New Hardrive

[l15741]

Hello,
This is my first time purchasing a harddrive this large so some of my questions many seem a little noobish.

I want to pick up a 200 gigibyte hard drive that is on sale for like 100 dollars at the Compusa down the street. However I had a few questions.

1) I wanted to confirm that the 127 (137 whatever) gigibyte limit in windows XP had been fully fixed, or will I have problems what that?

2) Will there be to much of a power drain with that much added drive? I think my PSU is at about the end of it's cord anywaise and I don't want to have to get another.

3) I don't feel like going through the while reformatting ordeal, but I want windows and stuff on the new drive, so if I install it as a slave, then copy and paste everything from c: to d: then reinstall the 200 as a master and make it the c: drive, will everything work? Or do I have to reformat and get all my drivers and programs and stuff on there all over again?

Thanks for any help you choose to give.

 

[digitalwanderer]

1. I recently installed an sATA 200Gb HD in XP without any problems having XP recognize all 200Gb of it. (And I didn't partition it at all, it's just one huge horking drive. 8) )

2. No clue.

3. I highly doubt that copying the contents of your drive over and then swapping them around would be a very good idea. It might just work, but I doubt it would be stable. Generally speaking, if you're swapping the HD your OS is on it is a very good idea to re-install.

 

[pcchen]

1. You need to make sure that your BIOS support more than 137GB HDDs. Windows XP won't have any problem with it, AFAIK (I have two computers with 160GB drives working under WinXP, and as digitalwanderer, I don't partition my drives ).

2. Most normal 7,200 rpm drives drain about 10W ~ 15W under normal operation. You can check the datasheet of your HDD for details.

3. You probably need something like Ghost to do that.

 

[digitalwanderer]

You probably need something like Ghost to do that.

I don't think you can ghost from one drive to another like that. :?

 

[AAlcHemY]

1) If you have problems with >127Gb hd's, install SP1. ( XP and 2K )

3) A simple image with Ghost should work.

 

[epicstruggle]

You probably need something like Ghost to do that.

I don't think you can ghost from one drive to another like that. :?

you can. although if you search you can find free alternatives. look at hardforum.com, i read a thread on this not too long ago.

epic

 

[epicstruggle]

a quick scan found this program:
http://www.softpedia.com/public/cat/13/2/13-2-43.shtml

do not delete/reformat your old hard drive until your sure everything is running smoothly with the new. one.

epic

 

[epicstruggle]

something else worth investigating:
http://www.ultimatebootcd.com/

 

[rabidrabbit]

I'm sorry if I'm hijacking l15741's topic, but I'd have a guestion that I think could go with this same topic.

I'm buying a second HD in addition to my 120GB.
Both would be Serial ATA.
The old HD is partitioned with C: and D:, C: being obvioulsy the boot partition with WinXP on it.

C: has WinXP and also some programs.
D: has some programs and all my files.

I probably buy a faster new HD, so I'd put it as my new boot hard drive, and partition it also in two, C: and D:

NewHD:
C: WinXP
D: Empty after install

OldHD:
E: My old WinXP plus programs that I want to get rid of.
D: My old files that I want preserve.

How should I make the new HD installation.
Should I disconnect the old HD before installing the new and XP on it, and put the old one back after succesfull installation, and then just delete the Windows and other unneeded folders from E: (The old C: ), or is it better to format the old c: partition from the new XP installation? Will it let me do it? Will there be left some "boot information" on the old C: partition if I don't re-partition the old drive. I want to keep the files on the old D: partition intact.

 

[epicstruggle]

rabidrabbit, i would:
-remove old harddrive
-while case open, make sure to clean case from dust, and make sure fans are also dust free.
-insert new hd
-install OS
-insert old hd, copy contents
-if everything went fine and dandy, and you have all your files copied, go ahead and reformat.

I dont believe youll have to do anything special when reinserting your old harddrive. YOu might just want to make sure its in slave mode.

epic