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New HDD, new OS.. please help

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Trypt

Member
Joined
Aug 27, 2003
Location
Mississauga, Ontario
I need your help, this is what I want to do:

Just to let you know, I got the 150GB Raptor today as a gift from my parents for my bday. Have no idea how they could possibly know about this specific drive, but somehow they found out even tho they have no computer knowhow. Out of the hundreds of drives out there, they buy the only one that I would even consider, and indeed a computer part I have been secretly wishing for.

Anyhow, right now my main rig has only one drive, with one SATA port open.

Question 1: Does the computer and/or the OS treat SATA in hierarchy? Is one primary and the other secondary or are they both equal? The reason for this will become obvious when I explain what I want to do:

I want to keep my current XP setup intact. I am assuming when I install the Raptor, my current setup will just assign it a letter and thats the end of that. I am fine with that.

However, I want to install a new OS on the Raptor. I haven't decided whether it will be XP64 or Vista, but this is irrelevant! This is the important part. When I install the new OS, I want this setup to of course think the Raptor is my C drive, and treat my 250GB current drive as the secondary storage drive.

Then, of course, I want the option at startup to start either OS.

In short, at startup, I want to be able to choose my current XP32 setup, or my new Vista setup. Then, if I choose XP32, I want my current setup to start, with the new Raptor visible and assigned a non C: letter. If I choose Vista, I want the Raptor to be C: drive, with my current drive as a storage drive D: (arbitrary letter).

Is this possible? How do I go about it?

ps. In fact, I want to install two more, not just one, but its the same thing, so that is why I asked about only one. Ultimately, I am going to partition the Raptor into two 75GB partitions, one for Vista and one for Linux. Of course, I want the option of all three (XP, Vista, Linux) at startup, and I want each to treat the partition they are on as the main C: partition, with the others as storage partitions.
 
Simple.

For starters the letter of the drive doesn't matter, it's just used to distinguish the two.

Use a windows setup disk to set up two partitions on your new hard drive. Keep one of the partitions for storage, throw windows on the second. Your computer will see the two installs of windows and ask you which one to boot each time you start your machine.
 
So, essentially, I can install the Raptor and when I load my current XP, it will recognize it and give it a non-C letter right?

Then, I can reboot with the windows setup disk, and install windows on the Raptor, and this new windows will see the Raptor as C drive and my current drive as whatever?

Then I will get the option of OS automatically at startup, with each OS seeing its own drive as C and the other as "x"??

Am I getting it?
 
Trypt said:
So, essentially, I can install the Raptor and when I load my current XP, it will recognize it and give it a non-C letter right?

Then, I can reboot with the windows setup disk, and install windows on the Raptor, and this new windows will see the Raptor as C drive and my current drive as whatever?

Then I will get the option of OS automatically at startup, with each OS seeing its own drive as C and the other as "x"??

Am I getting it?

As far as i know it can/will work like this:

You have your current install of windows, you can get your new hard drive and plug it in. Windows will name it automatically and it should already be formated and ready to go. Plug and play...ready for storage. By default though it only has one partition.

I know there are other ways to do this but i have always found this to be the easiest. Install the drive, then put in a windows setup disk and start setup. Windows will now see two drives. Your old one, and your new one. It may already have a partition (as i suggested) or it may not be.

Just go to the new drive and create a new partition, then create a second. Make sure to leave enough room for your new install of windows.

When you get the version of windows you want, go back and install it on that partition that you alloted for your windows install. Windows views each partition as a separate hard drive.

Once you have two or more installs of windows on the hard drives that are in your computer, when you boot up your machine you will be stopped at a "dos like" screen that will ask you to select which instillation of windows you'd like to boot up.

Do a google search or "windows dual boot" or something to that effect.

BTW, again...the letters do not matter. They are merely for identification. I could be very wrong about this but i think the that "C" being the default goes back to the fact that DOS and Windows are coded in C++...but uhh, don't quote me on that.
 
Thanks, but if you're not sure, I'd rather get a second opinion.

I'll try it either way, so it really doesn't matter, I would just rather it go smooth and with minimal effort on my part.

I am a computer expert, and have worked in the field for 15 years, so the questions I am asking are not due to lack of experience but only because I don't remember exactly the way XP handles a new install, especially when it comes to which drive each OS will look at as the primary (no, the letters do not matter, but as everyone knows, C for the OS drive is the norm, and I'm so used to it, that I'd probably make many small mistakes on an OS which is installed on a different drive letter)



Question: Are you saying to setup windows WITHIN my current XP OS? Or reboot with the setup disk?

Perhaps I was not clear with my original post, but I still need an answer, let me try to clear it up in point form:

- I have XP running right now on 250GB C:.

- I want to install the Raptor so that my current setup sees it as a storage D: drive (assume I have no other drives, or that they are not assigned D:, for arbitrary reasons)

- Then I want to install a new OS onto the Raptor, and I want this new OS to see the Raptor as the C: drive, and the 250GB drive of the current setup as the storage D: drive

- The I want to have a multiboot screen with a choice to load either OS, completely independent of eachother, but each with a storage drive D: of the other OS.


I am worried that when I boot with the setup disk, it will see my Raptor as the D drive and install there, and changing the drive letter of the OS drive is not a good idea. However, I really want each OS to see its respective drive as C: and the other drive as D:
 
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I see what you're trying to say, but it's just not possible(unless there's one very crazy workaround). Like Speciale said, it really makes no difference what letters are assigned to drives.

Even if you did switch letters of your drives, you would have to reassign every shortcut and a few other directories, because your file that was at "C:\program files\whatever" is now actually residing at "D:\program files\whatever".

I ran my dual boot with XP on drive C: and Vista on F:. Before your OS loads during startup, it asks which Windows version you want to load. It's not that hard to remember which partition you put an OS on.

The dual boot is mostly an automatic process. The only thing you need to do is format and partition the HDD.
 
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