Add new drive as C 2

[zviw]

I want to know if I can keep XP from confusing drive letters and boot drives when adding a HD to a system. Is this possible??

I want to add a new HD to my XP Pro system. I want the new drive to be drive C and keep the old drive connected (with a different drive letter) in order to transfer data.

Zvi

 

[bcastner]

Unplug the existing hard disk, and plug the new hard disk drive as master on the primary IDE controller in its place. Boot from the XP CD and install XP as a new installation. Note an alternative: most hard disk manufacturer's web site make available a diagnostic/installation utility that can do a disk-to-disk transfer. If so, connect both drives to your computer and transfer old to new).

When completed and XP is working properly on your new drive, install the original hard drive as a slave on the primary IDE chain, or as Master on a secondary IDE controller.

Reboot XP and take ownership of the old hard disk drive (if it used the NTFS filestore):

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;308421

. Remember to enable a firewall, and spend some time at Windows Update;
. You will have to re-install your application software if you did not do a transfer between the drives as disccused above, but your data will be okay on the new hard disk D.

 

[linney]

Try your drive manufacturer for similar software to this -

"The main problem I had before I used it was getting the new drive as C: and the old one as D:, but this utility fixed that with the click of a button. It's up and running now better than ever with the 80gb master & 40gb slave. I just used the Data Lifeguard Tools V. 11.0 that was on their download page.
It had options to let me create a new boot drive, copy all the contents & formatting, etc."

http://www.techimo.com/forum/showthread.php?t=113944

New HD only works as "D:"
thread751-882827

 

[zviw]

Thank you both.

I will try your suggestions - probably on Sunday. The new drive is a 250gig Western Digital SATA so I will try their utility. The old drive is a 40gig IDE.

I will have to get in the mood for some experimenting. I have good backups of my data, so I'm not too worried (unless of course I missed something). I'd rather it work properly from the start.

Side note:

There are many things to like about XP, but the way it handles drive letters isn't one of them. This issue burnt me twice, once when adding a drive and once when trying to recover deleted data (unwittingly hooked up two XP drives as master and slave to recover info from the slave - afterwards, the master drive wouldn't work as a single anymore).

Zvi

 

[CyberWorld]

You might want to try using an image software :Example "ghost"
Install the new drive as D: Ghost it fom C: after it's completed, shut down swap the drive cables so your new drive
is now C, the old drive will become D.

both drive will be mirror image. delete what you dont want off of D. This sound like what your after or did i read your post wrong.

 

[bcastner]

I would also unplug both cables to the Zip drive until the installation was done and tested.

 

[zviw]

CyberWorld

2 problems with that: 1) WinXP is funny with drive letters. It doesn't assign letters merely based on the drive's location on the cable or its designation as master or slave. This solution was good for everything prior to WinXP, but no longer. 2) It's time for a clean install so I'd rather not ghost the drive.

I have several other options, I'm just looking for the smoothest. I experimented on a client last year and it wasn't pretty -- I had assumed XP worked like previous Windows versions.

bcastner

Sometimes I'm glad that I don't have a zip drive.

I do have 1 CD drive and 1 DVD/CD writer. If I remember correctly these are not an issue.

I will be experimenting tomorrow - already downloaded Datalifeguard and am making a fresh backup. Have SP2 CD in hand.

Zvi

 

[Turkbear]

Hi,
Bcastner's advice is critical - I had to replace my Hard Drive ( the only one in the PC) and did not disconnect the Zip drive first ( also had a CD/RW and a DVD drive)..

The new installation placed the system on the F: drive and identified the C: drive as a USB Mass Storage Device ( non-functional)..Dell support eventually told me that I should have disconnected the Zip drive first and that my only option is a complete reinstall - I have decided not to do that and to live with a F: drive and no Zip ( USB Flash sticks are cheap)...

 

[ITSTOAST]

I had same problem with drive letters, it gave Zip C: and made several programs that looked to C: unusable. From now on I always remove the ZIP!

Only the good die young, me I'm here forever

 

[ymeq123]

I've had good luck with partition magic. I just copy the partition over to the new drive and expand it, take out the old drive and let it boot from the new one. In the event that the system drive changes I go into the registry and delete the old C: DosDevice mount letter and also the new system drive mount letter and then reboot. The new drive then comes up as C: