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Reformatting Two Drives
I'm wanting to do a reformat on an old computer with two drives in it. The bigger drive has Win XP on it and the smaller drive has Win98. Right now you have to enter the drive you want on bootup. I'm giving this computer to my sister and I'm wanting to format and re-install the XP on the bigger drive and then format the smaller drive to be used for data storage. My question is...how do I go about doing this? I've searched for two days for the answer on this forum but never quite found exactly what I'm wanting to do. I'm hoping to be able to make it so when she boots the computer up, it will automatically go to the XP harddrive but have access to the data drive directly from there.
Here's the specs on my machine.
Dell Dimension XPS T750r
Win XP, pack 1 on one drive (Drive g. NTFS 40 gig)
Win 98 on 2nd drive (drive c Fat 32 30 gig)
1200 Mg Intel Pentium III
512 installed memory (one 256, 2 128 mods)
I'm not totally computer illiterate but sure could use some help. I can follow directions fairly well.
Thanks in advance,
Mary
Here's the specs on my machine.
Dell Dimension XPS T750r
Win XP, pack 1 on one drive (Drive g. NTFS 40 gig)
Win 98 on 2nd drive (drive c Fat 32 30 gig)
1200 Mg Intel Pentium III
512 installed memory (one 256, 2 128 mods)
I'm not totally computer illiterate but sure could use some help. I can follow directions fairly well.
Thanks in advance,
Mary
shesagordie
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Posted January 7th, 2007 19:00
CobblerSee if this guide can help,Bev.Please don't send me questions about your system by DCF Messenger.
Post the issue in the appropriate Board, where they will be answered.
- Thanks, Bev...I was just looking at that. Is it possible that I can just disconnect it at the mother board? I'm sorry, that's probably not the term I need to use but meaning, could I just unhook it at the opposite end of the cable and not at the drive end?
Mary - Yes you got it, except the G drive will become C drive when mounted by itself, and windows installed on it.. When the old drive is connected again windows will assign the next drive letter available in the system..E or F or GYou should always disconnect any extra hard drives when installing windows, this prevents many problems..Are you sure of the T750r model number?After installing Windows you will have to install drivers, post the model number back, so I can help with this also. Is this XP disc you are using to reinstall SP2 or SP1?
- Ok....see if I got this straight. I'm to disconnect my C drive (which is the old drive with the Win98) and then reformat my G drive (the newer drive with the XP on it) with my XP cd. Then, after I have reformatted and reinstalled and added my drivers, plug the old drive back in. Then go to my computer and format that drive from there by the sub menus. Is this correct?
It's a Dell Dimension T750r. Thanks for the site...I've used it before and its great.
Thank you so much for answering my question. Sorry its taken me a while to reply back. I'll let you know how it turns out.
Mary - Hit a snag already and just came back here to research how to go about getting that dang drive unhooked..its the original drive and its up against the front of the case in a vertical position and the connection is between it and the new drive which is in a horizontal position. Can't get my fingers in there to unhook and I can't see where removing the other drive will help.
Yes, the front of the case states Dimension XPS T750r. I added the new processor a few years ago by some wonderful help from you guys on this list.
The part about the drive letters had me confused so thanks for clearing that up. So my XP drive will then be the C drive....got it!
I was planning on using the original XP upgrade disk that I purchased back then and no, it has neither the service pack 1 or 2 on it. I have the service pack 1 on disk but need to download the 2.
Mary - Well, that didn't work. I unhooked the 98 drive and booted up but it told me there was no operating system. I tried moving the XP cable to the pins where the 98 drive was plugged in but still no operating system message on boot up. Any ideas, please? This might be a week long process!
And by the way, just so you all don't get confused. Ladyups and cobbler are both me. I used Cobbler before but couldn't remember the password so I registered again and had to change the user name cause Cobbler was taken (duh?) and now I notice that the messages are coming in both user names. Sorry about that!
Mary - Sorry, I thought I was following your directions but my mind wasn't. I unhooked the 98 drive and then rebooted. Forgot to put the XP disk in the drive, so I was getting the error message about no operating system. I just now hooked it back up, booted up and put the cd in the drive. Then I shut down and unhooked and rebooted. It went through the setup to load the files it needed and when it said it was getting ready to load windows, I got an error message, stating that windows was going to be shut down to protect the computer. I tried it twice and got the message twice. I then shut down and moved the cable pins (for lack of the correct terminology here) to the pins where the 98 drive HAD been connected and rebooted. It's going though the setup now. I'm sure I'll be back with more questions.
Thanks!
Mary
mombodog
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Posted January 7th, 2007 14:00