I had a single 60 GB partition with XP on it, but I wanted to reinstall xp and keep my data. I made a 10 GB partition and installed XP on it, but when I boot from it it shows up as D:. I was thinking of just deleting everything on the C: drive except the data I wanted to keep, thinking since theres no windows on C:, the D: partition would boot up as C:. But I noticed on the D: drive that there's no boot.ini, NTDETECT, ntldr, or other important files. how do install XP as C: with all it's files?

The boot files and NT Loader are all on the C: drive. If you delete it then you will not be able to boot from D: It appears that you have created a new install of XP on the second partition D: and hence you have a dual boot configuration allowing you, at boot time, the option of selecting to boot from either the C: or the D: version of XP. Is this correct? If it is not a dual boot configuration you can delete the C:\winnt directory but NOT the boot files on C:. You will also have to accept D: as the drive letter of your OS which is now on the second partition. ___________________________________________ ☺ When everything else fails, read the instructions.

I made a 10 GB partition and installed XP on it. Why only 10GB? The available disk space always diminishes as you add more programs, System restore points, pagefile, and so on. In due time you may end up getting low disk space error message. i_XpUser

RE: 1 that is correct. I don't want to daul boot. I was thinking if I delete the files on C: and reinstall XP on the D: partition, it won't find the old installation and install as I want.

Yes you can delete the unnecessary files on C: and re-install as you want. However, please note as the C: drive is the active (primary) partition your new XP installed on D: will still deposit the NT Boot loader and Bootfiles on C:. Your XP drive letter will still be D: I do not believe that you can get away from that, it will always use C: for the boot files. Although the space used in C: for the bootfiles is negligible, it is nevertheless essential for the correct running of XP. One way (I think) of forcing XP to use C: as the drive letter would be to use a partition manager to temporarily hide the first primary partition, format and install XP to the second partition which will end up thinking it is the only partition and use drive letter C: and also put the boot files on the same partition. However, in this case I am not sure what would happen when you unhide the first primary partition. If you want to try it, then get Ranish Partition Manager which is freeware. This will allow you to hide the first partition while you install XP. You can then unhide it and see what happens. If this interests you, then go to my Website (Homepage link) and look up the section titled "Ranish Partition Manager (RPM)". You will get the detailed how to. Hope it helps. Good luck. ___________________________________________ ☺ When everything else fails, read the instructions.

Why do you wish to install the OS (XP) to other than c: ??? Whilst you can do it from scratch - and in effect you can achieve it from the current situtation (as per Moasaddique) it does seem to be making things rather non-standard? Also (post mosaddique's routine) you will still need to edit out references to the version on c: (in the boot.ini) to tidy up the confusions... A few items to know/understand...? If the OS is installed to other than the c: (active primary) partition, (and it doesn't matter whether or not that intended location/partition exists prior to setup) that installation will adopt the drive letter associated with that partition (as part of the OS path statements). If the partition exists prior to setup this applies; if the OS creates/formats it (during setup), then likewise. It doesn't matter whether or not there is a version of the OS already present in c: ...; same situation applies. The OS installation will adopt the drive letter associated with partition into which it was installed. This why, in your case, the (second) version that went into the second (Extended?) partition adopted d: as its drive-letter/path-statement. If it had gone into a partition/logical-drive labelled/identified as e: then it would have adopted e: as it host name, and so on... Also if (as in your case) an OS (XP) already exists in c: subsequent (XP/W2K) installation(s) will simply modify the boot.ini (if exists) and add the subsequent installation(s) to it. And there are a few other irritants/pitfalls in this regard too - but that's enough for now??? In your situation I'd have been inclined to have configured the drive to have an Extended partition and then subdivided it into at least two logical-drives; using these logical-drives for data - thus freeing up space in the 10Gig Primary for the OS/apps utils. etc.? You already had XP installed in c: ... and now have an Extended partition (did you you create one via PM/SC etc. or was it already there from the start?). Regardless, since the Extended partition now exists, use Disk Admin tools from XP in c: to reconfigure that partition to have the logical-drives. (You will need to retain the XP installation in c: for current and future use - as you will be losing the version in d: .) Then transfer data across - to free up space in c: . Also you could use the first logical-drive for additional space into which to install later apps/utils - if space becomes short/limited in the c: primary? A "few" critical/core dlls etc will go into the OS folder in c: but the bulk of the app./util files will go into this logical-drive. Having data etc. in a separate partition/location to the OS is still a wiser way to go - although frequently systems arrive (or are "home configured") with an all-in-one partition... With a separate partition for the OS etc., if there is need to re-install the OS etc. (even to reformat the OS partition) it can be done without affecting/risking data - unless one is really careless/unlucky...).