Remove One Hard Disk

Dear Sir, I have 2 hard disks in my Pent.4 (3 Ghz, 1Mb cash) 1Mb RAM Computer, 1st HD is with Win98se , and it is the Boot HD, the 2nd HD is with Win XP Media Center 2005, Both are FAT formated. I need to Remove the 1st HD which is the boot one !! and works Only with the 2nd one which is the Win-XP. Is it safe just to Remove the 1st HD and the Computer will boot from the 2nd HD Automatically ???!!!

Or their is a something which Must be done ?????

Thanks for your Help ..............

 

i think u need to chnage the Experienced level in your user settings to ?????
Anyway, just take the hard drive out and see what happens.
If it does not boot then either the jumpers are set wrong or the disk is not bootable

 

Hi DodoNini. First post of yours I've seen so let me welcome you to the forum.

Several files required to start XP will have been written to your C: drive even with XP loaded on a different drive. If you simply remove the drive, XP will not start. However, there are several fairly simple steps you can take before removing the drive that will fix thing up for you and leave you with a bootable XP drive.

I'm way too tired now (nearly 4am where I live) to give reasonable directions but if no one else has when I wake up, I'll tell you what to do.

eannatone - make sure you know exactly what you are talking about before you make suggestions about someone's experience level.

Oops. Arie - you posted while I was thinking. Didn't see yours until I'd saved mine. I think the Recovery Console has commands that will make the drive bootable and allow removal of the old OS drive. OTOH, it's late and I could easily be confused.

 

Hello DodoNini,

The following are instructions for XP Home or XP Pro - so hold on until Newt ratifies that this would work for Win XP Media Center 2005.

Put the XP drive in the 9X drive's place and use the RC to re-create the MasterBootRecord.

To start the Recovery Console from the Windows CD, follow these steps:

Insert the Windows CD and restart your computer. Follow your computer’s prompts to start from the CD. (You may need to adjust settings in the computer’s BIOS to enable the option to start from a CD.)

Follow the setup prompts to load the basic Windows startup files. At the Welcome To Setup screen, press R to start the Recovery Console.

If you have multiple options on the Windows startup menu, enter the number of the Windows installation you want to access from the Recovery Console. Enter OS type.

When prompted, type the Administrator password. If you’re using the Recovery Console on a system running Windows XP Home Edition, this password is blank by default, so just press Enter. At the command prompt, enter Recovery Console commands directly.
That would be Bootcfg.

To quit the Recovery Console and restart the computer, use the Exit command.

The command for you to enter:

Bootcfg: Automatically scans all local disks for Windows installations and configures and repairs entries in the operating system menu (Boot.ini).

Forgot to add: you can put what is now the current 9X drive in the place of the current XP drive after going thru the above procedure. It will become a 2nd data drive. You can either format it - all contents will be wipped, or just delete the OS folders, leaving everything else, or just leave everything, the 9X OS will just sit there.

But don't do any formating or deleting until you know the new setup works.

Regards - Charles

 

One more thing

Drive jumpering: If this is a Cable Select system, the jumpers are set to that position and the system will decide which is Master/Slave. Otherwise, you have to change the jumpers to reflect which is Master and which is slave.

I'm assuming that the 98 drive is currently set as Master and the XP drive is set to slave, that should be reversed.

Regards - Charles

 

Charles - I think you have nailed it 100%.