[roblundi]

I'm trying to help a senior citizen with her computer. She has an old HP pavilion 8580C that someone had added a larger hard drive too and then someone installed XP on the new drive. Now, when the machine boots up, you have a choice as to which XP installation to use. Naturally, she uses both according to whatever whim moves her. I want to remove the XP from the smaller disk and still allow her access to all then things she had installed on it. So here are the specs and any help is greatly appreciated.

256MB of memory. I believe this machine can have 384MB max (3 128MB PC100 cards).
C drive (for both XP instances) is 75GB IDE. I'll refer to the XP on this drive as BigXP.
D drive (for both XP instances) is 19GB IDE. I'll refer to the XP on this drive as SmallXP.

The D drive is nearly out of space (96MB free at last check) which is one of the reasons the machine is so slow when running SmallXP. She also had Bellsouth DSL and AOL installed on SmallXP. The C drive has 58.9GB free.

BigXP doesn't have Bellsouth DSL but it does have an older version of AOL installed on it.

What I want to do is to find as comprehensive list of software installed on SmallXP as possible, so I can try to install the missing ones on BigXP. Then remove SmallXP from the system (i.e. removed from the D disk to free more space there).

Thanks again for any helpful suggestions.

Rob

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1. Confirm that you see a Windows folder on C:\ and D:\

2. For a list of programs on D:\, look through D:\Program files\. That should give you a pretty good idea of what was installed.

3. We'll need to see what your Boot.ini file looks like, so we can edit it to default boot to C:\. To get the boot.ini, right click My Computer, Properties, Advanced, Startup and Recovery, under System Startup, click the Edit button. Copy and paste the text into this thread.

[piper]

1. Confirm that you see a Windows folder on C:\ and D:\

2. For a list of programs on D:\, look through D:\Program files\. That should give you a pretty good idea of what was installed.

3. We'll need to see what your Boot.ini file looks like, so we can edit it to default boot to C:\. To get the boot.ini, right click My Computer, Properties, Advanced, Startup and Recovery, under System Startup, click the Edit button. Copy and paste the text into this thread.

[roblundi]

Hi, sorry it has taken so long to get back, but work schedule and getting to her house was in the way. Here are the boot.ini files.

This one is from the BigXP:
[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(1)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Professional" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Professional" /fastdetect /noexecute=optin


And this one is from the SmallXP:
[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(1)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Professional" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Professional" /fastdetect /noexecute=optin

[dsenette]

at the request of linda..i'm taking a look here...

as far as saving applications...you're deffinitely going to have to reinstall everything on "bigxp" you won't be able to move them at all...you can however copy any data...like photos or word documents etc...

so that means setting up the bellsouth info on BIGxp and any other software that she would need...
to get a pretty good list of whats installed..you can simply boot to smallxp and check add/remove software and see what she wants to keep..hopefully she's got the disks..

as far as getting rid of smallXP...we need to confirm some physical locations first...

is the big hard drive on the end of the IDE cable jumpered as master? and small XP on the middle of the IDE cable jumpered as slave? (they might be jumpered as cable select)

by looking at the BOOT.ini and your description of the system (i.e. the big drive is C: and the small is D: )it looks like the second line

multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Professional" /fastdetect /noexecute=optin

is refering to BIGxp and the first line is refering to smallxp (computers start counting at 0...so usually anything labled as 0 is the first in the list)

two other things to check before this assumption becomes fact...
if you boot into bios (usually f2 or del during bootup) what device is listed as the primary master? is it the big drive?

IF you boot the system and DON"T choose an operating system from the list....which one boots? small or big?

[piper]

Thanks very much dsenette for the quick look-see.

Here's an article that helps to explain the boot.ini file: http://www.computerh...es/ch000492.htm

[roblundi]

Thanks dsenette and LindaGail for the fast replies. I'll try to get to her PC on Thursday night and let you know Friday how it boots, how the disks are jumpered, and what the BIOS says. If I remember correctly, the system listed at the top boots first which is the SmallXP.

The plan currently is to install BellSouth DSL and AOL 9.0 on BigXP on Saturday (weather and God's plans permitting).