Reinstalling Xp On Another Drive

[FORZAFERRARA]

I hope you can help me, here's my situation :
I have three drives
C:/ 10 GB Windows XP installed but never used
D:/ 6 GB Windows XP installed and used daily
E:/ 29 GB Windows XP not installed
I would like to know how to uninstall XP on my C:/ and D:/ drive and install it on my E:/ drive without losing any data.
I would really appreciate an answer,
Thank you in advance for your time

 

[Dishdog]

Transfer everything from E:/ to another drive. then install XP onto E:/. transfer everything back to E:/, and then reformat C:/ and D:/

 

[per]

Keep in mind that regardless of the partition you install xp on it will install all the boot files on C:. If you install on E then format C it won't boot.

 

[Kage]

hmm, so at the moment the C and D drives are used as Masters? So took out? and the E drive is always in?

Well, first of all, you need to go about installing windows on the E drive, now this is not possible without losing data since it ends up formatting it. Back up all the data you need onto cd or an external mp3 player or something and then re-install windows using the windows disc.

After that is done, connect the other two drives as Slaves to the E drive (master with windows now on). You might get a boot order, so select the one you know is E.

now the easiest way to fix this would be to then back up data from these two drives (since they equal a smaller amount than the biggest drive E) and then format these within windows:

Right click my computer, and go to Manage.
Select disk management from the list and then right click and format the other two drives.

Then you'd now have 2 blank drives in which you can copy the data back (make sure its only backup data though, and not programs and such which you could just re-install)

If you don't want to do that, I'm afraid i have no other way, unless you keep Windows on those two drives, but stop them from booting up at the start by changing the boot order.

If this is the case, go to Start, Settings, Control panel and click System.
Now go to Advanced tab, and then to Settings unde Startup and Recovery.

Now press Edit, next to changing the boot options.

It should be something like this after re-installing on the E drive:

[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(1)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Drive E" /fastdetect /NoExecute=OptIn
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(2)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Drive C" /fastdetect
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(3)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Drive D" /fastdetect

*Boot order might be different so you might have to double check*
*Rdisc means a seperate drive, while partition 1 means windows is installed in the first partition of that drive (standard)*
*After the timeout, the one labelled below it is the one that will boot, in this example, rdisc 1, or the drive E*

Just delete drive C's and D's parts to this so when windows boots, it doesn't see the other two drives as having windows, so you just have this:

[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(1)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Drive E" /fastdetect /NoExecute=OptIn

It will now stop coming up *Drive E by the way isn't what it'll say, its more likely to say "Windows XP Professional" if this is what your using, so make sure before you delete, you know which are which. One way of checking this would be to change the names in the brackets, restart and then test which one it is *.

Then just go to File, Save

I hope this helps

 

[FORZAFERRARA]

let me ask you if i can do this....

-back up all my needed data like pictures and documents on a cd and empty my e drive
-install xp on e
-reformat c and d drives
-then put all my backed up files back into the computer using c and d as empty drives where and can save files

to me that is a lot simpler seeing that my knowledge is not up to date with yours... if u can give me a bit of a simpler explanation that would be of great help to me

thank you

 

[Kage]

1.Yes you can back up all youe needed data like pictures and documents,

Yes you can install xp on E by putting the windows disc in at bootup (make sure everything is backed up first: set this as slave to do this using jumpers at the back of the harddrive and set either drive C or D as the master, or by the way the lead is set up)

Reformatting drives C and D should be simple once you've installed windows on drive E using the windows disc. Just use the manage part I said in my post before, selecting to format drives c and D from within windows from drive E

Save files from E before installing windows, then use drive E to save drives D, and C's data, then format using the step in my other post, and then put the stuff you dragged from drive C and D back onto them from drive E. (Unless you have a cd burner you can do this with)

I hope this helps. I'm sorry if it is no help though, and if you need anymore help, we'll be here

 

[FORZAFERRARA]

thank you very much this should be enough information to help me

i will try this tommorow and let you know how it went

thanks!

 

[Kage]

Okay doke Hope it works

 

[per]

Yeah, let us know if you were able to boot after installing windows xp to E: and then formatting C:. Probably not. Or it won't let you format C: because xp will be committing suicide.