Different WIndows operating systems on two hard drives
I plan to add a Quantum Fireball Lct 20.4 GB hard drive (which has Windows Millenium on it) to my Dell Optiplex (which has a 20 GB hard drive that uses Windows XP). I don't want Windows Me and wish to use Windows XP on the Quantum Fireball hard drive once it's installed in the Dell. Questions: (1) Should I install the Quantum Fireball as a slave or as CS (cable select)? (2) Once installed in the Dell, should I format the Quantum Fireball to remove Windows Me? (3) If the Quantum Fireball is installed as slave, is it necessary to install Windows XP on it?
Computers & Internet - Quantum - Fireball - Fireball Lct20 (QML20000LD-A) 20 GB Hard Drive
Answers & Comments
Main Dell Optiplex
Slave (cable select)
Quantum Fireball
once you have installed them physically into your comptuer like that, start it up.
Format Quantum Fireball
Now you still have windows xp, and you have a clean 2nd hard drive.
You do not need to install windows xp on the 2nd drive
Quantum Fireball .
1) Try if Cable Select will work for you, meaning that the existing HDD will be Master, and the Quantum will be Slave. If there are problems in identifying the drives by BIOS, manually set the existing one to Master, and the Quantum to Slave.
2) You don't have to install anything on the second drive. The operating system has to be installed on the primary drive, from which the system boots.
3) If the Quantum drive does not contain anything useful, it would be advisable to go to Management Tools, Disk Management and delete the partition from it, re-create it, and format as NTFS - under WinMe it was surely formatted as FAT32, which has a file size limit of 2GB and doesn't let you set any access permissions.
If you don't need NTFS, then at least re-formatting the drive would be advisable, as it's the simplest way to get a clean drive, without unwanted stuff (like WInMe, programs installed on it etc.) and no data fragmentation, that occurs with time and slows down the drive operation.
4) You might need to go to Disk Management anyway to assign a drive letter to your newly attached drive - most probably your existing drive is C, your CD/DVD is D, so you'll have to assign letter E to it, or better yet, some letter further in the alphabet, like Q for example - especially if you use external disk devices, like flash pendrives etc., which already were assigned the letter E when you used them.
5) With the harddrives so cheap nowadays, does it really make sense to use an old hdd? They have a finite life time, and the older the drive, the more chances are of it failing, and you losing your data. Maybe it would make more sense to buy a new ATA drive and use it instead?
Good luck, and don't forget to come back with a testimonial if helped :)