Re: Need to combine two computers' hard drives

More wrong answers - see below.

"LFR" <LFR@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:F37CA41E-514E-4E81-B094-F37BA32A70C4@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
LFR>>>
Pegasus: I didn't try to mislead the person how ask the question.
This is the way I learn about two hard drive:

1-find if the computer has room for aditional hard drive
*** OK.

2-Check your computer manual to see if it can handle a moster drive before
you install
*** Every current PC can "handle" a MASTER disk. Most
*** can handle a SLAVE disk too.

3-I asume that is a sata drive, the process is much easier. simply plug
the
power connector into the drive, and connect the drive to the motherboard
sata
controller using sata cable, and there is no need to change jumper
settings,
though you may need to update your BIOS if it can't see the drive
otherwise
the jumpers has to be set.
*** OK, if the OP has a SATA disk - which I doubt.

4-Before doing any work in your computer important data should be save.
*** Good philosophy but not necessary in this case: The OP
*** has no need to do any work other than connecting a slave
*** disk. This is considered a very low-risk activity.

5-When you're adding a second hard drive to a system, probably the
smartesr
thing to do is just treat the whole disk as one primary partition and one
drive
*** Why?

About dual boot You right I should 'nt mencioned because confuse more

If my reply was wrong please disregard and thanks pegasus...
*** I recommend that you make yourself much more familiar
*** with disk manipulation techniques before advising other
*** posters on this subject. To state that the second disk must
*** be partitioned/formatted before it can be used in the main
*** PC is terrible advice. I hope the OP did not follow it.


"Pegasus (MVP)" wrote:

This is the worst reply to a request I have seen for a long
time. Most of your statements are either totally wrong or
grossly misleading. What are you up to?

See the marked replies below.

"LFR" <LFR@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:603AEEB8-5B90-4659-AEF1-4C3E138AA644@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
"jphelmstadter@xxxxxxxxx" wrote:

I've got 2 Dell computers running XP that I need to turn into 1. My
strategy is to take the hard drive out of the slower computer and
install it into the faster one. My girlfriend's hard drive has her
and
her daughter's data on it and mine obviously has my data on it.

LFR>>>>
You can add the other hard drive if is compatible with the first
computer.
*** There are no compatibility issues with hard disks. They are
*** all compatible with each other, provided they were used on
*** a Windows PC.

Now before taking the drive of you need to save the important data to
a
disk...Why?? because when you set as a slave you need to partition and
format
this hard drive to be able to use it, and the data is going to be lost
in
this process
*** No, there is absolutely no need to partition and format the disk.

What I'd like to do is to install both into one computer and have it
so
that at logon when I sign in I access my hard drive and when my
girlfriend or her daughter sign in they access their hard drive. My
question is whether this is possible. I feel like it should be but
I
don't know how to make it happen.

LFR>>> the only way the two hard drive can be use according the user
is
with
dual boot(one operating system installed in one hard drive and the
other
os
in the second) very complicated procedure if you dont know about
computers
*** The OP does not want a multi-booting installation. He wants
*** to be able to access data on either disk, depending on who
*** logs on.

.....Now you can save all your data (yours and the other user) and
with the hard drive installed as slave do a clean install of the os
and
format both hard drives to work as one . . .
*** No, no, no. Formatting both disk would totally destroy
*** everything the OP has. And no, you can't format two hard
*** disks as "one".

, download again the drivers to you
computer an created 3 differentes accounts as private, and download
the
info
according each user....
*** Download the info from where?

I've got some knowledge of computers and have built my own before so
I
know that having 2 hard drives usually requires one to be the
'master'
and the other to be the 'slave'.

LFR>>> that is true; but even though windows reconized the dirve, you
can't
use it yet, getting the drive physically installed in the computer is
only
one step. You need to partition and format the drive true the Disk
Managment
(Start - run - compmgmt.msn)
*** No, this is totally wrong. When a disk is installed as a slave disk
*** and recognised by the BIOS as a slave disk then Windows will
*** recognise it too, without repartitioning and formatting.

Will this setup allow us to access
our respective drives without having to go through one to get to the
other?

LFR>>>You need to make the 2 hard drive work as one partition
*** How?

My concern behind this is not privacy (I don't have anything to
hide)
but iTunes/iPods. My girlfriend and I each have one and I know the
deal with how it's set up to not allow multipule iPods to connect
with
a single instance of iTunes. Plus we want to keep our music
librarys
seperate for now.

LFR>>>Now if privacy is not problem you can use the second hard drive
as
storage; but you still need to format this drive to be
use.........doing
as
one partition you can created accounts and set each one as private.
*** Repeating an incorrect statement numerous times does not
*** make it corect.

I appreciate any help anyone can give me. Thank you for your time
in
advance!!

LFR >>> keep in mind that you need to back up all important files,
have
your instalation cd with you and the info aboput your drivers, if you
feel
that you don't have the experience to do this procedure, ask a friend to
help you. Here is some info:



http://www.helpwithpcs.com/upgrading/install-hard-drive.htm#finishing-installation



http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/using/setup/expert/tulloch_partition.mspx





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