A question about partitioning

[JeffPr]

When I bought my computer it came preinstalled with windows XP, so I have no disc or anything to install the operating system again. I have partition magic 8 and I want to move all my files on my C: drive to another partition on a different hard drive (I have 2 hard drives, a 40 and 80 gig hdd). My question is, can I just leave the windows XP files where they are and move all my program files without anything happening?

If I move them to the other hard drive, will they need to access the C: drive and therefore if they can't then they won't work? I would imagine when I bought the computer that I wouldn't be able to mess with windows XP because if I mess something up then I wouldn't be able to get it back, right? Under my C: drive I have a variety of folders and I am not sure which ones are specifically for the operating system. I have a folder that says WINDOWS so that is obviously part of the operating system, but there is another called I386 and I am not sure about that one.

I'm sorry I ever had anything to do with it. ~ Erwin Schrodinger talking about quantum mechanics

 

[dakota81]

Burn the i386 directory onto a CD; that directory is the Windows XP install files.

And about moving the programs, don't. If you want them onto a different drive, uninstall the software and reinstall it, and during the reinstall you can select to put it on the different harddrive.

 

[madjuice]

The ability to run your programs from the other drive will depend on what they are. Programs such as Office 2000 or Office XP would probably not work since they have a lot of dependancies tied into the drive which they are installed on. The best thing that I can suggest is to uninstall your programs on the main drive, and then re-install them on the secondary drive.

The best solution would be a clean install of XP on the main drive, and all of your other stuff on the secondary drive.

 

[JeffPr]

So just to be clear about everything, I can burn the I386 folder which is about 270 MB and I can reinstall windows XP using this one folder. Sounds sort of suspicious to me but I will take your word for it. For me to do a clean install of windows, should I install windows XP on my main drive using the I386 folder and then delete the old version of windows XP by formatting the hard drive?

regards for the info

I'm sorry I ever had anything to do with it. ~ Erwin Schrodinger talking about quantum mechanics