Help with Windows XP installation...

[brennan77]

I have Windows XP installed on my 30GB drive here. I bought a new 160GB hard drive.

What I want to do is install a fresh install of Windows on the 160GB and set the old 30GB as a slave. That way all my files and such are already backed up and I can just drag and drop after the new install. The problem is that I can't boot from the CD to install as the full capacity of the drive is not being recognized. I know this is because the nForce 2 IDE driver is not loaded. I have tried to load the driver to a floppy to install the driver before installation, but some OEM.txt file is needed and I don't have that.

I've gone ahead and partitioned and formatted the drive to my liking as a slave to my 30GB. By doing this within Windows XP I have all 160GB(150GB to windows) recognized.

So here's where I need help. Can I simply run the Windows setup within Windows booted from my 30GB? I'll tell it to install to the new drive and partition I want. But I'm worried about boot issues and such. Also, assuming this works and I'm able to revert the 160GB drive to the master setting and boot with the new install of Windows, will I be able to change its drive letter? I seem to recall having problems changing the letter of the boot volume.

Thanks for the help.

[Captain U]

Why don't you make a complete copy from youre 30gb HD and put it on youre 160 now set your 160gb as the boot drive and when you load up windows format your 30gb.
or after you copy it take it out format the 30gb and then put it back in?

[brennan77]

So you're saying I should copy everything to the 160GB drive now and then do the fresh install on the 30GB drive. And then copy it again thereby getting a fresh install onto the new drive?

[brennan77]

OK, I've got it all working. I just installed windows while leaving the extra space unpartitioned. Then I installed the drivers and SP1 and everything was recognized.