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Which hard Drive?
Hi All,
I need to remove the hard drive from my Dell Dimension E520 so I can back up the data before I reinstall XP as I have a problem logging into Windows. I have just dismantled the PC and noticed I have 2 hard drives, which one has my data and do I reformat both drives?
Thanks.
Sat
ejn63
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February 21st, 2010 10:00
DO NOT remove the drives until you determine how they're set up. If they're mirrored, both drives have a copy of everything. If they're a RAID 0 array, neither drive has a full set of your data - the data is spread over two drives.
UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES try to boot the system without both drives attached as they originally were until you determine what is what - if they're RAID 0 and you boot them individually or switch the two drives you will lose everything on both drives.
Go into the system BIOS (or RAID BIOS, CTRL-I) to determine how they're set up.
satnam
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February 21st, 2010 10:00
Hi - I am pretty sure I do not have a RAID array, I will not be booting the system until I have copied the data and reformatted. I will boot with both drives attached.
Rgds
Sat