Adding a Hard Drive (need to preserve files from it) to Windows XP

I recently installed Windows XP Pro onto a brand new hard drive. Now I want to add a second hard drive to my system. The hard drive that I want to add is the drive from my Windows 98 system. I don't want a dual-boot system. I just want a lot of the stuff from my old hard drive (data, downloads, etc) to be available on my Windows XP system.

I know that I'll need to set the jumpers on the two drives to master and slave. But, other than that, what other issues do I need to concern myself with? Power shouldn't be an issue, as I've had 2 hard drives in this box before. I plan to remove Win98 from the 2nd hard drive by just deleting the \Windows directory. Will that be suffficient, or will I be getting system conflicts with doing this?

Any thought/help with this would be appreciated.

Bert

 

Should work fine Bert,
Do the jumpers thing, and make sure the primary slave in the BIOS setup is set to auto for correct detection of the drive. If you want the drive letter to follow the other HD, say C drive then D drive you may need to change the drive letter(s) of any other CD drives etc first, through Computer management|Disk management in Administrative tools.
Obviously any installed programmes on the '98 disk won't run as they won't be registered in the registry, so as you say stick with data/full download files only, and make sure if you run any of the download files from the second disk that they are XP compliant before running.

 

Be aware of this.

If it does have a Primary partiton on it, it will mess up your existing HD lettering if you have more than one partition. ( which I hope you do have. )

If you have Partition Magic you can change the Primary to logical and then it should be OK.

Please note that I said SHOULD not WOULD be. ( i have been fooled more than once.

Be aware also that adding another HD may also effect your CDROM lettering. Unless you have them set up high as I do.

Mine are S: and T:

BillyBob

 

I'm a little unclear on exactly which drive you refer to in the following:

"If it does have a Primary partiton on it, it will mess up your existing HD lettering if you have more than one partition. ( which I hope you do have. ) "

I have more than one partition on my new (WinXP) hard drive, but the old (Win98) hard drive that I want to add to the system, only has one partition.

"If you have Partition Magic you can change the Primary to logical and then it should be OK...... "

I do have PM installed on the WinXP hard drive. Are you saying that I should change the Win98 drive to a logical partition prior to adding it to the system? Exactly how would I go about doing that? If I boot up that drive, the partition has to be primary, no? So, I can't switch it from Primary to Logical into it becomes the 2nd physical drive in my WinXP system, right? Need a little clarification on this....

"Be aware also that adding another HD may also effect your CDROM lettering. Unless you have them set up high as I do. "

Yeah, I hear you. My Win XP hard drive is partitioned with C:, D: and E:; My DVD drive is F: and my burner is G:. I think that I'll move the DVD and burner up one drive letter each (or more) and assign F: to the old Win98 Hard Drive. (Or will it automatically grab D: for itself?) Thanks for the tips.

Bert

 

My Win XP hard drive is partitioned with C:, D: and E:; My DVD drive is F: and my burner is G:.

OK. If the 2nd HD has a Primary partiton on it ( which apparently it was ) it will change the existing 1st drive letters to

C: E: F: The 2nd HD will now be D:.

Your CDROMs will each be moved up one also. They will then be G: and H: This will happend no matter whether the 2nd HD has a Primary or not.

Adding a 2nd HD after the System is all setup is very tricky.

That is why as soon as I get the OS installed and BEFORE adding ANYTHING I change the CDROM(s) to S: and T:. Then adding a 2nd drive does not bother them. And all installed software will know where they are if needed also.

With Partiton Magic you can change the primary of the 2nd HD to Logical and then it will be drive F: anyway.

If you do not change it and ever decided to remvove it you MAY well be messing up the letters of the first HD again.

I know XP has the capability of asigning drive letters but I myself would rather do what I can to prevent that from being needed.

And last but certainly not least. Unless under special circumstances the ONLY drive that needs a Primary partiton is the 1st one. A Primary an any other drive can cause problems.

I have as yet attempted to add a 2nd HD to XP but I will be attempting same in a few days. I have a 40gig all partitioned but not formated yet.

