Second hard drive

[coffeecup-sf]

Just bought a new Maxtor 120GB 8mbcache hd so that I can put my captures on there. My main one is a 60GB Maxtor 2mb cache, and I have Windows ME on it.

This is what I thought... I will format the new 120GB hard drive completely as a new 'system' meaning I will unplug the 60GB and format the 120GB and do a full install of Windows XP Pro on it. And then, after that's all done and there's a whole XP system on it, I will then return the 120GB as being a slave and only use it to do storage of my captures/encodes since there's a whopping 120GB there, and continue to use the 60GB as my WinME main system.

The reason I want to do this is... I want to have two OSs "available" (should I need the second one) but I don't want to do a partition on one drive because learning how to do it is a pain and also I had that once a long time ago and thought it looked tacky with the "Choose which OS you want to use" screen at boot up. Secondly, in the event my main hard drive crashes, I will have the second one ready to go as a fully operational OS instead of just a bunch of files on it. I think that in the case of one hard drive completely failing, this is the advantage of putting one OS on each drive instead of two OSs on one drive.

Does anyone either disagree with this or have a better idea? Thanks if you do.

[Solarjetman]

Looks like you have it planned out. You need to figure out an easier way to swap the drives though. Maybe you should wire the jumpers to a switch so you don't have to open your case.

Just don't format the WinXP drive as NTFS. Windows ME wont be able to see it.

Another idea is to put both OSes on the same drive, but have the boot sector only point to your WinME and make a boot disk for booting to the WindowsXP partition. That way there is no drive swapping.

[coffeecup-sf]

Oh yah, almost forgot about the NTFS thing, although I heard there was some hack that actually would allow you to make WinME read NTFS, but I couldn't be bothered with it.

For making a switch and jumpers, that sounds great but may be just a bit over my head -- some electrical expertise perhaps?

Another idea is to put both OSes on the same drive, but have the boot sector only point to your WinME

Do you mean do like I was saying and have both drives hooked up, but when the machine turns on it will go directly to my older drive for booting and if I want to boot up to XP instead I would insert a floppy 3.5" for that? Don't know too much about all that stuff and "boot sectors" and where to modify it.

I guess the other thing I could do is format 120GB as WinXP, use it as main drive and just slowly copy all my old favorites to it, and use the 60GB as storage (but it's not NTFS) and also use space on the 120 for storage. Of course it would be a bit of a transition as I have all of my particulars and mods on my 60GB WinME. That's really the only reason I want to still stick with it, plus also my Hauppauge WinTV card seemed to have some troubles with XP a year ago even though I used XP drivers.

Anyone here using the Hauppauge tv tuner card (the basic PCI card) with XP Pro?

[gmatov]

You don't seem to want to learn anything, or be bothered by anything, and don't want to see that " tacky" choose your OS screen for an adjustable 5 seconds.

Your best bet would be, since you like the ME OS, to partition say 10 gigs on the 120, leave the rest whole, if you like, format that one to NTFS and install XP on it as a dual boot.

The 60 would stay as it is as, with ME on it. It wouldn't see the NTFS files, but the XP would see the FAT32, ME drive.

Your machine would be, for all practical purposes, exactly as it is now, with the small exception of the "choose" screen, which you can set to anywhere from 1 second to whatever.

You'd have the best of both worlds, including large files on the XP drive.

And, not have to copy all the files over to the new drive.

[Solarjetman]

Do you mean do like I was saying and have both drives hooked up, but when the machine turns on it will go directly to my older drive for booting and if I want to boot up to XP instead I would insert a floppy 3.5" for that?

Yes. I won't get into a technical explaination, but the computer would normally start as if only WinME was installed. If you wanted to boot to WinXP, you would insert a floppy boot disk that figuratively tells the computer "Instead of booting like you normally do, use the Operating System that is on a different drive."

Alternately you could get a boot loader. Boot loaders are programs that handle booting to multiple OSes on the same machine. There is bound to be one that has the functionality to use WinME unless, for instance, the shift key is held down. Then you just hold down the shift key while booting and you would load WinXP. I can't think of one that does it, but I am sure there is one that does.

And if you want to go with the hardware switch, I remember once seeing a product that you can buy. Something in the range of $15 if you don't want to build your own. I will try and find it on the net and get back with you.

You really have alot of options for doing what you want to do.

[Solarjetman]

Still looking for the switch, but I found some directions on how to make one (although I find them very poor and some drives may not work with their proposed method)
Build a Hard Drive Switcher

EDIT: Well, I found the selector. But unfortunatly it is not exacly what you are looking for. It will let you use one drive or the other. Not both at once.
you can buy it here and the manufacturer's website is here

[Nelson37]

For about $30-40 each, you can purchase two mounting bays with removable cartridges. You will need two 5.25" drive bays for the mounts. To swap OS, just shut down, swap the two cartridges (10 seconds), and fire up. This approach avoids having any software mucking around with your boot partition, which is always a potential problem.

Side note - I would ditch ME as soon as possible. It is a bastardized, kludged MS hybrid that will never be updated, and every software and hardware manufacturer knows it. It is a technological dead end with a limited installed base.

[gmatov]

Nelson,

I used those years ago. To use 2 as interchangeable boot drives, you have to remove from the tray, reset the jumpers, unless they are cable select, ( I think it's you who said once before you like CS, isn't it? )

Anyhow, if you pull them from the tray too often, you start losing contact integrity. It's why I quit using them. Still, they can be useful for data transfer.

The switching idea doesn't sound like the best for the original poster, as it requires some interest in working your computer, you know, "When you want to do this, push that switch."

[DRfrankenpimp]

tiger direct has the switch you need for booting different operating systems

[jdizzy40]

Why on earth would you want to keep WIN ME. It's a battleship anchor and you're in a dinghy. Leave the past behind and move on to the future!