Moving Win10 C Drive to the 'left'

Rollo · 13 Oct 2016

Jimbo
I like the idea of getting rid of Logicals - never heard of that!

The thing about EasyBCD is interesing - that could explain why I had such a nightmare with this new HDD reinstallation.

My faith in Windows repair disk has been shattered by recent experiences where it failed inumerable times.

I don't mean to sound ungrateful to all you wonderful people who have offfered your advice today, but, no one has yet answered my core question. If I dare to repeat it again - Yes I will do imaging before I attempt anything, but is there a way to check BEFORE I move the partitions to confirm that I am not deleting anything critical?

Thanks again everyone!
Rollo

jimbo45 said:

Hi there

@Rollo
I really would take advice from regular users on this Forum who've probably re-installed Windows more times than there are Hot dinners available on this planet !!.

However the simple way is

1) Backup HDD with Macrium -- that way if it goes pear shaped you can restore the entire HDD with no problems.

2) Use GPARTED or any partitioning tool to delete / shift left / get the partition / HDD into the geometry you want.

3) re-boot.

In the unlikely problem of a boot fail simply run Repair windows. You won't lose anything.

If it STILL fails then just restore the HDD while people can work out what next to do.

IMO the main times people get problems is they've installed 3rd part boot managers (easy BCD for example) which hoses up Windows when you re-arrange the partitions.

Another piece of advice here - NEVER these days use LOGICAL partitions as these will invariably cause problems if you need to shift partitions around.

If you need more than 4 physical partitions then switch to GPT . Primary partitions always work properly !!!!!

99% of people having Boot problems after moving partitions around is either they've used Logical Partitions or have some sort of 3rd party boot manager installed.

Cheers
jimbo

cereberus · 13 Oct 2016

Rollo said:

Dear Cereberus,
Yes I understand HOW to do it- I've done it many many times. Why question revolves around other issues, such as if the BCD is located on the 1st partition, for instance, and you delete that partition and then expand the second partition which contains the Windows OS into it you will not be able to boot without a reapair or moving of the BCD. Windows Recovery Disk used to be able to quickly fix that type of problem easily but in the last month it completely failed me on Win10.
I am so sick of monkeying with this machine that I want to do it without that kind of dramas - that's why I'm asking on a forum rather than just plowing ahead.
Rollo

Your boot files etc are in the c drive not in a separate 'system' partition. The f drive is far to big to be anything other than a standard partition. You can have 4 in legacy bios.

If it was me I would follow Jimbo's advice and get rid of the logical partitions as well, and create a single partition for data.

Kbird · 13 Oct 2016

You don't have to , not at all , just follow Cereberus's instructions ........

I mentioned it as an easy way to fix your partitions and possibly avoid the issue of messed up MBR partitions and a Major Windows Update refusing to install because of it in the future all in one go . I think it took about 2hrs to do for me btw , 20mins to Image C: , and 1-1.5 hrs to install Windows and 20 mins to reimage original c: back and run the Fix boot utility (important).

It also get rid of the logical partitions as GPT does not need those..........

If you don't have MTPW install it , it will allow you with a RC to "Explore" Partitions even Disk Management can't see (eg MSR (Other) and see what files if any are on them, even the Recovery Partition/Folder.

you can check if the Recovery Enviroment is working at a CMD Prompt with reagentc /info

KB