How should I reformat?

[boorad420]

I am running windows on a 160gig hdd right now. I want to reformat and do a fresh install, using my 40gig drive as the windows drive (having everything else on the 160) The 40 is a slave right now. How would I go about installing XP on the 40 gig without formatting the 160? Would I need to make the 40 the master and 160 the slave? The last time I did this i got some boot loader error.

[Darthtanion]

Re: How should I reformat?

If you're running WinXP just set up the 40GB as the master and the 160GB as the slave. When you install WinXP there is an option to format the drive before installation is begun. If you're running a Win9x series OS then you'll still need to set the 40GB as master but from there you'll need your trusty boot disk. The format command is on there.

Now that we've gone through that, what is the speed of the 40GB drive compared to the 160GB one? If your 160 has a faster spindle speed and access rate, you will lose speed throughout your system if you use the 40GB as the master. If you're concerned about storage area, just partition the 160GB drive to have a 15-20GB partition for the operating system and office apps and the rest as storage that will be very safe in the event Windows hacks up a hairball.

Just food for thought.