Using Internal Hard Drive as a Data Drive?...

[karling07]

Hi,

I have two of the same drives: SATA 7200RPM, 80GB. I have already installed XP on one of them.

Is it possible now, to plug in the second drive, and then use it for storage from XP? It currently has a lot of stuff on it already (and i think a corrupted OS), so what will I have to do to prepare the extra HD for being a storage drive? Do I wipe it? If so, with what?

And then how do I make it a storage drive, so I can access it for like movies and stuff from within XP (which is on the other drive)?

Thanks

 

[Copperhead]

yeah just format it with ur xp disc (when it starts 'copying' (after format) just power down)...then it will just show up as another drive and u dont need to do anything, u can just put stuff on it.

thats what i do, i run windows and have programs on my 80 then i have music/videos on my 250, works great.

 

[karling07]

Oh cool! But wont shutting it off halfway through copying files kinda screw stuff up?

 

[Copperhead]

nope cuz once its formatted ur fine

when its copying thats just copying stuff from the cd that u dont need since u already got xp running. when u log in the formatted hdd will have a couple windows file on it (since u shut down after it copied a couple files to ur drive) u can just delete those.

 

[Bob94571]

dude just plug in the harddrive you want to put in (DON'T TAKE UR OLD ONE OUT!). windows should detect it... once windows is loaded go into my computer your new Harddrive should show up as the next available letter... right click on it then format... that way u dont have to deal with the rest of the stuff.

also (Not necessary though) if you want to change the drive letters so ur HDDs are C: and D: and ur CDrom(s) are E: (and F: if you have 2):
1. Then right click on my computer
2. go to manage
3. then on the left go to storage.
4. then your gunna click disk management.
5. right click on the drive you want to change i.e. ur new HDD you put in
6. click "change drive and letter paths"
7. set it to D (you will prolly have to change ur CD drive (the one that is usind the letter D: already) to something else before u can set ur HDD as D: )

you want it to end up like this:
C:= Primary Harddrive
D:= Secondary (Storage) Harddrive
E:= the top CD drive in ur computer like a DVD or CD ROM
F: (If u have two) Like a DVD or CD Burner

DONT CHANGE YOUR PRIMARY HARDDRIVE (Should be drive C

Also i reccomend doing this before you put anything on your new one ur putting in (If you decide to do it, it wont affect anything other than the fact that it looks alittle neater)