Quick, dumb question

[Tumnus]

I'm going to be reformatting my hard drive and reinstalling a fresh OS; However, I am installing a Linux Distro, not Windows XP. I have two hard drives; I have never tried it, but I assume i can just put all the files I'd like to keep on the second hard drive, and format the drive with my OS install on it, and then once that boots be able to access my old files. I was wondering whether or not this was the case; thanks for the quick replies. I was also wondering if booting into a Linux distro would cause any problems with this as opposed to just reloading a Windows install. Thanks.

[DumbstixLars]

Well you have to format the storage drive before you can use it. I do this in Windows and don't have any problems, but Linux won't be able to recognize some of the Windows files. Otherwise I would think it would work. Why not just format the unused drive, install Linux on it and dual boot it?

[Tumnus]

Well both my drives are currently being used, but I transferred all the files I wanted to save to my storage drive. All I'm saving is some Iso files, some mp3s, and some DivX files. I could put all the files on DVDs, but this is a long and costly move, and I'd really rather not deal with it unless I really have to.

[DumbstixLars]

Well, get a DVD burner as soon as you can. I did what you are doing and sure enough my drive died and I lost bunch of my stuff. :P

[dawei213]

If you move all the files to the second drive (say Drive B), you can reformat Drive A and install whatever OS you want. If you install Windows XP, it'll recognize the second drive and all the files with no problem.

However, take note, if you install Linux, and the second drive was originally formatted using NTFS, then would have to mount the drive after you install Linux. Also, doing so, you should set it to have ONLY READ ACCESS. Giving it write access on an NTFS drive and writing via Linux is very risky and could corrupt your partition.

[Albigger]

Yeah - also just a word of caution, make sure you format the drive you want and NOT the one with your data on it during windows/linux installation.

Might seem incredibly common sense but i've seen/heard of it happening...

[Tumnus]

So say I go with a dual-boot; I install Windows XP first, and then I install Fedora, or whatever I'm going to go with - I will be able to access the files through the XP boot no problem, but when I boot into Fedora, I will have to mount the drive? I can take this to the AOS forum if I need to.

[DumbstixLars]

Yes, I'd just avoid mounting the drive though.