Can This Be Done?

[Ulyshia]

I have a Micron Computer with 2 Hard Drives. The primary is 2gb. The secondary is 10gb. I don't know how to transfer my files to the 10gb. so tell me, can a computer operate with two different OS's. For example, I have Windows 98 on the 2gb. Can I put another version on the 10gb? Or must I transfer all files from the 2 to the 10? My 2gb. hard drive is full!

[twistedcranium]

What is on the 10gig drive? Is it recognized by windows as D:?

Do you really want two OSes or do you just want more space and want to swap the drives maybe?

[Ulyshia]

The 10gb drive is recognized as Drive D. There is nothing on it except some downloaded files in My Documents. I really want to just make D my C Drive. But I don't know how to do this.

[PostCode]

What other operating system do you want to put on the computer?

It can be done, say Windows 2000 and Windows 98 can be installed on the same computer. The user would have the option at bootup to decide which one to start, either WIndows 2000 or XP or Windows 98.

A 10GB hard drive isn't a lot of room though for Windows 2000 or Windows XP. XP will take about 1.5GB just for the installation of the OS itself. Another factor is the hardware. What are the details of your computer besides the hard drives. How fast is it, how much RAM does it have, etc...?

Transferring you data should be a relatively easy task though if this is the route that you want to go. It involves a little bit of tinkering around on the inside of the case and a little bit of work in DOS to prepare the drive but other than that it's pretty straight forward.

[Ulyshia]

The computer is a Pentium III with 192mb. ram. If you could tell me how to do a transfer, I would rather go that route.

[jtdoom]

hi

first of all, make a start floppy or EBD floppy
and TEST IT

then, your work begins

first...
look at content of recycle bin, and restore what you want to keep, and then empty it

you can copy essential files you DO NOT want to lose from D: to C: at this point.
(because you will run without a second drive for a couple days, it would be better if you have them safe!)

then disable recycle bin for ALL drives.

next, disable antivirus from start up list (use its options panel)
if you have goback or similar, disable it
(if you have to do this, you restart to make sure antivirus don't run at startup.)

next thing is the following
disable virtual memory in control panel, performance settings

it wants to restart after this
-edit; method one-
restart to SAFE mode
start the computer to SAFE mode, by using the F5 button during boot.

now you use START > RUN >
XCOPY32 C:\*.* D:\ /I /C /H /E /Y /R /K

this copies everything over to D:
next thing
run >
COMMAND
(what gets you to a dosprompt)
SYS D:
EXIT

method two;
hmmm

rather than use xcopy32 with that string of options from within safe mode windows, you could use a good tool instead
you put XCLONE onto the EBD floppy
ftp://ftp.sac.sk/pub/sac/utildisk/xclone13.zip
unzip, and copy xclone.exe to start floppy

boot from the floppy
SYS D:
XCLONE C: D:


now shut the machine, and pull power

once this is done, you have to make the D: active
to do this, you open up the computer, and disconnect the smaller drive from its ribbon
then connect the larger to the connector the smaller was on

do not re-connect the smaller one to the now free connector that larger one was on yet
also disconnect power to smaller drive.

done that?
boot to that FLOPPY you just made
Fdisk
Y
4
it shows no A for active, right?
esc
choose to activate partition
make it active

pull floppy
restart computer
if all is well, and the machine autodetects hard disk during boot, you should see windows running off the larger disk

re-enable the virtual memory
re-enable recycle bin
re-enable antivirus

now, run this machine without the second drive for a couple days so as to find wether everything works okay
when it does, then you connect the smaller disk onto the connector the larger one was once on, and start using it as data drive

=========

I know that a drivemanager utility from the hard disk maker can do a copy from disk to disk (a transfer), and I atually find that the better option (because I done it a few times, see)
but... one wrong move, and you wind up with lost data, so that is why I offer another workable solution.

[jtdoom]

hmmm

rather than use xcopy32 with that string of options from within safe mode windows, you could use a good tool instead
you see, you could put XCLONE onto the EBD floppy

ftp://ftp.sac.sk/pub/sac/utildisk/xclone13.zip
unzip, and copy xclone.exe to start floppy

boot from the floppy
SYS D:
XCLONE C: D:

description of xclone
http://members.cox.net/dos/fileuti2.htm
========

[Ulyshia]

This is all just too complicated for me. I just know I will mess up.
But I guess that this is the only way... right?

[Topdog]

If your D drive is working OK and it sounds like it is(as a slave to C:), why not leave it as it is and just continue to use it to store any new data and any additional programs you want to install on it as well. You just have to tell any programs on C: to store data on D: and any program installer to install the program on D:... May save you a lot of work, heartache and trouble.
Do you have a particular reason for wanting to run two OS's?

[jtdoom]

hi
it is not complicated... it is quite simple, actually

I edited above post,
I put xclone method where it belongs in sequence of events.

by smaller drive I meant the drive with only two giga ;)
you make an EBD like this.
put windows CD in the cdromdrive
browse the cdrom
doubleclick the fat32ebd file which you find in tools\mtsutil\fat32ebd\fat32ebd

it will ask for a floppy
after it made the floppy, get xclone, unzip it, put xclone.exe from the zip on it.

==========
now... if the work on the insides scares you...

well, if this computer BIOS supports booting from D:, you don't even have to get inside.
you boot into BIOS setup, and look at this.

you would still have to activate the D: with FDISK