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General discussion

Adding a new SATA hard drive - any tips?

May 17, 2005 10:46AM PDT

I have a home built PC with Windows XP home, 2.4gb processor, 1gb RAM, and an 80 gb SATA hard drive. My drive is full of video and pics so I bought a new 200gb SATA drive that I would like to make my primary C: drive and keep the old one just for storage. I have XP Professional disk that I want to install on the new drive. I would like to transfer some programs to the new drive but do a clean install of the operating system. First, any suggestions on software to help transfer the programs? Second, what steps should I take to install the new drive? Should I install it in the computer first, install XP pro on it, transfer the programs from the old one, and then wipe the old one clean and reformat it? Any steps I'm missing? Thanks in advance for the help!
Mike

Discussion is locked

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You might get away with this
May 18, 2005 12:00PM PDT

It's an old trick. You would need to install the new drive by itself and do your clean windows installation. Once done, you put in the old drive and delete the Windows folder. You can then copy the Program Files folder to the new drive as well as other folders that have programs but are not under Program files. Your personal files such as in My Documents will also need to be copied over. Next, you still get to reinstall all of your applications and update them. This is because the files created by them in the Windows folders and sub-folders is gone as well as are their registry entries. There is no guarantee, however, that all will go smoothly. Good luck.

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Thanks I'll try it...
May 23, 2005 7:44AM PDT

I'll try this when I get some time. I'm also considering just installing the new drive, installing xp pro on it, installing all the programs I have on disk and getting the pics and videos off the old drive and putting them on the new drive. Once I have everything I need from the old drive would I reformat it to us it for storage?
Thanks for your help
Mike

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Old drive as storage
May 23, 2005 10:20AM PDT

You can certainly format and use it for storage. I prefer my smaller drive for the OS and apps and the larger for storage but your SATA might have a small performance advantage making it worthwhile as a primary drive. The choice is your own in how to use it.

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New Sata
May 25, 2005 9:52AM PDT

As stated, disconnect the PATA, format and load XP on the SATA. Reconnect the "Storage" disk as 'slave' using cable select. Believe me, I know, been there, done that. Then use "File and Settings Transfer Wizard" to bring over all the info from the old storage disk (XP). hard copy the program files from storage(D) to boot(C) disk. when all that's done and you're satisfied everything is there, then reformat the "D" drive. There are also converters for PATA to SATA connect so one can use the SATA controller only, makes for a clean running system. I'm running at 1300 mb/s transfer for both "C" and "D" where "D" is a western 40gb PATA with a converter.

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Thanks!
May 25, 2005 1:52PM PDT

Actually both my current 80 gig and my new 200 gig drives are SATA so it should make this process even easier. Thanks for your help. I'll post when I do the switch.