transfer my os from main to 2ndary HD

Chris80x · 01-07-2009, 12:07 PM

I have a sata drive which is currently labeled C: and a IDE drive labeled F:, currently windows xp pro is installed on the Sata but I want to change that and have winxp on the IDE instead and only games on the Sata...

First off does that make sense? will it benefit my system to run the os on the slower hd and my games on the faster?

Second I have data 19gigs worth that I need to keep and don't have the cd's or patience to back up via my cdrom drive. Right now the data is in a folder called backup on my sata.. I was initially told to just format and install xp on the ide and then transfer the backup files over to the ide and format the sata.

I have a bad feeling this won't work, I've read that if you install xp on a 2nd drive while it's already installed as an os on the C: that no matter what the core boot files will be placed on the C:... if that's the case and I format the sata after installing on the IDE I'm 99% sure my system won't even boot.

If anyone can offer any insight into this it would be greatly appreciated thank you!

Rorrim · 01-07-2009, 12:58 PM

well, for one, I would keep xp on the sata drive, the game host OS needs to be on a fast hard drive. If your looking for speed in playing consider getting a faster video card instead, with a dedicated gpu (graphics processing unit) this will take a huge load off of your cpu.

If you are determined to try it tho, here are the steps you need to do to safely change xp over to the ide drive.

1 Go into Bios and set the boot order to the cdrom then ide drive, the sata drive should be last.
2 Power off the computer and disconnect the sata drive, this will be your backup in case you do something wrong.
3 move the jumper on the ide card from slave to master.
4 Plop the win disk into the cdrom drive and install windows xp normally. the ide will become the c drive as you do this.
5 make sure that it is a stable xp install, and you have all drivers installed.
6 Plug in the sata drive with the pc powered off then boot. Providing that you have the boot order set to the IDE drive as the master boot it should not even attempt to read the sata drive unless something is wrong.

There is a little known fact about xp, if you have a fully running xp on a hard drive, yet properly configured as a slave then there will be no conflicts. So, you could easily keep xp on the sata in case you want to return to the sata at a later date. However, you would have to reinstall any game files and stuff should you return to the sata drive for the sata's system would not have the proper registry keys.

01-07-2009, 12:07 PM	#1 (permalink)
Chris80x Registered User Join Date: Dec 2008 Posts: 16 OS: WinXP SP3	transfer my os from main to 2ndary HD I have a sata drive which is currently labeled C: and a IDE drive labeled F:, currently windows xp pro is installed on the Sata but I want to change that and have winxp on the IDE instead and only games on the Sata... First off does that make sense? will it benefit my system to run the os on the slower hd and my games on the faster? Second I have data 19gigs worth that I need to keep and don't have the cd's or patience to back up via my cdrom drive. Right now the data is in a folder called backup on my sata.. I was initially told to just format and install xp on the ide and then transfer the backup files over to the ide and format the sata. I have a bad feeling this won't work, I've read that if you install xp on a 2nd drive while it's already installed as an os on the C: that no matter what the core boot files will be placed on the C:... if that's the case and I format the sata after installing on the IDE I'm 99% sure my system won't even boot. If anyone can offer any insight into this it would be greatly appreciated thank you!

01-07-2009, 12:58 PM	#2 (permalink)
Rorrim Registered User Join Date: Jan 2009 Location: Behind you with an axe Posts: 77 OS: XP Pro sp3 32 bit on 64bit hardware My System	Re: transfer my os from main to 2ndary HD well, for one, I would keep xp on the sata drive, the game host OS needs to be on a fast hard drive. If your looking for speed in playing consider getting a faster video card instead, with a dedicated gpu (graphics processing unit) this will take a huge load off of your cpu. If you are determined to try it tho, here are the steps you need to do to safely change xp over to the ide drive. 1 Go into Bios and set the boot order to the cdrom then ide drive, the sata drive should be last. 2 Power off the computer and disconnect the sata drive, this will be your backup in case you do something wrong. 3 move the jumper on the ide card from slave to master. 4 Plop the win disk into the cdrom drive and install windows xp normally. the ide will become the c drive as you do this. 5 make sure that it is a stable xp install, and you have all drivers installed. 6 Plug in the sata drive with the pc powered off then boot. Providing that you have the boot order set to the IDE drive as the master boot it should not even attempt to read the sata drive unless something is wrong. There is a little known fact about xp, if you have a fully running xp on a hard drive, yet properly configured as a slave then there will be no conflicts. So, you could easily keep xp on the sata in case you want to return to the sata at a later date. However, you would have to reinstall any game files and stuff should you return to the sata drive for the sata's system would not have the proper registry keys. __________________ ioxcomic[dot]insanityofxade[dot]com <--- My web comic (official site) Forget cheese; behold the power of google(.com) I often edit my own posts for typos and added thoughts, so refresh a couple times and I might have something else for you. Last edited by Rorrim; 01-07-2009 at 01:00 PM.