What is the easyiest way to move from one hard drive to the next?

Question

I have recently discovered the internet and as a result windows has slowed down so that I can no longer compose music with my computer. I decided to buy a new hard drive and run a seperate operating system on it. My only problem is moving smoothly from one hard drive to the next. I have to turn off the computer, unplug the master hard drive, change hard drive in the bios and reboot. It worked fine at first but is now having trouble booting when I switch. I feel this is somthing to do with the computer becoming confused with the whole master slave thing.

Can anyone help me?

Answer 1

I'm sure someone will help you but just in case no one does I am kinda hoping for the ten points?

Answer 2

Here's one proven solution to your problem:

Set the PC back to it's original configuration (using the old drive.) Disconnect the new one for now.

Get hold of a disk imaging program (e.g. Norton Ghost) and install it.

Following the prompts, backup your system to cd/dvd using the imaging software. You now have a complete restore disk for the PC.
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SETTING UP THE DRIVES
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Now you need to set up your new drive as the primary disk and your old one as secondary.

To do this, first off, remove the drives carefully from the computer and check the label on the top of them. There is nearly always a diagram on it which tells you what jumper settings are required to make the drive master (primary) or slave (secondary.)

For the new drive, you want to make it Master so apply the jumper as per the label for master setting (usually says "master or single drive.)

For the old drive we want to make it slave. Again follow the label diagram. If there is no diagram, the slave setting will either be moving the jumper one place to the side of the original master setting, or no jumper at all -simple!

Fit the drives back in the system, and they must both be on the same IDE cable to work.

Ok, with a bit of luck your system should pick up both drives at boot up. If not reboot and check the "Standard BIOS settings" page in the bios configuration (usually or F2 at bootup.) Make sure all the devices are set to "Auto", save and exit bios, and reboot.

If its only showing one of the drives after this, its most likely the jumper setting on the old drive... power off and either remove it or move it along one space and retry. repeat until you get it right.
If all else fails, you can always just remove the drive and just stick to the shiny new one (with tonnes more space anyway no doubt.)
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RESTORING YOUR SYSTEM
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This part is really easy:

Make sure in the BIOS settings that the boot sequence is set to look at the CD/DVD first.

Stick in the imaged disk you made earlier and boot up. Look out for the "Press any key to boot from CD..." message and do as it says.

The system will load up the software on the CD and you simply follow the prompts/menus to copy the image to the new disk. After that, the process is automatic, and your old system will be transferred in minutes. Norton Ghost is intelligent software in that it doesn't matter if the old drive was smaller than the new one.

Give it about 10 minutes, and the whole process will be complete. On the reboot, remove the CD/DVD from the drive and presto, your system is back online.
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PHEW - Just one more thing.... When the system is booting from the new drive, and all is ok with the world again, go into Windows explorer and format the old drive drive. Use it as free space - extra storage.
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Some tips:
1. anytime internet starts running slow, right click the IE icon and go to internet options. Click on the "Delete Cookies" button and confirm. then "Delete Temporary Internet Files" and tick "delete all offline content" before hitting Ok.

That'll clear out all those little files from websites you've visited over the past while and WILL speed up your internet.

2. Run regular defrags of your drive. Keeps it healthy and also keeps it running smooth. Files do tend to get broken up and scattered across your drive, the defrag brings all the peices back together, thus saving the drive a bit of time in collecting all the fragments to load them up.

3.. Ah that should do it (hehe) I could go on all night !! :o)

I certainly hope thast helps. Like I said that's only one way of doing it, there are other methods. If that's the case let me know.

regards

Answer 3

On the second hardrive, remove the jumper switches and this will default the harddrive to a slave and trying to read between the lines of your question, should fix your problem.

If you are running 2 separate os's then I can understand why you have one installed on each, but if you are running the same OS, I would stick to 1 install.
If your pc is running slow, check for virus', upgrade the RAM, try a defrag and/or clear some space on the harddisk.
You can run the two harddrives simultaneously, on 2 separate IDE controllers if available, or on one if it has to be (although that will slow down your read/write speed). This will create a dual boot scenario, where you can select which OS to boot from when you start the computer if you are using 2 different OS'

Answer 4

You've had several very good answers in relation to your question so far...

But I suspect that while correct, they are not necessarily the best answer, which lies in another direction. If it was just the Internet connection then it would only be an issue while connected, thus:

If your computer is so slow it can't even handle the Internet then you have one or two greater concerns.

