installing on second HD?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Elmo Watson
  • Start date Start date
E

Elmo Watson

I'm at the point, where I believe, after several years, that I need to
reformat and reinstall the OS - but, between the amount of apps I have
installed, and the different apps that need data backup (OE/Outlook, etc),
it would be a real chore writing down everything ahead of time to make sure
I don't miss anything.

So - what I would like to do is to install a secondary Hard disk, and just
install the operating system on that HD. Then, I could install apps, etc on
that drive and have the first one as a real-time, exact backup so I could
check it for what I need to install.

Is this possible?

or does anyone have a better solution?
 
Is it possible to install Windows 2000 on a second drive and then
dualboot between the old and the new install.

Another way to transfer most settings and data is to use USMT 2.6 to
first backup the profiles and after the new install restore the
settings. Please note that you most likely will need to modify the
usmt templates to include all your apps and that usmt wont migrate
passwords, efs certificates and hardware configs/drivers.

I guess the dualboot approach is the easiest way when you only have
one computer.

regards
Johan Arwidmark

Windows User Group - Nordic
http://www.wug-nordic.net
 
There are inexpensive 3rd-party utilities, like Disk Copy, Drive Image,
and Norton Ghost, that will raplicate partitions or entire drive
contents from one drive to another, and upsize partitions while doing so
at your request if the target drive is larger than the source drive.
Their use is simple and convenient. If you buy one, make sure the
packaging says you can do exactly what you want; if you borrow one, read
the manual carefully.

It is still a good idea to back up precious files if possible, although
such operations are almost always error free. (Errors can occur when the
user makes a mistake, or power goes out unexpectedly, etc...)
 
Elmo Watson said:
I'm at the point, where I believe, after several years, that I need to
reformat and reinstall the OS - but, between the amount of apps I have
installed, and the different apps that need data backup (OE/Outlook, etc),
it would be a real chore writing down everything ahead of time to make sure
I don't miss anything.

So - what I would like to do is to install a secondary Hard disk, and just
install the operating system on that HD. Then, I could install apps, etc on
that drive and have the first one as a real-time, exact backup so I could
check it for what I need to install.

Is this possible?

or does anyone have a better solution?
Click to expand...

Installing Win2000 on your new disk while keeping the old installation
is possible but has a severe drawback: the new installation would end
up on drive D:, and that's where it would have to stay for ever and a
day. If you ever removed the original hard disk then the new installation
of Win2000 would fail.

Using an imaging program as suggested by another respondent would
defy the purpose of the exercise. You think that you need to start
afresh; imaging the existing installation to a new disk would not give
you a new start.

If this was my machine then I would use a free third-party boot
manager, XOSL, so that I could boot into either installation. Here
is what's involved:
1. Disconnect the old disk, connect the new disk.
2. Install Win2000. When prompted, do NOT allow the whole
disk to be used for the Win2000 partition - leave 10 MBytes
free at the far end.
3. Using the Win2000 Storage Manager, create a small XOSL
partition at the far end of the disk.
4. Boot the machine with a Win98 boot disk, then install XOSL
in its dedicated partition.
5. Connect the old disk as a slave disk.
6. Add the two OSs to the XOSL menu. You will have to tick
the "Swap Disk" box for the old Win2000 installation.

You will now be able to boot into either OS. Each will be
visible on drive C:. Later on, when you no longer need the old
disk, you can disable XOSL like so:
7. Remove the old disk.
8. Boot the machine with a Win98 boot disk.
9. Type this command: fdisk /mbr

Your PC will now boot directly into Win2000.
 
You're absolutely right. I dropped a bit somewhere; wrote a response to
handle the problem of the OS outgrowing the volume size, not the problem
Elmo made perfectly clear in his post. Elmo, shred my post, apologies.
 
You can connect the new disk to Secondary channel as Master or swap it with
the original one on Primary channel and or simply adjust the BIOS settings
especially in a case of SATA disks and run Windows setup. If the setup would
still recognise the old disk partition as C: - start over or just disconnect
the old disk and return it online after setup but keep the new disk as a
boot device in BIOS settings. If it is impossible - edit the boot.ini file.
You'll get fresh installation on C: drive and the old disk as a source of
your data and applications map.
 
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