Will my PC blow up if...

Bluemoon wrote on 12/9/2001, 7:23 AM
All I know about my system: Boxed package Windows Me, PIII 700ish, 255 MB RAM (don't know which kind or where to find that. Drive C came with the computer ATA and DMA even though I don't know what that means and I don't know the speed 40 gigs and bought 6 months ago (gateway), I added Drive D it is 17 gig WD 7400 ATA and DMA yada yada woop woop. Anyway I was thinking about switching my drives around so I could put all my programs on C (would be 17 gigs) and use D (would be 40) only for storage. My couple of questions are: Will I need to start fresh with a reinstall of windows, Will I completely blow up my computer, Is it even worth the trouble.

Thanks,
Bluemoon

Comments

JumboTech wrote on 12/9/2001, 8:45 AM
Based on your level of experience, I would be a little cautious. Most of those like myself who do the kind of things that you are talking about have gotten the experience in how to do it at the expense of hours if not days of problems that had to be surmounted and sinking feelings that began when a powered on machine showed nothing but a blank screen. I want you to understand that I'm not putting you down, just advising that you be careful. Your basic idea will work but your operating system will have to be on your primary drive and that means that you'll have to copy it from the other drive or reinstall it. If you are using Vegas, you'll have to reregister as it will seem like your copy was for illicit purposes and it won't run until you do. If you don't have an original copy of Me but a "recovery" version that often comes with packaged deals, then often the recovery won't work with a different setup than the one you started with. If you want to start playing around with partitions and things, I recommend "Partition Magic". It has saved me many many times. If you still want to go ahead, I'm sure that you'll find the help you need on this forum, although it might be considered a little off topic by some. Good luck.

Al
Chienworks wrote on 12/9/2001, 1:34 PM
Al is correct; caution is certainly advised. But that doesn't mean don't do
it. Switching your drives is a very nice idea so that you'll have more
space available on the data drive. It won't be a picnic though.

One thing i would definately suggest is a program called Norton Ghost.
This will let you copy everything from the old c/new d drive to the
new c/old d drive and have most of it run as if it had been installed there
orginally. It's very fast, and is intended for exactly what you want to do.
It's been ages since i've used it, so i don't remember the procedure, but
i do recall it was pretty easy.

Even with using Ghost, you'll probably still have some software that will
need to be reinstalled or at least re-registered. Make sure you have all
your original installation discs and serial/registration/license numbers
available before you start.

Are both your hard drives on the same IDE cable? If so, the only thing
you'll have to do hardware-wise to "swap" them is change the jumpers
on the drive. With the power off, set the current C drive to be the slave,
and the current D drive to be the master. You won't even have to move
any cables. The next time you turn the power on, the drive letters will be
switched.

If the drives are on separate IDE cables, but still both set to master,
then you'll just swap the cables (while the power is off, of course). You
should also keep the CD-ROM drive connected to the same cable if
possible, so that it's still the slave of the new C drive. If the cable won't
reach when you switch, don't worry about it. Connect the CD-ROM to the
other cable. If you do this and you have two CD drives, they will swap
drive letters too.

Of course, always back up any important files before attempting
anything like this! Better to be safe than sorry.
Caruso wrote on 12/9/2001, 1:44 PM
Well, I think you can be a bit more bold than Al . . . your computer won't blow up, but, as Al mentioned, if you are inexperienced, you might want to brace yourself for several hours worth of agita and frustration. On the other hand, Al, like the rest of us, probably learned what he knows by hands on experimentation.

If your system came with a full restore disk, your plan will probably work, but be prepared to back up or lose whatever is on your 17 gig disk. If you installed that disk in your machine, then, I assume you are familiar with the DIP settings that configure it as a slave or master drive. To make it the master drive, you'll need to change those settings. You'll also have to change your 40 gig drive to make it the slave.

All this assumes that you have a restore CDROM to which your machine will boot when it is started with that CD in the drive.

As I mentioned, you'll want to set your 17-gig drive up as the master, use your restore CD to load your original software on it, then, boot up and make certain that you have access to both drives (17g should now be C and 40g should now be D).

If you get that far without problems, then, all you need do is reinstall anything not included in the restore, back up any important data from your "new" 40 gig D drive, wipe it clean (or at least delete applications and system files (most of these 'D' drive aps won't work because you changed their location from where your system expects them to be), and of course, the system files are now useless as they are newly installed on your 17g "C" drive).

Really, it's no harder (or simpler) than that. Just make certain you know that you can boot to that restore CDROM. You might want to test that before you go swapping your drives around (just boot to the first screen, then exit so you don't lose your data before you're ready).

Having stated all the above, I'd like to pose one question to you. Why mess with that 17 gig drive in the first place? If you can budget for it, go purchase another 40 (or larger, if funds allow), set it as the slave (a process with which I assume you're already familiar), and then you will have greatly increased your storage capacity, and won't have to hassle with the disk swapping and restore. Just a thought.

Good luck, be careful, and have fun (I love messing around with these machines . . . have learned the hard way how to get tangled up, but, from each tangle comes experience that is invaluable).

Caruso