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I have a 160 gig SATA drive in my winbox now, and have been given a new 250 gig. How do I go about putting Windows on the 250?
"I can't get no SATA-faction
I can't get no hard drive action"
My computer has a 160 gig SATA hard drive as its main drive. 159 gigs of that is full, so my brother sent me a brand new 250 gig SATA drive.
My Windows installation on the 160 has eaten itself to the point where it was time to do a fresh slash-and-burn XP Pro installation anyway, so what I'm looking at doing now is disconnecting the 160 and adding the 250, then proceeding with a format and install just as if this were a brand new computer with a 250-gig drive. Then I reconnect the 160 and hope that I continue booting off the 250 instead of the 160.
Is there anything wrong with this plan? Is there some way (in the BIOS for instance) that I can make sure the 250 ends up as the C: drive and it boots from that drive after I'm done reinstalling?
Is there anything else I should know about?
I can't get no hard drive action"
My computer has a 160 gig SATA hard drive as its main drive. 159 gigs of that is full, so my brother sent me a brand new 250 gig SATA drive.
My Windows installation on the 160 has eaten itself to the point where it was time to do a fresh slash-and-burn XP Pro installation anyway, so what I'm looking at doing now is disconnecting the 160 and adding the 250, then proceeding with a format and install just as if this were a brand new computer with a 250-gig drive. Then I reconnect the 160 and hope that I continue booting off the 250 instead of the 160.
Is there anything wrong with this plan? Is there some way (in the BIOS for instance) that I can make sure the 250 ends up as the C: drive and it boots from that drive after I'm done reinstalling?
Is there anything else I should know about?
answers (5)
I think that you have a pretty clear idea of what needs to be done and how to do it.
Here are the steps that I would take:
1)
Connect 250 drive
You don't need to disconnect the 160 drive. However, I would to be sure that there were no problems and that the data on the 160 drive was 100% safe.
3)
Enter your Bios when the computer first boots.
This is usually done by pressing F2 when you first turn your computer on.
4)
Change the boot order.
Look for "disk boot order".
Using the instructions on screen in your bios, move your CD or DVD drive to the top #1 position in the list.
Move your new 250 drive to the #2 position on the list.
5)
Pop in your Windows installation CD. Save the changes of your Bios and Reboot.
6)
When prompted, press a key to boot from the CD.
7)
Install Windows to the new 250 drive.
8)
After the windows installation is 100% complete, if you disconnected your 160 drive in step 1, connect it now.
9)
Perform all of the Windows Updates, virus scan, etc.
10)
Think about using Norton Ghost or Acronis True Image to create a fresh, clean disk image / snapshot of your installation.
Creating a Disk Image will ensure that you can return to the exact point where you "took the snapshot" at any time. You know that Windows "eats" space and eventually, every Windows installation needs to be formatted and re-installed.
When you use one of these programs, re-installing Windows is a fast, super easy 20 minute job. All you have to do to re-install Windows after an image is taken is to backup your music, movies, documents, favorites, email, etc to another drive, and press "restore image". The software takes care of everything and you're left with a perfectly clean "factory" image.
Best of luck with your upgrade! I hope that this helps!!
Here are the steps that I would take:
1)
Connect 250 drive
You don't need to disconnect the 160 drive. However, I would to be sure that there were no problems and that the data on the 160 drive was 100% safe.
3)
Enter your Bios when the computer first boots.
This is usually done by pressing F2 when you first turn your computer on.
4)
Change the boot order.
Look for "disk boot order".
Using the instructions on screen in your bios, move your CD or DVD drive to the top #1 position in the list.
Move your new 250 drive to the #2 position on the list.
5)
Pop in your Windows installation CD. Save the changes of your Bios and Reboot.
6)
When prompted, press a key to boot from the CD.
7)
Install Windows to the new 250 drive.
8)
After the windows installation is 100% complete, if you disconnected your 160 drive in step 1, connect it now.
9)
Perform all of the Windows Updates, virus scan, etc.
10)
Think about using Norton Ghost or Acronis True Image to create a fresh, clean disk image / snapshot of your installation.
Creating a Disk Image will ensure that you can return to the exact point where you "took the snapshot" at any time. You know that Windows "eats" space and eventually, every Windows installation needs to be formatted and re-installed.
When you use one of these programs, re-installing Windows is a fast, super easy 20 minute job. All you have to do to re-install Windows after an image is taken is to backup your music, movies, documents, favorites, email, etc to another drive, and press "restore image". The software takes care of everything and you're left with a perfectly clean "factory" image.
Best of luck with your upgrade! I hope that this helps!!
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I'm an I.T. pro with years of experience.
I'm an I.T. pro with years of experience.
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Lays out step by step exactly what I need to do. There were a number of good answers here, but this one was the best.
Your a good moderator.
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This is a good answer. I probably would connect my 250 and move my data from the 160 to the 250 and then reinstall on the 160. I have several external drives, including a T and a 400 g. If my computer crashes I can connect to another computer and access my data until I get my original working.
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You can try two things:
1.- On motherboard (mainboard) connect your 250 HDD on first sata port , there should be numbers starting from '0 t0 4' on sata connectors on mainboard. 0 stands for first port.
