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Astralis
Senior Member
USA
1218 Posts |
 Posted - 24 January 2006 : 16:26:46
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Last week I made the mistake of installing SP2 without archiving. My OS became corrupted and I had some technicians look at it and they said I need to install a new OS. I wanted to upgrade to XP Pro anyhow. I also decided to purchase a 250GB hard drive to use as the master drive and use the old one with the corrupted OS and all my files and applications as the slave drive.
My XP Pro disk and hard drive just arrived but I really don't know what to do. I know that I want to install the OS on its own partition. Should this be about 6GB? Anyhow, what advice do you have and/or can you point me to some resources that has instructions for situations similar to mine? |
Edited by - Astralis on 24 January 2006 17:46:59 |
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AnonJr
Moderator
United States
5768 Posts |
Posted - 24 January 2006 : 16:44:17
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My "MediaMachine" is set up similarly. I put Windows XP Pro on a 50GB partition (so there would be room for the programs I install as well). The rest is used for storage. Since its a SFF box I didn't have room to use two separate drives.
Rough outline assuming that you want to have both hard drives on one controller, and the optical drive(s) on the other (a matter of sometimes fiercely debated personal preference):
- Install the 250GB drive as the Master drive and the other drive as the Slave. (don't forget to triple-check the jumpers on the drives...)
- Install Windows XP Pro and have Setup make a 50GB partition.
- Install Windows on this partition.
- If you didn't format your other partition during Setup, use Disk Management to format your other partition.
- Work until the wee hours of the morning re-installing all the software you need.
- Grumble about it crawling again in another 8 months or so.
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Doug G
Support Moderator
USA
6493 Posts |
Posted - 24 January 2006 : 17:02:14
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If your computer is older, the BIOS may not support the 250GB drive. Some drive mfg. provide a disk-based bios extension to accomodate this problem, or you may have a bios update available for your MB, or perhaps an add-on ide controller board will have a newer bios on-board.
Or maybe you'll be lucky and the new drive will be seen by the bios properly :)
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Doug G
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Computer history and help at www.dougscode.com |
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Astralis
Senior Member
USA
1218 Posts |
Posted - 24 January 2006 : 17:37:46
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Doug,
What is "older". It's a Pentium IV HT that I bought two years ago. Should that be sufficient? How can I tell before I start? Just trial and error?
Also, in the partition, what should it be, FAT32 or NTSF? |
Edited by - Astralis on 24 January 2006 17:42:35 |
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ruirib
Snitz Forums Admin
Portugal
26364 Posts |
Posted - 24 January 2006 : 17:48:20
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Two years ago, I'd almost bet it does recognize it. Mine is about 2 years and started with a 160 GB and now has a 250 GB and the initial 160 GB.
I never trust XP to create the partitions. It has a knack to not use the available space in full. Probably using a partition manager app is the best option to create the partitions you want. You should definitely go with NTFS. |
Snitz 3.4 Readme | Like the support? Support Snitz too |
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Astralis
Senior Member
USA
1218 Posts |
Posted - 24 January 2006 : 17:55:39
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Are there partition applications freely available or must I order it? Does XP have a partition manager that I can control?
How much space should I reserve for XP? 50GB as AnonJr recommended? |
Edited by - Astralis on 24 January 2006 17:55:53 |
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ruirib
Snitz Forums Admin
Portugal
26364 Posts |
Posted - 24 January 2006 : 18:07:26
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I have used both Acronis Disk Manager or Partition Magic. Neither is free. XP can create partitions too, but in my experience it has never used the available disk space in full.
50 GB will be more than enough. |
Snitz 3.4 Readme | Like the support? Support Snitz too |
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Podge
Support Moderator
Ireland
3776 Posts |
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Astralis
Senior Member
USA
1218 Posts |
Posted - 24 January 2006 : 20:09:20
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| Podge, that brings up a good question I never thought about, will XP allow me to define the size of the partitions? |
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TonyB7
Junior Member
USA
267 Posts |
Posted - 24 January 2006 : 20:24:03
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Yes, during setup simply choose the option to install WinXP to a new partition. Don't go with 50gb unless you intend to do a LOT of DVD-R swapping when you image. Go with 10gb and with compression you can image that to a single DVD.
After you have the OS installed you can use Disk Management to set up a single partition in the rest of the disk. Always use NTFS. |
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AnonJr
Moderator
United States
5768 Posts |
Posted - 24 January 2006 : 21:47:29
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I didn't originally recommend any particular partitioning app only because I didn't know of any good free ones... good ones.... free ones... but not one that was both. 
My experience with the XP partitioning software is that it does "miss" a very small portion of your hard drive that will be marked as "unformatted". I swear I remember reading some where that there was a reason for it, but I can't seem to recall what it was. I could very well be mistaken on that part too... darn that short-term memory whatever!
Like I mentioned earlier, the partition size is a matter of personal preference. I usually use a 50GB partition since it allows me to install all the programs I use and still have a little working room left over for the various projects I work on. But, all things being equal, its a matter of preference.
As to the format, NTFS.
Good luck, and let us know how everything turns out. HTH. |
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Astralis
Senior Member
USA
1218 Posts |
Posted - 25 January 2006 : 03:53:57
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Updating appears to look fine so far but I have no sound and there is absolutely nothing listed under the sound device tab in the system information are. Why is this?
Also, I did not realize I had to partition all the drive at once. Is there a way to partition after XP is installed? Is that where PartitionMagic comes in? |
Edited by - Astralis on 25 January 2006 03:59:04 |
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AnonJr
Moderator
United States
5768 Posts |
Posted - 25 January 2006 : 06:23:33
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The Disk Manager will let you format any unformatted partitions.
Right-click on "My Computer" -> Select "Manage" and you'll see it on the left. From here you can fix any drive letter snafus too.
As to the sound card, have you re-installed the drivers yet? |
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Astralis
Senior Member
USA
1218 Posts |
Posted - 25 January 2006 : 15:45:24
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Anon,
I do not know where the drivers are. How do I locate them?
I was able to partition and format with Disk Manager. Thanks! |
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AnonJr
Moderator
United States
5768 Posts |
Posted - 25 January 2006 : 18:55:45
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| If its an integrated soundcard they should be on the disk that came with the motherboard. If you can't find the disk, the manufacturer's web site should have them for download. Worse comes to worse, you can go to http://www.driverguide.com I've found a lot of hard-to-find drivers there. |
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Astralis
Senior Member
USA
1218 Posts |
Posted - 26 January 2006 : 00:24:39
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Anon,
Yes, I got the XP Pro from tigerdirect.com as you recommended. It's an OEM version. I'm not sure how they do that but I'm happy. And it was cheaper than getting an upgrade. It was $139 (US). |
Edited by - Astralis on 26 January 2006 00:25:10 |
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