Either you are running something truly ancient - like a 486 or slower - as even a Pentium 450 or better can reasonably handle the Internet. In this is the case upgrading is pointless. You can get a pretty good system for £299 from most computer stores nowadays - even from (special offers) from Dixons.

And/or since connecting to the Internet you have picked up a raft of viruses and spyware that are absuing your computers in sundry unpleasant manners!

If you aren't already using an internet suite (antivirus/firewall) solution and anti-spyware solution, then you really need to install them now - as in NOW!

Answer 5

Put both hard-drives in your computer. You can connect them with the same cable but be carefull as the drive at the end of the cable must be set as "master" and the other one as "slave".
Now go to BIOS setup program and let both drives to be autodetected by selecting the "Auto" option at the corresponding IDE port; set as the primary booting device the drive that contains "Windows"; save the settings and restart your computer.
When starting, "Windows" will give you an option to choose which OS to start. This way you'll just have to select the OS you want to use from a menu, instead of plugging and unplugging the hard-drive everytime you start your computer.
Good luck!

Answer 6

Give us more info.
You should only run your computer with one operating system - use one hard drive as the master & the second as the slave - this will work fine as long as you've got the jumpers in the right place - unpluging your hard drive from one hard drive to another with different systems on is asking for trouble.

Answer 7

If you have one drive as a master and the other as a slave using jumpers then you could feasably solder wires to the jumpers from a twin dipole switch. You would have to set hard drive detection to automatic in the bios and NEVER flick the switch whilst the power is on.

You can purchase cartridges which the drives can be screwed into and slide into a socket in a large drive bay:
http://www.addonics.com/emerging_technologies/drive_cartridge.asp


I strongly suggest that you bite the bullet and transfer all your data files from the old drive to the new and re-install your application software. Beware of loosing your e-mail files, check google for "transferring outlook files"

Answer 8

You really dont have to change the harddrives everytime. Just make the hardrive with most of your application software master and the other slave permanently. You can save all your files in the slave while your OS runs in the master.
I dont see why you have to run two OS. I believe any OS can allow you to use the internet and compose your music. Having two OS will only make your computer slower. If you must have two OS i would suggest partitioning the master slave and installing both OS in separate partitions. Before partitioning you need to backup your files in your slave drive otherwise you might lose them.
My advice: stick to one OS which should be in the master drive with all other applications that you use. Any files you create or have, store them in the slave drive. If the speed doesnt improve you will probably need to upgrade your memory (RAM). If your computer was faster before you connected it to the internet, the difference in speed shouldnt be great unless you have a lot of spyware and viruses. You might need cleaning it.
Goodluck

Answer 9

There's 2 ways of doing this:

1. boot manager.
Use the hard drive with winXP system as master, and the other as slave. then follow these steps on:
1. Start | Run Type Boot.ini then press enter
2. Copy the text after [Operating System], then paste it below the original text (don't overwrite the original)

it should be like this :
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Professional" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect

disk(0) ==> the (0) here means it's the first hard drive (master), 1 means the second hard drive
partition(1) means the boot files is located in C: drive... if your second hard drive's system folder is also C:/ leave this alone

in the end it should be like this:

[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Professional"

multi(0)disk(1)rdisk(1)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Professional"


2. Boot priority from BIOS.
Use both hard drive as primary master and secondary master. usually the key is F8 (on boot sequence) to choose which device/hard drive you want to boot with.

both way works for me... don't forget to make back up on boot.ini file (just in case it went wrong)

Answer 10

Why on earth would you want 2 sperate OS on 2 separte hard dives, what for. Like you said you have to alter ur setting everytime. What a pain in the butt process. Also bu constanly unplugging ur drive ur going to damage it, you will will break one the pins eventually, they are not designed to be constantly unplugged and plugged back in. That is what external drives are for.

Just keep your main drive for your installed programs, but everything you download or creat save to your other drive. I had same similar problem a a cpl of years ago, so i use main 80gb drive for programs installed and second 300gb drive for everything i save. including all my document folder, i save nothing on the main drive, and runs very fast, i also use Disktools defragment to keep it ruuning smoothly.

Also try emptying your internet folder of all temp files on a regular basis. that can take up a lot of space and slow ur comp down.

Answer 11

You can edit the Start options under:

Config -> System -> Advanced (Tab) -> Check the first checkbox -> Edit the file, if the windows you'll want doesn't exists in the pull-down box, on the Edit button -> Add you're windows to it....