Big bug causes new install!!

[Konglow]

My previous thread explained my problem and now I'm moving on. New questions....I have 5 hdd and three partitions, will replacing C Drive w/new hdd cure my problems?.......Can a hdd from a Vista machine be accesed if put into a XP or vice versa?.......Can I download Vista into a seperate partition and have it work? If so how?

MSI nForce K9N2 SLI Platinum.
AMD Phenom Quad Core 9600 325Gb mem.
WIN Vista Ultimate 32.
Corsair XMS 4096MB PC6400 DDR2.
MSI GeForce GTX 275 vid.
Corsair TX850w psu
Acer 24" HD P249w(Dual Monitors).
Cyber Snyper V2 game pad, Stinger Laser Mouse, Sonar 5.1 Headset.
Maxtor 1.5Tb

EI 5.9

 

[linney]

When you purchase a new hard drive, the manufacturer will often provide you with software that will copy the contents of the old drive to the new drive.

When swapping drives between machines you need to be aware of the Permissions that control access to files.

HOW TO: Take Ownership of a File or Folder in Windows XP (or Vista)

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/308421/en-us

Error Message: "Access Is Denied" When You Try to Open NTFS File System Folders

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;Q823306#appliesto

Add encrypted files to the list of possible reasons for Access Denied.

When you install any operating system you can control which partition the install is pointed to via the setup preferences that are offered to you.

Have a look at at point "7.On the Where do you want to install Windows?"

To install Windows by performing a clean installation

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows-vista/Installing-and-reinstalling-Windows-Vista#section_2

How to install Windows Vista

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/918884/#appliesto

Selecting the Hard Drive for Vista

http://www.pcstats.com/articleview.cfm?articleid=2257&page=4

Beginners Guides: Installing Windows Vista

http://www.pcstats.com/articleview.cfm?articleID=2257

Hard drive manufacturers have free diagnostic software (on their web sites) that is bootable that will thoroughly check the condition of their hard drive.

Vista will have to be installed via running Setup you will not be able to copy Vista from an old machine to a new machine and expect it to work. The operating system needs to be installed on any new machine. Licensing comes in to play too, as OEM's Licenses mean the operating system is only licensed for the original machine.