new HDD - how to make it "system" disk?

[tinkerbell]

I installed a second IDE “ultra ATA” HDD with the intention of removing the old one and using as a portable HDD.

I have successfully installed it and have used Norton Ghost to copy all the old C: (op sys) and D: (data) stuff to the new H: (ops sys) and I: (data) partitions on the new HDD.

But then I changed the cords around on the back of the drives and swapped the master to slave and salve to master and tried to boot so that the new drive was the “system” drive. But that just changed the order of the drives in the Disk Manager (using XP Pro).

How do I change the new H: to be the “system” drive?

Disk Manager wont let me change the drive letter of the C: (I guess for obvious reasons!)

Any help appreciated

[BlackITR]

Unplug the HDD u don't wanna use and then boot up. This should "force" it to use your new HDD. Once it starts workin off that then put the old drive back in.

[Jingers]

make sure the bios is told to boot from the second ide hdd first.


there are jumpers on the back of the hdd too. set the one you want to be the main drive to be master whilst the other one to be slave.

[tinkerbell]

jing - done that... it just tried to boot from CD... but wouldn't boot from the HDD...

buuuut - you just made me realise that when i DID goto BIOS i told it to boot from hdd 2 - this was actually the one that was unplugged!! (because i swapped the cables around!)

i need to do this again, like blackITR says...

will i be able to change the drive letters to C: and D: on the new drive?

what about when i plug the old drive in - will it automatically chnage the drive letters around?

[layzie]

the reason was because the old hdd was still plugged in as primary master. If you ghost it (and put it on a cd or something) you could put everything into the new hard drive with the old hdd out and the new hdd in. maybe a clean format/installation? if you have all your data in the other "partition" drive, then formatting the system drive shouldn't be a problem. Just change the boot sequence to master on the back of the hdd. go to bios and make sure that the disk is primary master. then just format it and reinstall windows + software. as easy as that.

[ATSE]

Control Panel
Administrative Tools
Computer Management
Storage then Disk Management

You will be able to change the drive letter here and also format and partition.

But reading your first post looks like you tried it already... ooops

[Lowa]

Disk management is the right place to goto, drive C might be in use, so you'll need to change the drive thats using C: to something further down the alphabet, you should then be able to change your system drive to C: if not, restart and try it again

[Jingers]

C: and D: are drive letters which are assigned to the primary hdd's and secondary hdd's

In other words, if you can make the new hdd the master hdd it will automatically become C:

FOR EG

if we have

HD 1 = C:

and

HD 2 = D:


If you make HD 2 the one the system primarly boots from the drive letter of HD 2 will automatically become C:

[Jingers]

So the issue at hand is to specify the system to boot from the new HD .. *HD 2* once you do that all your problems will be solved

[tinkerbell]

yep, edzackery!

[Jingers]

then its nothing more then selecting it from the bios.

if you have the right hdd selected from the bios and its still not booting up your image has some issues.

[layzie]

shouldn't your hdd select all be in auto anyways from the bios?
if so just don't plug the other hdd in

[tinkerbell]

then its nothing more then selecting it from the bios.

if you have the right hdd selected from the bios and its still not booting up your image has some issues.

hmmm, how do i tell what is wrong with it?

i have set BIOS properly AND it is in AUTO like layzie says it should be, but it doesnt boot from the new HDD...

both drives contents look the same:

[kookie]

Did you ghost the new drive from within windows?
only reason windows does this is because once windows detects the drive it automatically assigns that hard drive with a letter. Even if rip out the old hard drive this one will remain as the G drive. (Not too sure why this happens).

As I stated in another thread you should reformat the new hard drive then boot into a live cd (with ghost option - I'm happy to send you a cd, but will take some time to get to you or i can host it if you like) then ghost the new hard drive with the image you have previously created.

Once ghosting has been completed. Remove old hard drive. Put this new one where the old one was. Turn on computer and it should boot as it once was.

Also I would recommend that you remove the old hard drive Put the new hard drive in and format/install windows. Then once this has all been done you can then put the old one back in and copy stuff over.

Just a thought. If you need more help just PM or message here.

[tinkerbell]

Did you ghost the new drive from within windows?

no, norton ghost closed windows and went into DOS to do the copying...

i used "clone partition or disk to another partition or disk" in Norton Ghost

only reason windows does this is because once windows detects the drive it automatically assigns that hard drive with a letter.

no, only after i right clicked on "My Computer" and then "Manage" was i able to partition the new HDD and assign drive letters.

once i had done this - i cloned the contents of the old HDD to the new matching partitions on the new HDD.

Even if rip out the old hard drive this one will remain as the G drive. (Not too sure why this happens).

so why won't it boot off a G: the G: is identical to the C:

As I stated in another thread you should reformat the new hard drive then boot into a live cd what is a "live" cd? (with ghost option - I'm happy to send you a cd, but will take some time to get to you or i can host it if you like) then ghost the new hard drive with the image you have previously created.

i didnt create an image, i just "cloned" it. why wont it boot off the cloned contents?

Once ghosting has been completed. Remove old hard drive. Put this new one where the old one was. Turn on computer and it should boot as it once was.

Also I would recommend that you remove the old hard drive Put the new hard drive in and format/install windows. Then once this has all been done you can then put the old one back in and copy stuff over.

Just a thought. If you need more help just PM or message here.

hmmm, still need help.