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2 Harddrives installed, need help to partition

Started by Impulz , May 10 2005 04:29 AM

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#1
Impulz
Posted 10 May 2005 - 04:29 AM

Impulz

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HI, I have searched most topics and cant find anything that will help my situation.

Basically i have 2 hard drives in my system, 1 a 160GB Seagate and the other 1 is a 40gig WD

At the moment both have XP pro on them.

The only way to acccess each hard drive is to open the box, and take out the power to each one, so what i mean is: At the moment for example im in my 160GB hard drive.

To get into my 40GB id have to shut down, take the power lead out of this one and connect the power lead to the 40 GB.

If i connect both and boot up i get told to insert boot disk......Im assuming this is a A: xp bootable disk? if yes ive tried that and a moment later A:\ comes up and thats it...

Now.....

What i want to do is reformat both of my hard drives and have both connected and have an operating system on each one.

Could someone please guide me thru how to do this specifically...

-Should i reformat each one seperately (as in the one thats booting up as its obviously got power)
-Once everything will be set up and both will have an operating system on it and i boot up, how will i be able to choose which HD i want to go into? will there be a message prior a boot up asking wether i want to run the 40gig or 160gig?

Any help greatly appreciated :tazz:

Edited by Impulz, 03 June 2005 - 04:48 AM.

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#2
austin_o
Posted 10 May 2005 - 06:20 AM

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moving the power connector each time you want to swich drives seems a bit much! Have you carefully inspected your power supply and searched for another power connector? You need to get both powered up at the same time. If you don't find another plug (which seems unlikely since most psu's have multiple connectors) you can build a splitter using wires and connectors, thus making one into two. The usual configuration for EIDE hd's is they share an EIDE cable with one set to master and one set to slave. This is accomplished by moving a jumper on the back of the hard drive. Get power to both, set one to master and one to slave. The instructions for doing that are usually right on the hard drive. If not, refer to the manufacturer web page for instructions. You will then be able to access both without power down and opening the box and moving the power connector.

I have two hard drives in all three of my systems. Only one is bootable with os, the other I use for data storage. I don't have any experience with multiple bootable drives but I would suspect windows to display a choice on bootup. Check the "help" feature and M$ knowledge base. I bet they have the answer you are looking for. :tazz:
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#3
Technogeek8
Posted 10 May 2005 - 06:26 AM

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It sounds like your jumpers arn't set right. When you boot and go into the bios, do you see both hd. Do you have any cd-rom drives also running? Are you running your hd using an ide cable or sata? Check your jumpers and make sure their right. The mysterious hd is most likely giving you some issues. Check this out and see what happens

David
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#4
Technogeek8
Posted 10 May 2005 - 06:30 AM

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Oh yeah

I forgot your second part to the question. Reformate your 40 gb and keep your 160 gb with xp. Before doing this, get both your hd to reconize one another. this way you can transfer any saved data back and forth before formating. Another reason is that if your in xp and can see both hd, you can format your second hard drive by just right clicking and going to format. It would be easier than doing it in dos. Get you comp so both hd can run simultaniously first, then worry about the hd. Thanks, I hope I could help

David
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#5
Impulz
Posted 10 May 2005 - 07:33 AM

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moving the power connector each time you want to swich drives seems a bit much!  Have you carefully inspected your power supply and searched for another power connector? 

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Maybe i didnt mention that sorry, there is another connector which would be the master or slave, im using the power connectors that were originally set up so: the 40 gb is using the one it was on originally.
Is there a way of telling which power connector is supposed to be msater or slave or does that not matter as its up to the jumpers you set on your hard drive?

I had the 40 gig in there first before i bought the 160gb one, and upon installation of the 160gb im preety sure that one was set as 'master'

My next step upon the advice will be to connect both, boot up and go straight into BIOS to see what its recognising and will update...thnx guys!

As for the partition side of things, id really rather run two operating systems on each HD & am still curious on how windows will ask me which one to go into upon boot up....
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#6
Impulz
Posted 13 May 2005 - 11:40 PM

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OK if i could get some help from someone again that would be great!

First of all forget all ive written above, i have simply changed the jumper settings on the 40GB Western Digital (to slave i think) and i am now booting up normally and am in my 160GB Seagate and its recognising the Western Digital as F: even thou the Western Digital has XP on it anyway. (hope that makes sense)

Would someone with knowledge be kind enough to explain me step by step on how to:

-Reformat the 40GB HD
-Reformat the 160GB HD(which one should come first)
-Put XP Pro on both of the HD's and be able to switch between the 2 operating systems upon boot up (that can be done cant it?)

Any help, greatly appriciated!

Pat
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#7
peterm
Posted 14 May 2005 - 02:33 AM

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Why do you want the same operating system on both Drives?
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#8
Impulz
Posted 15 May 2005 - 12:21 PM

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Why do you want the same operating system on both Drives?

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Mainly becasue im experimenting and its something i want to have.

This is my play-around computer that im learning on, and since its only a 1.8 with 512RAM its not the fastest in its kind, i would like to use the 40GB for internet browsing and other little utilities and use 160GB for dlightly bigger tasks.
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#9
peterm
Posted 16 May 2005 - 05:41 PM

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Ok
Which one you do first does not mater. I assume you have xp on the 160gig?
open my computer highlight the 40gig right click then click on format.
Do you have the xp disk?
if yes then go through the setup/install make sure it all works.
Once that is done and you have checked your internet connection and are happy everything is ok then do the 160gig the same way. BUT make sure it works fine 1st before wiping out your operating files
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#10
Impulz
Posted 17 May 2005 - 03:17 AM

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Ok
Which one you do first does not mater. I assume you have xp on the 160gig?
open my computer highlight the 40gig right click then click on format.
Do you have the xp disk?
if yes then go through the setup/install make sure it all works.
Once that is done and you have checked your internet connection and are happy everything is ok then do the 160gig the same way. BUT make sure it works fine 1st before wiping out your operating files

View Post


I recently reformatted the 40 gig, same was as you sugested.
Yes i have the xp disc.
Now i have disc F:(the 40 gig) clean, are you suggesting i simply try to go to my computer, highlight the 160 gig and format?
Wont it say that it cant as windows is using this right now?

Also, what about later, will i have the multiple boot up option before i boot up?
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#11
peterm
Posted 18 May 2005 - 02:48 AM

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No No NO
I am saying install xp on the 40gig DO NOT format the 160gig yet
The multi Boot comes later

Edited by peterm, 18 May 2005 - 12:45 PM.

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