WinXP question?

[washe]

Im upgrading the harddisk I needed more room, Im going to fresh install WinXP Pro on it, I currently have the same os installed on the old drive...

I will hook first the new drive and install it....

Will partition like 10 Gig for windows, another 10 gig with fat32 (linux interchange), and the rest for applications...

After that I will had my old harddrive to get all my previuos data and some drivers and patches.... Will I have any problems booting the system having two harddrives with the same OS at that time, or the bios will override new drive (master) and make slave the old drive.... uppsss used the recent forbiden words of california..... any california guy clear your eyes...

Of course i will have to erase (windows mainly) the old drive to host linux.....

[bailey]

and the question is...................?

[butch81385]

i think thier question is this:
if they toss the same windows onto a second drive, will it cause problems before they erase windows on the first drive.

my answer: there is a chance that it would cause a nice headache and possibly loss of info, and, of course, there is a chance that it would be fine and just give you the option of which OS you want to boot from.

usually it is fine putting two OS on. but since you are using the same OS im not sure.

someone on here might be able to tell you how to use something like norton ghost to ghost what you need (including OS maybe) from the old hard drive to the new on. i am not familiar with ghosting, so i am not sure if it can do what i say it can. someone will correct me

[DallasDon]

Well, what I do is:

Disable "seek another device" in the Bios boot sequence.

Fresh Install on new drive, jumper the old drive to slave (edit).

Gotta watch those jumpers. WD has "single, Primary with slave present, and Cable Select,etc. The manual says the supplied ribbon cable must be used for cable select. Never did that, but it probably says that for a reason.

Then I copy the stuff I want, and wipe the old drive.

[washe]

Originally posted by washe
Will I have any problems booting the system having two harddrives with the same OS at that time

This was the question

Thanks for the info...

[meese]

If you use cable select you MUST use it on BOTH drives. If the drives are physically different (you are not using two of the exact same models from one manufacturer), then you should not have a problem booting properly with both of them having the same OS.

[washe]

Ok, got the drive.....

Will I be able to make the 3 partitions with windows installer? or I will need software like partition magic?

and what software will be good to make an image of my new installation? you know windows gets a little messy with time...

[meese]

washe,

XP and W2K allow you to create partitions on the fly, after the OS is installed on the drive.

Say you have a 120GB drive and you want to make 3 partitons: (C = 20GB,D = 50GB and E = 50GB). You only need to create the 20GB C partition when you install the OS. The other 100GB of disk space will be unallocated at this point. Then after the OS is installed you can run windows Disk Manager and create the two 50GB partitons. You don't need a third party program to do this.

[washe]

ok.... great going to install tonight....

[meese]

During the install XP will ask you if you want to install to ALL unallocated space. Make sure you select NO, because you want to specify how much space is needed for the OS.

If you use all unallocated space for the OS by mistake, you will either need to reinstall using the proper amount of space or you will need a 3rd party program like Partition Magic to create your partitons.