How to set up a double hard drive system...

[Brian Damage]

Okay, currently I have two HDs, set up with those removeable carriage things, so I can only have one in at any one time.

One is 10GB and I use it for work, the other is 20GB and is my games drive.

Each has windows installed on it. The games one has the more up to date drivers.

I'm getting a new computer soon, and I want to put both HDs into it, with no carriage system.

I want the games drive to be the primary one, and the work drive to be the secondary.

Will I have to reinstall the programs on the secondary after I delete the copy of windows on it? Or will they work all right? Will I need to use some kind of windows installation merger program?

Heeeeeeeellllllllllllp!

 

[Xtasy0]

well, if you're running winxp, be aware that simply swapping the main HD(with windows already installed) to the new system and hoping it will work is a bad idea.

you will most likely need to format the drive and do a fresh install of windows.

as for getting stuff from the secondary drive, i would recommend a program like pc relocator which will take data from one drive and move it to another, but one thing im not sure of is if pc relocator will copy the registry entries and systems files over that go with each program.

 

[Brian Damage]

Thanks. Running 98, but hoping to upgrade to XP.

 

[Noodlygod]

If you're wondering about the physical setup of the drives you've basically got to do this:

Take both the drives out of the carriers.

Change the jumper on both drives, one to master one to slave. Make the one you want to be the main drive master and the second one slave. (The jumpers are small pieces of plastic on the pins located to the left of the power plug on the back of the drive. The master/slave layout should be printed on the top of the drive.)

Mount them to the inside of the case, attach the IDE cable (top connector to master, middle connector to slave) and the power cable and you should be good to go.

I've never heard of the program Xtasy0 reffered to but if it doesn't work, yes you will need to re-install the programs because you'll most likely have to re-install windows and you'll lose the registry information.

Although I guess you could leave windows installed on whichever machine you made a master and still use it. Then you'd just have to format the other drive. (So if you wanted to keep your games and all of that the same way they are now, just set the 20gb drive to master and wipe the slave once you've got it set up. Then you'd just have to re-install whatever was on the 10gb drive.)

Anywhoo feel free to ask more questions if you've got them. Good luck!-Noodly

Edit: I had forgotten that you were moving the drives to a new system. 98 is pretty good about working in a new environment but you'll still want to wipe it just because there will be a lot of leftover junk from the previous machine that you won't need.

 

[Brian Damage]

Oh? Thanks.