Re: Can I have two drives installed on EIDE with both having Boot Sect


"lcnm" wrote:

I want to install a new larger Hard Drive. My old drive is too small
for my
current needs but I'd like to keep it on line. I don't want to reformat
the
old drive as it has many files that I want to keep. The new drive will be
formatted for NTFS file system, but the old drive is FAT32.
I am concerned about having two bootable drives installed at the same
time. One (the new drive) will be on the 1st Primary EIDE port, set for
Master and the small old drive will be on 1st Secondary set as Slave. But
the
old drive does have a boot sector. Is this in any way a problem? Can the
bootability of the old drive mess up any of the system?

--
Retired and Happy!


"Callmark1" <Callmark1@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:8D669DAF-747D-46A6-946F-CBF8BB1FADD2@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
11:15 PM 6/2/2006

Congratulation Icnm on your retirement and happiness!!

Good for you for thinking this through before plugging stuff in and
pushing
buttons.

It is quite possible and sometimes desireable to have two OS on two
seperate
drives or partitions of the same system. However, unless you would have
some
specific advantage in doing so, why bother with the tedious steps
necesary?
Why take the added risk that complexity inevitably confers to any system?
In
addition, 2 OS on one system will be prevented from "seeing" each other,
so
you would not be able to view or work on files on the hdd which was not
currently active.

Based on your post, I advise against that particular arrangement but if
you
feel you need a "multi-boot" set up for some reason, post back here or in
a
new post anytime you like.

Callmark1 (T F H)


lcnm:
Although you didn't say, I'm assuming that your FAT32 formatted HD contains
the Win9x/Me operating system and not the XP OS, yes? If, on the other hand,
that old drive contains the XP OS and you're satisfied with the
programs/data on that drive, you might want to consider "cloning" the
contents of that old HD to your new one and then converting the new HD's
file system to NTFS. If that's of some interest to you we can cover that
process later.

In substance you can do what you propose and shouldn't suffer any conflicts
in so doing. I'm assuming in all this that you have *no* interest in booting
to the old HD and desire it *only* as a repository for backup/storage
purposes. As you've indicated, you will connect/configure the new bootable
HD as a Master on the Primary IDE channel. The system should boot to that
drive regardless of where you've connected/configured your secondary HD.

Contrary to Callmark1's comment, your primary booting NTFS-formatted HD will
have no problem accessing files/folders on your secondary FAT32-formatted
HD. (The reverse will not be true).
Anna


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