Adding a HD AND upgrading to XP. Which do I do first?

[MrSpiff]

I have Win 98 right now and a full HD (13GB). I just bought a new HD (40GB) and I want to upgrade to XP (from 98). So, my question is, what should I do first?

I want to instll XP on the newer faster bigger drive and have the 13 GB as secondary storage. Would it be easiest to just remove the old hard drive, plug in the new one, and begin the XP install from there?

I would also like to partition the 40 GB into smaller sections. I would use Partition Magic for this, but should I do this before I switch OSs?

Any thoughts or advice would be appreciated.

 

[Seloce]

On doing the XP install, you can actually set up most of the partitions then and there (provided you have some good ol' DOS experience). So at a minimum, you could set the space you wanted to use for the OS and do the rest in Partition Magic.

As far as the hard drives go, I was recently in a similar situation. All I did change the jumpers on the smaller hard drive so that it was the slave device, and put the new drive in as the master. Do the install of XP and then transfer over your important stuff. Wipe the old drive, then move stuff around to your hearts content. ^_^

Just use NTFS. On both drives. Save yourself the headache.

 

[MrSpiff]

But, if I use NTFS (which I would like to) I won't be able to read from the FAT32 drive. OH WAIT! The 13GB is partitioned many times. One FAT32 for 98, and then several FAT16 partitions for data. I did this because I had a dual boot with NT and 98 and I wanted to use those partitions from each OS. So, I should be able to transfer files from the FAT16 partitions onto the NTFS XP partition.

Does partitioning using the XP boot CD present any problems? Will Partition Magic still be able to change them around later?

 

[Seloce]

If memory serves, the file system does not affect the files at all, just the way they are indexed on the drive (or partition). So you shouldn't have any problems transferring information from drive to drive.

 

[MrSpiff]

but, if i'm in XP formatted to NTFS, I cannot even see files in the FAT32 partition. It CAN see FAT16 though. At least this is the info I learned when I set up my dual boot a few years ago.

 

[kannan]

A piece of information.

A smaller partion help to improve hdd access faster.

Also i want to know the purpose of u using ur PC,

do u use ur pc for major graphics editing or a regular user.

Becuase setting up ur System is vital for the roll of ur PC.