Question about second hard drive

[dbone]

OK, I know this may be simple but it is getting quite confusing and I can not find anything updated online about how to fix.

I added a second WD 600 GB hard drive to my Dell. I used Norton Ghost to clone the original hard drive (300 GB Toshiba) to the WD so I can use it as my OS boot drive. I now want to take the 300 GB Toshiba and wipe it clean. I want to use it ONLY as a backup fro family pictures and videos. I have changed my boot sequence to the Toshiba (which is set as the E drive). Now no matter what I do it will not let me format or clear the old drive.

I really want to set the new HD as "C" and the old one as the "E" drive but can not figure that one out either. I am decent with computers but in this day in age I am still probably considered a beginner. Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks in advance

 

[darroll]

Did you tell CMOS what drive to boot too?

 

[dbone]

as a matter of fact I did not. I guess I will try that when I get home. Any other suggestions besides that?

 

[jmacavali]

Ok. First: Does it boot off of the right HDD? Take the original HDD out and just leave the new one in and set it to Master or Cable Select and put it on the primary connection. See if it boots and if everything is right (to check that your Ghost worked). Then you should be able to change it to C: drive (if it doesn't change it for you). Then once you have all that right, hook up the old drive and make sure it's set to slave or that it is CS and hooked up as the secondary drive. Then see what happens when you turn on the computer. It should find the 2nd drive and it should let you format it.

The other option is to do the first part (take the old one out and make sure it boots ok off the new one) and then put the old one back in and take the new one out. Use a program like DBAN Boot & Nuke or something similar to format the old HDD. Then hook up the new one and it should be just like you need it.

One other option is to get an external HDD enclose or adapter for the old one. Like this or this

The import thing is to make sure that the new HDD will boot and contains all your data. You don't want to go trying to format the old HDD only to find out that the new one isn't right and then have no data at all. Kind of defeats the purpose of backing it up. Might also be worth it to back it up before you start any of this process.