new hard drive

I would reformat the 80 GB drive and start with it as the only drive - load the OS fresh, do all of the updates and drivers, etc. Then once you have the system up and running flawlessly, load your programs. Then install the 6GB as a slave and transfer your files over to the new drive. Once the 80 is running everything and you have all of your files and important stuff on it, reformat the 6GB drive and just use it for file backup.

Message Edited by parkerti on 12-28-2005 07:55 AM

parman,

I'm confused. What drive is Windows XP on, the 80GB or the 6GB? If it were on the 6GB drive you would have little room left for anything else since a full install of XP these days takes 3.5GB. If it is on the 80GB drive and you wish to move data from the 6GB drive you can do it by simply copying most of it within Windows. For email you can use the File|Import features of Outlook Express (import from the folder containing your *.dbx files) or Outlook (import from the *.pst folder). You can either import or copy Favorites into the new installation You will have to reinstall all of your applications assuming that the Windows XP installation is new. It's difficult to be more specific without knowing more details about the contents of each of the drives as presently configured.

If your os is on a master drive are you able to take your os, applications, file settings, etc.from your master drive and move it to another hard drive and boot succesfully. How many GB does XP 2 service pack have. I guess I messed up when I put the XP on the 6, my son is helping me and we did not think it out. I guess now we need to install the XP on the 80.
Thank you soooooooo much, that just confirmed what my son thought we would have to do.

Mollee,

Windows XP SP2 requires approximately 3.5GB so you could leave it installed on the 6GB drive by itself and then install applications on the 80GB drive, but this would require quite a bit of shuffling to move folders normally located on the same drive as the OS (portions of Documents and Settings, email folders) if those folders became large. The conservative approach is to install everything on the 80GB drive (and my personal preference is to partition that drive into two partitons--one for the OS and applications the other for data). The 6GB drive can be used for data storage or as a backup drive for a cloned image of the partition containing the OS and applications.

That sounds like a really good idea. I knew you would know the best and easiest way to do it. I had not thought about that, but it makes a lot of sense.
Thanks again, Parman