B00ting from 2 hardrives

g4m3rof1337

g4m3rof1337

Active Member
i got two hdd's
i think i put all info from this one on my other one, i tried booting, went into bios and changed third boot to like hdd instead of cd rom, nothing new happened.

how do i access my other hdd


thanks
 
Well let's start with a few questions like do you have Windows or another OS on the second drive? Was the second drive partitioned and formatted. What type of partition? (NTFS-Fat32-Linux)

Depending on your board and the bios programming some will allow you to assign an additional hard drive as the first in the boot order. On many of the newer model boards you simply press the F8 key right as the post tests conclude to bring up a boot menu other then the Windows menu for normal, last known configuration that worked, safe mode, and safe mode with the command prompt only option.

The F8 boot menu will list the types of drives as well as the drives installed on the system. There you should see the manufacturer's model number for each drive detected. That will show if the second drive there is working and you simply select that drive to boot from if it has an OS on it. Otherwise the drive should be seen listed in MyComputer and Windows Explorer alike.
 
ok i'm really confused now. So you just bought a new harddrive and put all your data on it, and you still have the OS on your old drive? If so, just make your old drive the boot device and your new drive should just show up in my computers.

And when you say "all the info" do you mean including operating system? If so, you can't just move the OS to a new harddrive like that and expect it to boot. You'll probably have to reinstall windows.
 
That's the reverse order of how the drives are setup here ironically. :D

Are both drives sata? I run two identical ide drives here where XP Pro became the primary and default OS when installed. The boot.ini and master boot record on the XP Home primary master saw the second drive load with the option to choose between the two versions of Windows.

The F8 menu still allowed the option to load Home on the master instead of XP Pro installed on the slave. Both versions readily recognised each other right off. It sounds like you may have taken one(Home) drive out of another case with Windows already on it or need to edit the boot.ini file found at the root of C: with a text editor like Notepad. I'll give you an example of how to avoid the need to change bios settings or even use the F8 boot menu to see XP Home load if the installation is good.

[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(1)\WINDOWS

[operating systems]

multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP professional" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft windows xp home" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect
 
g4m3rof1337 said:
i went to my computer and the other hdd showed up.
so do i drag the C: to it? lol


thanks
Click to expand...

If you are seeing the "D" or other drive letter like "E" or "F" being seen in MyComputer or Windows Explorer you simply double click on the drive's icon there to open that up. Then you should see all of the main folders above and below each other. You never drag one drive's icon onto another. It will either spring back or cause a Windows problem.
 
Wait...

How do i just transfer everything on this 500gb hardrive to the attacted 250gb, yes i have enough space.

and if i have to format my 500gb,forced to, like keeps rebooting and have to format, will my 250 be good if its plugged in?


thanks
 
I dont get what you are talking about.
Are you trying to move windows xp from one hdd to another, or are you just moving various data from one drive to another?
You can't transfer one os to another hdd.
Do both drives show up under My Computer?
Can you even boot windows xp?
 
g4m3rof1337 said:
Wait...

How do i just transfer everything on this 500gb hardrive to the attacted 250gb, yes i have enough space.

and if i have to format my 500gb,forced to, like keeps rebooting and have to format, will my 250 be good if its plugged in?


thanks
Click to expand...

I generally open two explorer windows for dragging files and folders directly. In fact a large storage partition for backing up both Windows installations resides on the second HD along with Pro here. But the system restarts now being mentioned could very well indicate a board, supply, cpu, or other problem like a weak Lithium battery on the board itself if you are not seeing something overheating there.
 
i boot in xp.

i want to transfer every single file to my other windows xp hardrive, i dont wanna transfer os's to, just the files to have as a backup incase i format the 500gig
 
so open up both drives in 2 different windows, copy and paste each folder, *do i actually copy it? so i dont remove the actual file?*, and then i transfer everything thats important, like photos and files.


and thats it?


would using nortons ghost, 15 day trial work better? thanks
 
Norton ghost will copy everything over, not sure about the trial though.
It is good for transfering OSs, but you have to reactivate windows xp i beleive.
 
i currently manually transferred program files and all photos were put into one file and transfered to the other harddrive, what else do i need to transfer


thank you btw
 
Programs don't really work like that. When you install a program, it modifies your registries as well as program files. Make a backup of your registries as well, and when you install xp again or /we, just add those registries to your new registries, and the programs should work.
 
so go to start, all programs, system tools then system restore, but create a back up or before that, back up *in system tools*


thanks

is there anything i can buy in microcenter?
 
I am just wondering, are you trying to dublicate one hdd onto another, or do you want to back up certain files/programs?
 
duplicate everything on what hdd to another so if i lose everything one the 500gig ill have it all on the other one
 
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