[TheColoradoWildcat]

Background: Had huge power outage, that took out power for the whole South East portion of Colorado. When power came back on, computer did not! :-( Bummer!

First, thought it was the power supply, as it was blinking; however, after unplugging EVERYTHING in the computer, power supply was fine. Started plugging in one unit at a time, and power supply was fine until I plugged the Motherboard back in. Bingo...blinking again.

Took PC to shop, and they verified that it was in fact the Motherboard and game me the wonderful news that it would be at LEAST $300. Well, that is well on the way to a new PC. Now have a new PC [still in box, just purchased]

I want to use the old 320GB HD as a secondary drive, after I get the new PC up and running. I realize that I will not be able to use the programs, rather will need to re-install them on the new HD. My plan is to use the old HD [as a secondary] to provide additional backup form my Data files, and my Picture files. That, along with the new 1 terabyte drive in the new PC, plus the 500GB external drive will afford me extreme protection of my data files.

My questions are these: 1.) Can I not just use Windows Explorer and Delete all the files, including the Operating System [Vista that was updated to Windows 7] from that drive? My thinking is there is nothing to uninstall, as none of these were ever installed on this machine to begin with. 2.) Would I then be advised to move all the data files to the new drive [will want a copy there anyway] and then just wipe the secondary drive clean [format it?] I'm thinking that would be a good way to ensure a clean start.

Any help/instructions will be appreciated. Love this site. Have bookmarked it to the Bookmark Bar of this Laptop, and will do the same later after getting the new PC up and running.

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all i can say is that if windows wont allow you to boot and delete the 2nd drive you wish to wipe. parted magic linux is always an option. and as for the data backup...just practically drag what you want. lol i have a xp desktop..decided to use all available ports (yes even the cd/dvd) into all harddrives. so i have 4 in mine..never had an issue. if you need more help i can try to assist

[chibi0]

all i can say is that if windows wont allow you to boot and delete the 2nd drive you wish to wipe. parted magic linux is always an option. and as for the data backup...just practically drag what you want. lol i have a xp desktop..decided to use all available ports (yes even the cd/dvd) into all harddrives. so i have 4 in mine..never had an issue. if you need more help i can try to assist

[rshaffer61]

First step is to backup all your data you want to save from the drive you want to use a secondary.
Once that is done then you can simply format that drive and it will be ready to use as you like.
No need to try and delete things when you can simply open a Windows Explorer of your old drive and a Windows Explorer of where you want to move the data on the other drive. Once done simply right click on the old drive and tell it to format.

[TheColoradoWildcat]

Thank you for the speedy replies. Have the new computer up and running. Will take it down later this evening, add the second HD and might as well add the DVD drive from the old PC as well. These tips are good, confirming what I was thinking, but with a bit of a short-cut.

Presume there will not be a problem when I first boot the system, as only one of the W-7 OS will be registered. If have problems, will contact ya'll again.

Again, thanks for the help. So glod I found your site. Have already shared with three people, and have more to go!