{"id":324,"date":"2007-03-19T03:54:00","date_gmt":"2007-03-19T10:54:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kb.terabyteunlimited.com\/kb-articles\/how-to-move-the-windows-vista-or-windows-7-8-x-10-boot-manager-and-restore-the-windows-xp-ntldr\/"},"modified":"2021-09-07T15:16:25","modified_gmt":"2021-09-07T22:16:25","slug":"how-to-move-the-windows-vista-or-windows-7-8-x-10-boot-manager-and-restore-the-windows-xp-ntldr","status":"publish","type":"lsvr_kba","link":"https:\/\/www.terabyteunlimited.com\/kb\/kb-articles\/how-to-move-the-windows-vista-or-windows-7-8-x-10-boot-manager-and-restore-the-windows-xp-ntldr\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Move the Windows Vista or Windows 7\/8.x\/10 Boot Manager and Restore the Windows XP NTLDR"},"content":{"rendered":"

Problem:<\/font><\/strong> <\/p>\r\n

Windows Vista or Windows 7\/8.x\/10 was installed to a new partition on a system where Windows XP was already installed. The bootmgr <\/strong>file and \Boot<\/strong> directory used by the newer versions of Windows were installed on the existing Windows XP partition rather than on the new Windows partition, as was desired. For Windows 8.x\/10, the \Recovery<\/strong> folder (WinRE) was also placed on the XP partition.<\/p>\r\n

Cause:<\/font><\/strong> <\/p>\r\n

The Windows XP partition was Active when the newer version of Windows was installed. Consequently, the Windows installer placed the new Windows boot manager and associated files on that partition.<\/p>\r\n

Solution:<\/font><\/strong><\/p>\r\n

The boot manager for the new Windows installation can be moved from the Windows XP partition to the new Windows partition without the necessity of reinstalling either operating system. <\/p>\r\n

Important: <\/strong>The Windows Vista and Windows 7\/8.x\/10 booting files must reside on a partition with a NTFS cluster size of 4K (the default size). If your new Windows partition does not have 4K clusters you will not be able to move the booting files to it. An example would be that you've formatted the new Windows partition with 8K clusters. More information can be found in this Microsoft KB article<\/a>.<\/font><\/p>\r\n

Note:<\/strong> These instructions assume that the new Windows partition is a primary partition. If Windows is installed to a logical partition, moving the booting files to the new Windows partition will most likely result in a non-booting system unless using a boot manager such as BootIt BM.<\/font><\/p>\r\n

To move the booting files, proceed as follows:<\/p>\r\n

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  1. If the new Windows installation is Windows 8.x\/10, disable the Windows Recovery Environment (WinRE). In most cases, disabling WinRE before moving the booting files allows it to be easily enabled afterwards and, depending on the system, skipping this step may result in a non-functional WinRE after independent booting is established. Due to the nature of WinRE and the multitude of system configurations there may be systems where WinRE requires repairs to function properly.
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    1. Boot into the new Windows installation.
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      \r\n <\/li>\r\n
    2. Open an Administrator Command Prompt:
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      \r\n Press WinKey+X<\/strong> (or right-click the lower-left corner of the Desktop) and click Command Prompt (Admin)<\/strong> on the pop-up menu. If a UAC prompt is displayed, click the Yes<\/strong> button.
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      \r\n <\/li>\r\n
    3. Run the following command:
      \r\n reagentc \/disable<\/strong><\/font>
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      \r\n <\/li>\r\n
    4. Verify that winre.wim<\/strong> now exists in the C:\Windows\System32\Recovery<\/strong><\/font> folder. Run:
      \r\n dir \/a C:\Windows\System32\Recovery<\/strong><\/font>
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      \r\n You should see winre.wim<\/strong> in the list of files. If the file is missing you will likely need to repair WinRE before it can be enabled.
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      \r\n <\/li>\r\n <\/ol>\r\n <\/li>\r\n
    5. Reactivate BootIt BM if it was deactivated during the Windows installation.

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    6. Boot into BootIt BM.
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      \r\n <\/li>\r\n
    7. If necessary, edit the Windows XP menu entry and make sure the new Windows (Vista, Win7\/8.x\/10) partition is not hidden.

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    8. From BootIt BM, boot into Windows XP. This will bring up the Windows boot manager and require selecting the Earlier Version of Windows<\/strong> option.

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    9. Once XP has booted, enable viewing of hidden and system files. This is necessary to allow access to the Windows boot manager files and can be disabled after the process is complete.

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