Hard Drive Question

[Parky-RFC]

A mate stuck another hard drive in for me last night. Just wondering if it's possible to change what hard drive I want to run off without opening my computer up. Obviously the one I want to run off (I think you call it the 'master' drive?) will have windows ect installed on it and the other one I'm just using to back up all my files.

So, is it possible to change hard drive without opening my computer up and swapping them around?

Thanks in advance, Parky.

[b1gapl]

You don't have to change what hard drive you want to run off of, because you only have one hard drive with the OS, which is the master.

[Parky-RFC]

Originally Posted by b1gapl

You don't have to change what hard drive you want to run off of, because you only have one hard drive with the OS, which is the master.

Aye but I want to. I want everything on the new hard drive..the main stuff like Windows, programs, every thing really, I'll then copy all my music and videos over to the old drive which is only 80GB just so I have a back up of all my important files. Do you understand what I'm saying??

Thanks for the reply mate.

[peterhuang913]

You need to do a disk clone or transfer

[AND_YOU_ARE]

There are a number of programs that will move the OS and installed programs from one hard drive to another. Some hard drive manufactures include this type of software with new hard drives. You can also find it on their website.

[Parky-RFC]

Originally Posted by AND_YOU_ARE

There are a number of programs that will move the OS and installed programs from one hard drive to another. Some hard drive manufactures include this type of software with new hard drives. You can also find it on their website.

Hold on a minute..maybe I haven't made myself clear.

Right, I was starting to run out of space on the original hard drive I got with the computer (80 GB). I have since bought a new hard drive (320 GB) and have installed it on to my computer. Obviously, at the moment my original hard drive (80 GB) is the 'master' drive and my new one is the 'slave' drive. Now, what I want to do is change my original hard drive (80 GB) (which is the 'master drive at the moment) to the 'slave' drive.

So basically I want my new hard drive as the 'master' drive and my old..original 80 GB hard drive as my slave drive. I don't know how to do this..hence why I'm on here asking questions.

Can I not just un-install windows from my original hard drive..change my new hard drive to the 'master' drive and install windows and start all over again?

Thanks in advance, Parky.

[Alvin.C]

Hello,

The Operating System doesn't need to be on the 'master' hard drive in order to be able to boot into it. Master and slave are just terms describing the physical location of the hard drive on the IDE cable which it is connected to.

So for example, I could have two hard drives in my computer. Hard drive 1 is the master which stores only personal data files. Hard drive 2 is the slave which contains the operating system. I can still boot into the operating system on hard drive 2, even though it is the 'slave' hard drive. The boot order setting in the BIOS determines which hard drive is booted into first, and this can be configured.

As already said, you could just simply 'clone' all the data from your 80GB hard drive to your 320GB hard drive, then format the 80GB hard drive and use it to store backups of your files, and boot into the OS on the 320GB hard drive.

Alternatively you could start fresh by setting your 320GB hard drive as the primary boot device (in the BIOS) and install the operating system on your new 320GB hard drive. You'd then have your 80GB hard drive with still your data files stored on it, and of course with Windows still installed on the 80GB hard drive (which you can get rid of afterwards).

[Parky-RFC]

Originally Posted by Alvin.C

Alternatively you could start fresh by setting your 320GB hard drive as the primary boot device (in the BIOS) and install the operating system on your new 320GB hard drive. You'd then have your 80GB hard drive with still your data files stored on it, and of course with Windows still installed on the 80GB hard drive (which you can get rid of afterwards).

You've got it there mate, that's exactly what I want to do!

How would I go about doing this? How do I get into BIOS? How complicated is it, my knowledge in this sort of stuff is pretty mediocre so perhaps I will need some assistance.

Thanks for that mate, very helpful post!