I am sincerly hopeing that it does not mess up my existing drive lettering. If it does it will leave as I really do not need it. But I do have to give it a go if for no more than educational purposes.

I would have absolutely no problem with Win98 just add it without a primary partiton and go. But XP MAY be different.

BillyBob

 

XP's Disk Management tool Start > Run > diskmgmt.msc will allow you to rename any drives except A:, B:, and C:.

My primary hard drive is partitioned C:, D:, E:, and F:. I have a second, partitioned X:, Y:, and Z:. My CD-ROM and CD-RW drives are, respectively, R: and W: (for Read and Write, naturally ), my Zip drive is P:, my Compact Flash card reader is S: (for SanDisk), and my virtual (hard drive based) CD-ROM drive is V:.

Hmmmm... PartitionMagic shows C: as a primary partition, but it also shows the three logical partitions D:, E:, and F: contained within an extended primary partition. The three logical partitions X:, Y:, and Z: on the other drive are also shown within an extended primary partition.

 

That is as it should be.

Did you reletter the partitions on the 2nd drive or did XP do it ?

BillyBob

 

I did, of course. Windows always assigns drive letters in alphabetical order, but XP lets you reassign them.

 

Thank you.

I was just checking so that I hopefully did not get any surprises.

I find XP not to be quite as predictable as 98SE.

BillyBob

 

BB, you've been around long enough to know that surprises are half the fun of recreational computing. They stimulate the brain, and stretch the mental muscles!

And, even though I expect you to disagree with me, I've found that XP Pro allows me to do more things more easily than Win9x, of whatever flavor, ever did (and I run 98 SE and XP Pro side-by-side, on a daily basis).

 

No I do not really dis-agree. I just have different personal opinion of XP. Which appears to not be the same.

I know you are correct about XP being capable of more than SE. But to me ( or for my use ) that does not make it any better of an OS than SE.

It is just that I do not find all of the extra features needed or even usefull.

I have absolutley no need for the Multi-user set up. Even though there may be several users of this or any of the other 2 machines.

I believe much stronger is teaching responsiblity and respect, and obeying rules.

Such as;

1--This is my machine and if you are allowed to use it you stay out of things that do not concern you.
2--You make NO changes without checking with me.
3--If Something does go wrong or you do not understand something COME GET ME Do not just start mouse clicking or key pressing.
4-- YOU DO NOT go online unless I/WE am/are allowed to check where you are going first.

And of course if I do not want them on at all I know where the Master power switch is.

So far, even with 5 Grand children ranging from 3 to 12 years old in the house that set up has worked VERY WELL. I was challanged ONCE. But three days with not playing his favorite game fixed that. NO PROBLEMS since.

And when Grandpa is not here Grandma takes over. And she DOES make the rules stick believe me. I have seen her in action.

We we have a VERY important agreement. If one of us kicks a kid off of the machine. The other does not let them on either. ( as long as we inform the other ) And My Wife will not let anyone use this machine unless I am here.

But we also have a teenage Niece that WE BOTH keep an eye on.

But I must add.

I have by far had more problems with Mr/Ms/Mrs adult than I have with kids. Kids seem to listen better than adults. And respond better to punishment.

I have not done it but I personaly see no reason for relettering partitions or anything else. Windows ( from 3.1 on up to at least SE ) have always done the job to my satisfaction.

What capabilities that Win XP Pro may have does not make it any better of an OS for what I need.

For someone else such as yourself maybe. But for me no. It is just a waste of disk space. And if it were not for the $199 I got tied up and have it activated it would more than likely be gone already.

Which OS is better for our individual use is STILL 100% user choice. Always has been and always will be.

BillyBob

 

I'm glad I don't live in your house!

 

Well if you were to come in you can not say that you do not know the rules

BillyBob

 

BRH Assuming that your Windows XP is formatted as NTFS, the Windows 98 drive will just follow the existing hard drive letter sequence already established. The CD ROM and other removeable media drives (6-in-1, Pen Drives, etc) will move down one.

