Installing new hard drive

I'm on Christmas break and one of my projects to do is to install a new hard drive. I need someone with computer know how to advise me if this is going to work or not. I presently have two hard drives installed. C and "D" drives. The operating system that I have used for such a long time is Windows 98SE. Here is what I'm planning to do. I'm going to replace my "C" drive with the new hard drive and install Windows XP. The drive I now have in the "C" drive position I'm going to move over and use it as my "D" drive. Once I'm done will the new Windows XP drive recognize the other drive with Windows 98SE installed? If "yes" will the programs installed on the second drive continue to work or will I have to reinstall them? I also have a folder on this drive that contains all the drivers for my printers, scanner, DVD and CD writer drives. Will that help me install these peripherals or will I have to use the original install disks? Thanks!
Jim

 

Thanks Steve! That is what I figured. So what about all the programs that are presently on my "C" drive? Once I move it and none of the programs work do l have to go to the "control panel" and remove them manually? What a pain........

 

Okay...this sounds like what I need. Has anyone here tried this? If "yes" are there any drawbacks? Can a novice complete this without a problem?
Jim

 

Note that when you add the new HDD, it will become the D: drive. If there are any other partitions on your current HDD, they will automatically move to the E:, F:, etc, drive allocations.

Setting up a Win 98 - Win XP dual boot was easy when I did it using XP Pro. Win XP should offer to install itself to the unallocated space on the new drive, but double check that it is the correct HDD and that you won't be overwritting a current drive.

The boot selection screen at startup will automatically send you to Win XP if you do not select Win 98. If you want Win 98 to start automatically, you can change this in Win XP (see "multiple boot" under Help and Support).

I have formatted my Win XP drives as FAT32, Windows 98 cannot read the NTFS file system (Win XP reads both). If you format the new drive as NTFS Win 98 will not be able to "see" it.

When you get XP running, install the motherboard/chipset drivers, then the graphics drivers, then the drivers for your other hardware. Update DirectX, Media Player, etc.

Matt

 

Great information from someone that has been there. I so appreciate the time you took to relay that information. As always when venturing into the unknown CAUTION is upmost in my thoughts. My system works as I want it now and don't want to jepordize the programs and the workings of all my peripherals when adding XP to my new drive. The main reason for doing this is that I have a couple of programs that will only run with XP.
So I will soon install the drive in the slave postion. Insert the XP disk and venture forth. As I understand it from what you wrote I must format this new drive in Fat32 and make sure XP is being installed to "D" drive.
Thanks again!
Jim