2. Go to mainboard's advanced BIOS features and select 250 HDD your first bootable device. To do so you should know the name of your 250 HDD, because in bios features board does not show the HDD like 160 or 250, rather its shows a logical name like 'ST002X5' for HDD.
To know the logical name of your 250 HDD, just connect your 250 HDD leave 160 disconnected and go to advanced bios settings and see what name it is showing for HDD, then select that for each boot device, I mean for first boot device, second boot device, third boot device and so on, select your 250 HDD for each.
Save settings and connect your both HDDs. Then run your system.
I hope this should work.
1.- On motherboard (mainboard) connect your 250 HDD on first sata port , there should be numbers starting from '0 t0 4' on sata connectors on mainboard. 0 stands for first port.
2. Go to mainboard's advanced BIOS features and select 250 HDD your first bootable device. To do so you should know the name of your 250 HDD, because in bios features board does not show the HDD like 160 or 250, rather its shows a logical name like 'ST002X5' for HDD.
To know the logical name of your 250 HDD, just connect your 250 HDD leave 160 disconnected and go to advanced bios settings and see what name it is showing for HDD, then select that for each boot device, I mean for first boot device, second boot device, third boot device and so on, select your 250 HDD for each.
Save settings and connect your both HDDs. Then run your system.
I hope this should work.
I think your plan is alright. But I do have reservations about how many drives (including removable/CD drives) your PC has.
I have a feeling your system will get really slow, and knowing Windows XP, being bloatware more than anything else, I think you should worry about getting more RAM.
I have a feeling your system will get really slow, and knowing Windows XP, being bloatware more than anything else, I think you should worry about getting more RAM.
Based entirely on the text in his question, he'll only have 2 drives.
There are ways that he could partition those 2 drives to marginally increase performance, but there won't be a noticeable decrease of speed with 2 drives on an XP system.
He will see an increase in speed and general performance by installing windows on a freshly formatted, un-fragmented drive that isn't consumed with data. I think he's making a good decision to install another cheap drive.
More RAM is never a bad thing though... you're defiantly right.
There are ways that he could partition those 2 drives to marginally increase performance, but there won't be a noticeable decrease of speed with 2 drives on an XP system.
He will see an increase in speed and general performance by installing windows on a freshly formatted, un-fragmented drive that isn't consumed with data. I think he's making a good decision to install another cheap drive.
More RAM is never a bad thing though... you're defiantly right.
I have 2 gigs of RAM in the system already. I plan on replacing it with 4 at some point soon once I'm a little more steady in my financial situation.
As for drives, I will just have the 2 hard drives and a CDROM drive on SATA. (And an external HD on USB.)
As for drives, I will just have the 2 hard drives and a CDROM drive on SATA. (And an external HD on USB.)
Depending on your system ram is pretty cheap these days. I upgraded to 8 gigs for 88 bucks. (Without using a rebate) Try out amazon and newegg you should be able to find some good deals.
Thx 2 all for the comments. Robbrown, I hope u meant I'm definitely right, coz I'm sure as hell not defiant! - LOL
nowwhatnapster, I'm well aware of NewEgg, and under ordinary circumstances I wouldn't scruple at ordering the memory right now. But I got laid off from my job last week so my situation is a leeetle bit uncertain right now.
silly spell checkerz :)
In your BIOS settings, change the boot order. I'll need to know the exact make and model of your computer (or motherboard if it's a homebuilt) to know how to do this, but usually the BIOS is accessed by pressing F2, F12 or sometimes Delete as the computer manufacturer's logo appears.
If your drive letters are set incorrectly, you can change them in the Control Panel. It's in
Start>Control Panel>Performance and Maintenance>Administrative Tools>Computer Management (if your Control Panel is set to Category View) or
Start>Control Panel>Administrative Tools>Computer Management (if your Control Panel is set to Classic View.)
In here, click Disk Management under Storage in the left pane, and from there you can change drive letter assignments.
If your drive letters are set incorrectly, you can change them in the Control Panel. It's in
Start>Control Panel>Performance and Maintenance>Administrative Tools>Computer Management (if your Control Panel is set to Category View) or
Start>Control Panel>Administrative Tools>Computer Management (if your Control Panel is set to Classic View.)
In here, click Disk Management under Storage in the left pane, and from there you can change drive letter assignments.
I think your plan is fine. According to your plan, you will be completing the Windows installation before connecting the 160GB drive, so your 250GB drive will show up as C. However, when you reconnect the 160GB drive, you will still be able to boot off of the Windows installation on that dirve, giving you 2 Windows installs. This may cause a conflict, as the second Windows install will have the 160GB drive identified as C. I recommend that you just wipe your 160GB drive by reformatting it or using DBAN. Then just plug in your 250GB drive and make sure you install Windows on that one during the install (it will tell you which is which). If you need data off of your 160GB drive, I recommend copying it to an external hard drive or a flash drive before starting this process. If this is not possible, then just follow your original plan, but after you have your new Windows install up and running, copy your data over to your new drive and wipe the 160GB drive to prevent conflicts between the different Windows installs.
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