Raptor & Seagate Baracuda.

I currently run an 80Gb Baracuda and will be adding a 74Gb Raptor and need to know how I would go about installing the OS correctly.
I'm goin to format the Seagate HD and start from scratch on both of them.

When I insert the XP OS disc, what do I do next? Will it detect both HD's and ask me which to install the OS to?

Yes, normaly it will say whatever the part number is, luckly you also see who made the drive, so just hit the up and down arrows till you see the drive you want the OS to be on highlighted (i think it's yellow).... HIT <ENTER>

But general sequence of events when instaling windows goes like this:
The disk goes in... waiting.... waiting.... F8... waiting... enter key... waiting... select sometihng... enter key... enter key some more.... waiting... waiting... waiting.... waiting... napping... waiting... waiting... enter key... waiting... restarts... defrag... set some settings... DONE

Now, remember to burn all the data from hte old drive if you wana keep any.

And time for me to ask you a question... What interface are the drives? Both SATA? If not please show us what interfaces the drives run.

Example... the rig in my sig goes like this:

*Floppy Controler --> Floppy Drive
IDE chanel 0 --> 160gb drive --> 80gb drive
IDE chanel 1 --> DVD-Burner --> CD-Burner
*ICH5R raid controler thingy --> 2x80gb drives in raid 0
SATA 0 --> seagate 7200 rpm, 8mb drive
SATA 1 --> seagate 7200 rpm, 8mb drive

It should detect it fine, unless you're putting them in raid, in which you will need a raid driver disk for when it says "Press F6 if you need to install third-party raid drivers.." before you get to the actual format and installing of the OS. If you aren't putting them in raid, however, you should have no problems at all as long as everything is connected properly. The installation you just select which partition you wish to install the OS to. since you're starting fresh they will both have no partitions so you really just pick which HD to install to, it will format it for you and continue installing. You can partition the other HD in this installer as well, but sometimes its easier to to that afterwards with partition magic or your utility of choice.
-DarkAlexandr

Thx both of you for your help. Im not a noob by anymeans, but it's been a while since I messed with 2 HD's in the same rig. Not to mention them being SATA. The last system I built used a SATA Host Controler in the PCI slot, so it was a bit different.

I am running the 7.2k 80GB Seagate drive on SATA 0, and nothing is on 1 right now. Planning on putting the raptor on SATA 0 and the Seagate on 1.

And no I am not running anything in raid.

Thanks again 4 both your help.