOD should be in the same directory) to copy the entire system (windows\ documents and settings\ program files\) from g: to c:. Later, I found that many hidden ones were not copied, and it failed. Then I switched to xxcopy.exe, which is said to be able to copy hidden files, but still some were not copied. Really puzzled!
(The two programs in DOS to copy long file or folder names often copy them into short file names with "~1". This may be the reason why the system can enter WINDOWS but freezes when it should display the login username, because the system needs user information when logging in, that is, the information in the long file name documents and settings, etc.)
Then use GHOST 2002, but it said a registration number was needed when restoring. Then switch to GHOST 7.5. This time it can copy. The whole disk is exactly the same (Note: you must first clone to another backup disk (for example, D first, and then restore from this backup disk to C:. But when restoring, pay attention: first copy all the boot files (including hidden ones) on the original C disk to another disk, then restore and release from D: to C:, and finally put back the boot files on the original C disk)

Four
Modify the BOOT.INI of C disk:
Change default= to multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\windows
Add under :
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\windows="The words you want" /nodetect

Five
Restart.... Ah?
The screen shows:
invalid system disk replace the disk and press any key ...
(I estimated that after GHOST restore restart, the boot information of GHOST or 98 was written to the XP boot sector! Then I thought of a way to boot from a floppy disk....

Six

Restart.... Haha! This time it really boots from C disk, and successfully displays the login username!
So excited!......

But after entering the system, when I wanted to format the g disk, the system prompted that there was a program using g:, then I remembered that maybe in many places in the registry, the path of the program was still the original system path g:! That is to say, just changing the system and user environment variables is not enough!

Seven

But strangely: when I had a try and tried to start from the original system g: again, it miraculously entered his original system without any problem! I was very puzzled (you know, I had changed his environment variables!)

Eight

Well, that's fine! I then deleted the half-baked system copied to C disk, changed back boot.ini, and gave up the idea of moving XP.

Experience summary:
In the registry, not all the paths of the marked programs or files are based on the environment variables! Many programs (including WINDOWS itself) directly write out the specific path (that is, do not use the environment variables!)

I have had several experiences of moving XP, and each time the reason for moving was because of changing the hard drive (and keeping the original hard drive), but I have never reinstalled the system because of this. It can be said that to move XP, don't try to change the installation path, environment variables, etc. in the registry, because that doesn't work. Instead, try to change the drive letter of the partition. That is, change the drive letter of the target partition to be moved to the drive letter of the original system drive. In your example, originally the C: drive is partition(1), and suppose the system drive G: is partition(5), then to move XP, you need to change partition(1) to G: and partition(5) to C, and then use Ghost to copy. The difficulty lies in that the disk manager of XP cannot change the drive letter of the system drive, and you can use PQMagic to change it.

After you use PQMAGIC to change drive G to drive C, is the registry path of the original drive G still the drive G letter? After using PQMAGIC to change drive G to drive C, are many paths in the registry also changed from G to C accordingly? Otherwise, when running a program, it will prompt that the file is not found.

I mean, change your original g to c, c to g, and then copy all the system files from the original g partition to the original c partition. After that, there will be no changes in the registry, and you will still access the original g drive (which is the original c partition).

After such a change, the drive letter of the system partition is still G, but the G drive is moved from partition (5) to partition (1).

Ah?? Which drive is your NTLDR on?

The ntldr can be placed on any partition, as long as it is a primary partition. Remember to activate this partition and make changes to boot.ini.

Since that's the case (you can use PQMAGIC to set G as the primary partition too), then why is there a need to copy the original G to the original C? I must move XP to C so that its drive letter is C: Your approach doesn't achieve my intention.

If you must change the drive letter, then you can only reinstall it.

Actually, I almost succeeded. It's just that I need to change G: to C: in the registry content. This can be achieved with some registry editing tools or hexadecimal editing tools. But there might be a problem: some places might be a single G without ":", which is difficult. I wonder if there are any specialized tools?

I directly copied all the contents of drive C to another drive (mine is drive D), and then used the Registry Editor to modify the SYSTEM file in \WINDOWS\system32\config under drive D! Changed the drive letter! In this way, when you boot up with the system on drive D, D becomes C! So far, nothing has gone wrong!

Partition drive letters can be changed in the registry, HKLM\system\MountedDevices

The following is the speech of Youtian Wumu on 2004-8-24 5:28:42:
Modify the SYSTEM file in \WINDOWS\system32\config under drive D with the registry editor! Change the drive letter!

1 Can the registry editor open the SYSTEM alone? Or it's HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE?
2 How to change the drive letter? (Need to change all C: to D:, also, some places are just single C, without the ":" semicolon! When modifying, will the C characters that are not drive letters be changed too?),
3 How did you modify it?

The following is the post by fujianabc on 2004-8-24 10:45:24:
Partition drive letters can be changed in the registry, HKLM\system\MountedDevices

After such a change, will the drive letters of the paths of general applications in the registry also be changed accordingly?

This has the same effect as pqmagic, but it can avoid one reboot.