Until you put in a boot manager or change the boot sequence in the BIOS, that Windows 98 drive will just remain a slave data drive to Windows XP. I wouldn't be in a hurry to dump the Windows 98 OS. There are ways to get it to function as a dual boot in your new computer. Although XP does have a compatibility/emulator mode to run older OS programs, it doesn't always work as advertised. No sense dumping it if you already got it. W98 can be brought over intact to another machine.

Drive letter assignment is determined by the booted operating system and its file format. NTFS can see FAT partitions. But FAT can't see NTFS.

NTFS is fairly "horizontal." It finds the first physical drive and letter sequences its partitions. It then moves to the next physical drive and picks up the sequencing.

FAT first goes vertical, then horizontal. That is, FAT first sequences the PRIMARY DOS partition of each physical drive, then it goes back to the first physical drive to sequence the LOGICAL DOS/FAT partitions. It will then move to the next physical drive and sequence its logical DOS/FAT partitions. So on and so forth. It will ignore all non DOS/FAT partitions.

It's recommend that you rename (not reletter) your hard drive partitions in Windows XP MY COMPUTER. It's really giving them a volume label.

I build dual boot Windows 98SE/XP Pro computers for my family. Depending upon what gets booted, the drive letters change. Giving the partitions names make sure I'm dumping and accessing the correct partition!

 

Now there is something that you will need to explain or me.

I believe it can be setup so that does not happem. Never did for me in a MUlti OS Boot. ( with a boot manager ) But I have as yet not Dual booted XP.

Are you speaking of Dual Boot or Mulit OS boot. ?

I myself will not Dual Boot a machine. Mulit OS where each OS has its own C: drive I will do.

As was mentioned in a previous reply. Does NTFS make a difference.

BillyBob

 

Billy Bob I use a single hard drive with three partitions. I first load Windows 98SE on the first partition on a FAT 32 format. It will always be C. When I load XP on the second partition, Windows will create a boot manager. It will boot XP from the second partition. When it is booted, it is recognized as D. I always put XP on an NTFS partition. The remainder of the hard drive, I format in FAT 32 so that Windows 98SE and XP can share data.

When Windows 98SE is booted, it ignores the NTFS partition of Windows XP. XP is just unallocated space as far as Windows 98SE is concerned. It sees the data partition as D.

When I boot to XP, it sees Windows 98SE as C. It recognizes its own OS is loaded on D. It sees the Data drive as E. In this case, it just treats the C partition as a data partition.

Assume that another hard drive with two partitions is slaved into this situation. The letter assignment of the drives depends upon the file format of both the operating system and the file format of the partitions.

Windows 98SE Booted:

C: Master drive (FAT 32) first partition
D: Slave drive (FAT 32) first partition
E: Master drive (FAT 32) THIRD partition (second partiton NTFS ignored)
F: Slave drive (FAT 32) second partition

Assume slave drive has first partition NTFS and second partition FAT 32

Window 98SE booted

C: Master drive (FAT 32) first partition
D: Master drive (FAT 32) third partition
E: Slave drive (FAT 32) second partition

But under all circumstances, NTFS (when booted) will recognize the drives and partitions as:

C: Master drive, first partition
D: Master drive, second partition
E: Master drive, third partition
F: Slave drive, first partition
G: Slave drive, second partition

When you add a slave drive to a muti partitioned drive running a FAT 32 OS, the locations get mangled. It's best if you have to put a slave in, to first give that slave another file format in the first partition. Make it 100 MB. It'll keep the sequence stable.

But I learned from my kid to give the drives NAMES (Volume Labels).

 

RayH

Thanks for the info.

Now I am more then ever against dual booting SE & XP.

Do not need it anyway. ANd if I did I more than likely would not use NTFS.

Nor do I really need the 2nd HD.

I have found that not to be the case ( in Fat32 anyway ) if the slave was installed without a Primary partiton on it. Which under normal circumstances it does not need anyway.

BillyBob

 

I just put in Windows 98SE as a backup OS in case there are things for which I can do in 98 I can't do in XP. Although XP has a 98 emulator, it doesn't always work.

Since I have a ton of software for 98SE, I'm not going to buy any to run under XP that I can do with 98!