Second HD

I want to re-install XP. How can I add a second hard drive, put files on the drive, reinstall on the first drive and then put files back on. Can I reformat one drive and leave the other?

 

Sure that's no problem. Add the second drive normally, copy the files over and then start the windows installer. It will prompt you which drive you want to install to during the normal install process, just make sure you pick the right one.

 

Great. Do i need a second power cable for the new drive?

 

There is a second cable branching out from the cable plugged into the current HD. I suppose I'll use that one.

 

You'll need a second power cable and a data cable for it. If it's an IDE drive you can plug it into the same cable that the current drive is on. JUst make sure you set the jumpers first.

If it's a SATA drive then you need an all new cable to plug it in.

 

What are jumpers? The IDE cable conection is not a problem.

 

I want to set the new drive as the slave. A slave drive has no jumpers, doesn't it? So all I have to do is to plug the grey connector to the drive.

I can use the DM to configure the drive. Should I choose NTFS formatting. That is how, according to the Device manager, the current drive is formatted?

Finally. Are there BIOS settings to change?

 

No nothing in the BIOS, but you have to set the jumpers on the back of the drive. The diffrence from a slave and master drive are the jumper settings.

Take the drive and hold it in your hand. On the back of the drive you'll see three sets of pins. One set you plug the IDE cord into, the other set you plug a power cord into and in between those two plugs there should be another set without about 8 or 10 pins sticking out. In this set of pins you'll see a little black (maybe white or blue) jumper that is placed over two of the pins connecting them. What you've got to do is move this jumper so that it sets the drive to slave. You can simply pull the jump away from the drive and it will come off.

You can figure out where the jump belongs by looking at the label on the drive or maybe just above where the jumper is. If it's above the jumper you can most likely find the letters "M", "S", or "CS" engraved above it. M=Master, S=Slave and CS=Cable select. Simply put the jumper to match with the S. If it's not engraved, it should be written on the label that is on the top of the drive, there will be a little diagram detailing the diffrent jumper positions. Just make sure you set it to slave.

Also, you should just format the drive as NTFS yes.

 

Now what happens after I've formatted the drive. I suppose I just follow the formatting directions without having to to install XP from the CD. Now I have one OS and two drives. Now I want to put data on the slave drive. Will My Computer show the drive separately so I can choose were to put data. Rember I am trying to put data on the new drive so I can re-install XP on the old one.

 

I'm not really sure where you are. Once you've put the second drive in the computer and set all the jumpers just boot into windows normally. Once in windows partition and format the drive (Which you'd do by right clicking "my computer" and going to manage, then go to the "disk managament section". It will ask you to assign a drive letter before you even start formatting in windows.

Once it's all formatted just copy whatever files you want to it, and once you're all done with that, boot the computer with the windows CD and just reinstall windows over the old drive. If you're worried about accidently installing to the wrong drive you can remove the drive with the backup before hand.

 

Great. So if I am running XP after the re-install with the master and slave drives and I want to save something, which drive will record the data? I am right that the master will get the data and that I'll have to use the slave like a CD or USB key drive?

 

No, master and slave only matters as far as physically installing the HD's. As for actual functionality a drive set as master and a drive set as slave will work exactly the same in windows. You could even install windows to a slave drive.

Of course that being said, a USB key is used in the exact same way a normal HD is used.