Changing to new C drive question

  • Thread starter Thread starter Joe S.
  • Start date Start date
J

Joe S.

This is a long story, I will skip the details except that I have a C and D
drive. I need to pull the C drive and install a new C drive. However, my
existing C drive has on it WinXP Home Edition and some files that I need.

Here's my plan:
-- format D (it has nothing of any value on it)
-- open the computer, remove the C, replace it with the D, lay the old C
drive aside
-- now I have a newly-formatted 100GB C drive (which was the D drive).
-- install WinXP HomeEdition; install my apps (Excel, Word, FrontPage,
etc.); set up internet accounts; install printers and scanner.
-- stick the old C in as the D so I can copy files I need from it.

Will this work?

What are the implications of having an OS on the D drive (remember, my
current C will become D)? Will it cause any problems, or, because the
computer boots to the C drive, will it just ignore the D drive?

Thanks.
 
Well, first thing, you don't *have* to reinstall XP Home unless you want to.
It's rather trivial to clone the old HD to the new HD (or using your
terminology, clone C: to D:, and make D: C:). But if you really want to
start over and move the old HD to the secondary IDE channel (or slave of the
primary IDE), then place the new HD as master to primary IDE channel,
there's no problem with the old OS being on the HD, it will simply be seen
as data. I would, however, NOT place the old HD on the system until AFTER
the new OS is installed. The XP installer might assume that you wish to
boot the other OS and add it to the boot menu (it wouldn't work anyway, not
without a boot manager like BootIt NG to hide the other OS, since the old OS
is now, effectively, D:, but all its internal refs, like the reigstry are
still C:). It's best to leave it off the system until Setup is complete, to
avoid such confusion. After installation completes, add the HD back (may
require initialization in XP Disk Manager), it will become D: (or E:, F:,
etc., whatever's available after your optical drives), and copy your files.

HTH

Jim
 
Hi, Joe.

Your situation is not unique. Similar posts appear here several times a
day, it seems, so if you spend some time browsing recent messages you should
see the subject discussed over and over.

Your plan is good, especially with Jim's caveat to be sure not to reinstall
your old drive until WinXP is installed on your new drive. If WinXP Setup
finds an existing active (bootable) partition on any drive, it will probably
assign the single partition on your new drive to some letter that will take
you by surprise - NOT C:. After Setup has created a new C:\boot.ini, on the
new drive, you can plug in the old drive and use WinXP's Disk Management to
assign or reassign whatever letter you like (except C:, of course) to the
old drive. You can also assign letters to your CD/DVD drives so that they
won't conflict with the HDs. (I use V: for my DVD-ROM and W: for my CD
Writer, for example.) If you don't specifically assign letters, WinXP will
reassign them each time you reboot - and WinXP's choices might surprise you
sometimes.

You will need to reinstall your applications in the new WinXP, as you know,
so that their setup programs can write the proper entries into your new
WinXP's Registry. You may, if you like, install them to the same folders on
your old (now D:?) drive, but you probably will want to reformat that old
drive and use it for something else.

RC
 
In
Joe S. said:
This is a long story, I will skip the details except that I have a C
and D drive. I need to pull the C drive and install a new C drive.
However, my existing C drive has on it WinXP Home Edition and some
files that I need.

Here's my plan:
-- format D (it has nothing of any value on it)
-- open the computer, remove the C, replace it with the D, lay the
old C drive aside
-- now I have a newly-formatted 100GB C drive (which was the D drive).
-- install WinXP HomeEdition; install my apps (Excel, Word, FrontPage,
etc.); set up internet accounts; install printers and scanner.
-- stick the old C in as the D so I can copy files I need from it.

Will this work?
Click to expand...


Yes. However you might want to try the alternative of using a
product like Ghost or Drive Image to copy everything from the
present C: to D:, then remove the present C:

What are the implications of having an OS on the D drive (remember, my
current C will become D)? Will it cause any problems, or, because the
computer boots to the C drive, will it just ignore the D drive?
Click to expand...


It won't ignore the D: drive, but it will ignore the operating
system on it. That should be what you want.
 
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