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Formatting HDD


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#1
Adzi

Adzi

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I've posted about problems i was having with windows and Slaves and masters. When i was unable to repair windows on my Master (C:) i installed it on my slave (D:). Originally when i bought (D:) i didnt want to have the hassle of makeing it the boot drive but inevitable it seems it has to be now. I've backed up all my personal files from (C:) and now i want to erase everything off it and use it as the slave. I know i have to set the jumpers but how do i wipe all the info and make it a slave?

:tazz:

Thanks :)
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#2
Samm

Samm

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Hi there

What operating system do you currently have installed? (If you have different ones on each drive, let me know). If its XP, is the drive that you wish to wipe clean, formatted using FAT32 or NTFS?

Also, one thing I want to check first :
Am I correct in thinking that you had a master drive © with non-repairable install of windows. You then added the slave drive to the system (D) whilst leaving the C drive in place. You then installed windows to the slave drive (D)?
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#3
Adzi

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Both OS's installed are windows XP and formated withn NTFS. And yes you are correct in thinking that :tazz:
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#4
Samm

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OK, the problem you are likely to have, is that if you simply reconfigure the slave drive to be the master & move it to the end of the cable, XP probably won't boot up.
The reason being, is that although you installed it to the slave drive, XP normally places a few crucial system (boot) files on the C drive. If you move or remove the C drive, these files will no longer be accessible.

I suggest you try reconfiguring the drives as you've suggested but don't wipe the old c drive yet. If windows boots ok, then fine. If it doesn't, then at least you can return the drives to their original configuration in order to boot XP.

If you do have a problem loading windows after moving the drives around, then you may be to run XP's recovery console & replace the missing boot files that way.
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