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Question

Need OS Information

by Oct 11, 2012 2:53PM PDT

I have an old drive set up as a slave drive in my computer that currently has Windows XP installed. I have been scouring the web for the last few hours and cannot find anything about how to identify the OS installed on the slave drive. I was wondering if it would be possible to find information on the OS installed? I already have the serial for the drive, I now need to know 32/64 bit, and if it is the Home or Professional version of XP. I am going to do a reinstall and need to know which disk to use. Thanks in advance!

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8 Posts
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Answer
about your OS
by Oct 11, 2012 5:37PM PDT

To know the details of your Windows XP OS, click the Start button> right-click My Computer> select Properties. You will now see the details including 32 or 64 bit, Home or Professional etc. related to your Windows XP OS. If you want, you can note them down.

As far as the slave drive is concerned, I guess this is the secondary drive on to which you saved your Windows XP installation (if you have 2 hard drives installed on your computer). usually the main drive is recognized by the default letter C: and the secondary (slave) drive is recognized by whatever letter you chose it to be. So go to My Computer and check which drives you have there. Open each drive to make sure you see its contents to either copy or do whatever you want to

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Response
by 7h324nd0m1 Oct 12, 2012 1:17AM PDT

My apologies for not making this clear before. The reason I have the secondary drive set as a slave is because it is not possible to boot, it is giving a boot error, hence the reason for the reinstall. I was given this hard drive and I have discs for an old operating system of mine, I just need to know if it will be the right one or not (32/64 bit, home or professional. So I need to gather that information from the slave drive without booting it.

Sorry for the confusion!

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Answer
Re: reinstall OS
by Former Forum moderator Oct 11, 2012 6:26PM PDT

Just boot from that old drive, than follow the directions given by suman_suman.

But why not use the original disk? That's surely the right one.

Kees

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Drive
by 7h324nd0m1 Oct 12, 2012 4:23AM PDT

I got the computer from someone who was throwing it out. They didn't have any information on the computer and I can't get the current slave drive to boot either.

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Then that's good news.
by r. proffitt Former Forum moderator Oct 12, 2012 4:28AM PDT

Now install an OS of your choice. No reason to fiddle farther.
Bob

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OS
by 7h324nd0m1 Oct 12, 2012 5:45AM PDT

I have the serial for the version of Windows XP that is currently installed on the drive, so I was trying to save money and not have to buy another OS. I'm not really wanting to use Linux for this build, since it will be for my parents most likely. It seems like such a simple task, I am just baffled at how much time it has taken already.

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Not baffled here.
by r. proffitt Former Forum moderator Oct 12, 2012 5:58AM PDT

Let's say this PC is a CAR. You get a flat and then try to put on the spare tire but find you are missing the LUG WRENCH.

You would be hard pressed to do the work without the right tools. Since you are missing the XP CD that belongs to this PC you are doing about the same thing as trying to change a tire without that lug wrench.

It's sad to see folk struggle like that.

Why not install Ubuntu and be done with this? It's Firefox browser, and Office work a like is well, the same as what you use today on XP.
Bob

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Answer
As a matter of fact ...
by Oct 12, 2012 10:38AM PDT
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