Computer Help

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1

I have a desktop computer that is a few years old. I really only use it for word processing and school related things. I have a laptop for all the other stuff I do on the computer.

I installed a second hard drive a while back to add some extra space for media that I have saved on the computer. The original hard drive just has windows and the programs I use on it. The problem is that the original hard drive is dying. It recently started making a pulsing noise and became very slow. I worried that its going to just die on me here shortly.

So my question is what problems would I have If I was to install windows xp on the secondary hard drive? The secondary hard drive has more than enough space to install windows. I would like to do that then just get rid of the original hard drive.

I’m not really sure how I should go about doing this. I know that its not all that complicated but I would like some advice. I know a lot of you guys are incredible with computers so I would like to do this without headaches.

thanks,
Jimmy

2

I would change the jumpers to make the 2nd hard drive the primary then just do a regular Windows install on it. Switch it to the Primary IDE channel as well, then move the original hard drive to the secondary channel.

3

or you can just leave it alone boot your xp cd install windows on another partition on that Secondary drive and boot to that everytime… that would prolly be your best way to do it… and then move everything from the original hard drive to the what was the secondary one.

4

This in my opinion would be your best bet.

Take anything on your secondary hard drive, and transfer it to your currently dying primary hard drive. ( just lump it under 1 folder on the desktop )

(for trouble free installation and so hard drives don’t get mixed up by you or the motherboard just take the first hard drive out, change the pins on your secondary hard drive to make it the primary and put it in the old dying hard drives spot.

Boot with the xp disk in. Now when you get to a screen dealing with partitions. If you want a 100% clean install. Delete ALL partitions on the hard drive (this being your working one). Then make a new partition on that hard drive.

Now install xp to this new partition.

After the install boot with out the cd in and make sure you can log on using your newer hard drive.

If it works fine NOW take your old dying hard drive and set its pin to be the slave hard drive and hook it up in the secondary hard drive slot and cable position.

Now boot up your pc again and it should boot to your primary (newer) hard drives xp copy. If it does now go under my computer. You will see 2 hard drive icons. (probably C: and D: but it varies by brand of computer and motherboard). In any case the 2nd hard drive icon is your dying hard drive. Click it and you will see "Documents and Settings, Drivers, Program Files, Ect… ".

Go under documents and Settings and click the user name you always log under on (if its a single user it should just say your name or administration).
Once you click on the selected login you usually use you will get some more icons. Desktop, My Documents, Shared, Windows, Ect…

Now you can click the Desktop icon and find your folder that you took from the secondary hard drive (currently your main) and copy that, and paste it to your current desktop. ( the reason i had you put it from the working to the non working hard drive is because if you wanted a fresh install you have to delete the working hard drives old partition and this would delete all the files)

One you copied your secondary (now main) hard drives info back to your primary (use to be secondary) hard drive, you can copy any other stuff you need from your dying hard drive to your main. Like under the same “Documents and Settings"what ever user login” you can select “My Documents” and take all that stuff and paste it on to your current desktop. (be sure to rename it My Documents 2 or something so nothing is over written).

And your DONE!

If you have any questions pm me or post

5

what’s with all of this changing jumpers shit? I haven’t messed with jumpers in a few years, cable select FTW.

move everything off of old hard drive to a jump drive or external drive, put in new hd and install windows and all apps, copy everything back from external drive. How much data do you have? If you don’t have an external drive, let me know and you can borrow mine if you need to.

6

X2

Also on the drive if you need to borrow one.

7

thanks guys! I appreciate the offers and the help. I just moved the data I wanted to keep on to the dying drive. Then disconnected the old drive, moved the new good drive to the old drives location. I installed windows on the new drive, put back the old drive in the secondary spot to move my data over to the new one. Then took the old drive out!

thanks again guys!