Installing a second hard drive

Nonnie Miss · #1 05-28-2003, 04:59 PM

My bf's PC is a Dell Dimension with XP Pro on it.
His current Hard Drive is a 20G drive. We bought a 120G drive this weekend and want to run them both. I know how to get into the case and plug the drive in etc. What I need to know is if I have to install XP on the new drive? Do I have to install all the programs on the new drive too? Should I make the new drive a slave or the master since its bigger??

curtybob · #2 05-28-2003, 07:46 PM

This isn't a very clear cut choice. You have many things to consider. Is it worth the time and effort to reinstall windows on the new drive? Do you have lots of documents or little tweaks that you have performed to make Windows run like you want? Is the drive faster than your old drive? Do you plan to just use it as a documents folder and backup?

To answer your question, you don't have to install Windows to use the drive as added space. But if the new drive is better than your old one, start backing up your important files, write down what settings you have changed, and reinstall Windows with the new drive set as Master.

hope this helps.

HansKwik · #3 05-28-2003, 07:48 PM

The simpliest way to handle this is make the 120gig drive the slave. This way you will not have to reinstall xp on the larger drive. But be advised that future applications and data files should be saved on to the larger drive. If you continue to put apps and data files on the 20 gig drive then you will eventually corrupt the smaller drive and have to reinstall xp. You can create folders similar to what you have on your C drive. ie.... d_my doucuments, d_my pictures, d_ programs files (this would be wear you install future applications.

Another way would be to use a drive imaging program to create a drive image of your c drive and then "ghost" the image onto the larger drive. I would also advise that you partition the larger hard drive into smaller chunks. That way if you have any future problems with your c partition , then you just reformat your c partition and reinstall your windows xp software.

Unless you are experienced at least at the advance beginner or intermediate, then the first option would work well for you.

Let me know how it works out.

Dave

Nonnie Miss · #4 05-29-2003, 04:38 PM

I have Norton Ghost but haven't used it yet.

Do I go into set up and create partitions??

I remember removing a partition once and rebuilding it but its been awhile.

I don' t know that the new drive will be faster, we just need more room because we are installing a DVD burner and need the free space.

Can the programs on the small drive access data on the large drive? Say I save some images on the large drive but my program for pic editing is on the small drive... will that create a conflict??

curtybob · #5 05-29-2003, 08:41 PM

no, that will work perfectly. the only trouble you might have is if you move files to the new drive, and delete the copies on the old hard drive. and then, all you will have to do is tell the programs where the files were relocated to. adding the new drive would be just like creating a new folder. as long as you tell your programs where to look, it should be fine.

augie2 · #6 05-30-2003, 12:22 AM

Your new drive is at least a 7200 rpm with cache and the 20 max probable4800 rpm and probably less. the 120 G. I would use new one as master because of speed.

I would also take the opportunity to partition your drive. If something goes wrong with XP and is not repairable, then you won't lose all apps and data that are not backed up.

I have a 10 GB partition for XP, my apps are on D and data is on E. I also dual boot and use this freeware script to make images and incremental backups. You do have to install .net framework.

augie

Nonnie Miss · #7 05-30-2003, 09:26 PM

I'm not sure I understand how the partitions protect me from a crash?

To make the new drive the Master do I have to install XP on it then?

Thanks for the help so far guys!

scouse · #8 05-30-2003, 10:50 PM

Yes if you make the new drive master you will ahve to install xp on it because it will become the primary drive for the OS, it is easy enough plus by what i ahve read you seem to know what to do if you go this route

Nonnie Miss · #9 05-31-2003, 08:39 AM

Yeah I think I've got it figured out... just not sure on the partitions.

If one partition goes corrupt can I access it through another partition and if so how?

LooseChippings · #10 05-31-2003, 09:06 AM

Simply put a partition acts like a physical drive.

With a 120 gig HD you could make 4 equal 30 gig partitions, each partition would be viewed just like a HD with drive letter etc,

As an example ...

C Drive = Win XP (System Drive, Boot Drive)
D Drive = Applications (Office etc.)
E Drive = Storage (documents, MP3s etc.)
F Drive = Games

If you have a major problem that requires a format of your C Drive only files on that partition will be lost.

If you keep the drive as one large partition the same problem will lose ALL your data.

Nonnie Miss · #11 06-02-2003, 08:51 PM

Oh!!! Okay I gotcha now!

So do I create the partitions in SETUP?

LooseChippings · #12 06-03-2003, 01:08 AM

During the Setup process you are given the option of creating a new partition and changing the file structure (Fat 32 or NTFS).

IF you want to partition your HD read the setup options very carefully.

Only partition the area for your C Drive, all the other partitions can be created from within windows using the Disk Manager inside the Computer Management Utility. (C:\WINDOWS\system32\compmgmt.msc)

Defrag etc will need to be run on each partition because windows recognises the partitions as seperate drives.

On another note my 160 GB drive only has a formatted capacity of 146.8 GB so do not be alarmed if you seem to lose space.

Nonnie Miss · #13 06-03-2003, 09:21 AM

I remember reading something about the size and how to fix it if its not showing up to full capacity. Which ours isn't. We just have the new drive in as storage right now. I had to put a new drive in my PC this weekend so I haven't had any time to tweak his. Sounds like this coming weekend I'll be getting his new drive all set up.

Thanks again!