reformatting/backing up questions

A

apo89

New Member
heres the deal
i have a 250gb harddrive thats had alotta stuff taken off and put on it, i want to reformat it.
i have some things id like to save, so i have an old 40gb harddrive sitting around. unfourtunately it has stuff on it and i would like to wipe it clean so i can put it in the computer and have it set to a slave drive so i can just copy and paste all of the data from one harddrive to the other. then i can wipe the 250gb harddrive, reinstall windows, plug in the 40gb, and transfer the data back.

with all that said, how exactly do i do that? i tried putting the 40gb in but either my computer wont boot (no message, the screen never changes from all black) or it boots from the 40gb harddrive and doesnt recognize the 250gb.
 
What operating system was originally installed onto the 40gb drive? 98? ME? Those are Fat32 OSs with XP being installed on an NTFS partition. The older Fat based versions of Windows can not read NTFS partitions as a rule.

When installing the 40gb as a slave to the 250gb you may have to set the jumper on the 40gb to the cable select position unless you forgot to move the jumper from cable select or the master position when installing it.

You may have to set both drives to the cable select if booting with the 250gb with the 40gb installed still sees a problem. Move the jumper for the 40gb to cable select and try booting with the 250gb master. If Windows then loads and you are running XP you can save any files off of the 40gb first and add the total you want to save to it after reformatting it to NTFS.

In the Disk Management found in Administrative Tools\Computer Management in the Control Panel if running XP you can right click on the 40gb as it is seen there and choose the delete option to remove the current Fat parition and then create a new primary there and format it using the same utility. First you have to total the amount of files you plan to save there to see if there will be enough drive space. A 40gb is small when compared to a 250gb drive.
 
Put the 40 GB in the computer as a slave.

Right click on it in My Computer and select Format.

Copy all the data you need off of your main drive.

Reboot the computer with your XP disk in the optical drive and go nuts. :)
 
PC eye said:
What operating system was originally installed onto the 40gb drive? 98? ME? Those are Fat32 OSs with XP being installed on an NTFS partition. The older Fat based versions of Windows can not read NTFS partitions as a rule.

When installing the 40gb as a slave to the 250gb you may have to set the jumper on the 40gb to the cable select position unless you forgot to move the jumper from cable select or the master position when installing it.

You may have to set both drives to the cable select if booting with the 250gb with the 40gb installed still sees a problem. Move the jumper for the 40gb to cable select and try booting with the 250gb master. If Windows then loads and you are running XP you can save any files off of the 40gb first and add the total you want to save to it after reformatting it to NTFS.

In the Disk Management found in Administrative Tools\Computer Management in the Control Panel if running XP you can right click on the 40gb as it is seen there and choose the delete option to remove the current Fat parition and then create a new primary there and format it using the same utility. First you have to total the amount of files you plan to save there to see if there will be enough drive space. A 40gb is small when compared to a 250gb drive.
Click to expand...

i believe xp is installed on the 40gb harddrive. how exactly do i set it to cable select? and once setting it to cable select, do i have to change the order the harddrives are connected on the cable?
 
apo89 said:
i believe xp is installed on the 40gb harddrive. how exactly do i set it to cable select? and once setting it to cable select, do i have to change the order the harddrives are connected on the cable?
Click to expand...

You don't set it to cable select. That won't work unless you have a special cable. It also doesn't matter which OS you have installed on it. Windows XP doesn't care. It will kill anything (with the exception of Linux I believe....after it asks you 50 times if you're sure). All you have to do is delete the partition, create a new one and do a quick format. The whole process takes about 30 seconds.

Set it to slave and dump it into your main rig. If your main drive is a Western Digital you will have to set it to Master w/ Slave Present. Then kill everything on it from within XP.
 
Last edited:
alright. here what i did and it finally worked, i moved the jumper cables around, and i added one. the harddrive came with only 1 on it but setting it to slave and cable select didnt do anything. i took 2 jumpers and set them both 2 slave and cable select and it worked, everything booted fine and im beginning ht elong process of backing all my stuff up. thanks alot!
 
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