I recently asked about having 3 different drives, 2 of which I can't get to, to put things on.?

Question

I asked how I could put things on my E and F drive that are taking up necessary space on my C drive. Got a few answers, some helpful, some a little sarcastic, but that's okay.
Now I would like to know if I can unplug the C drive which is down to 164mbs of space, and plug the C drive in where the E/F partioned drive is, and vice versa, and keep everything I have, while still being able to add to the E/F partitioned drive.
My theory is if I just swap them, then all the things installed (webcam, printer, and Windows XP) will remian on there, while new and additional things could be put onto the E/F partitioned drive. Then, once I do this, I'll swap them back. I understand that I can get new bigger drives, but if I do that I will lose XP because it's installed on my current C drive, as is the webcam and printer, but they can be reinstalled. I CANNOT reinstall XP and I don't want to lose it. PLEASE remember, I don't know much at all about these machines, so simple answers is appreciated

Answer 1

The simple answer is no, it shouldn't work logically, that just wouldn't make sense. You should be able to put anything on any of your drives just fine, so there shouldn't be any specific reason you need to do that, and your XP installation is expecting it to be on your C drive, not to mention it's expecting the E/F drive, being in that slot, to be partitioned into two drives. Basicly doing that should be like plugging in two random hard drives into your PC and expecting it to work.

Your E and F should work just as well for holding any data though, and it's trivial to move it. (Go into my computer, highlight files, hit ctrl + C, move to directory in other drive, hit ctrl + V). Installations of course you can't change over so easily, but it's fully possible to uninstall/reinstall items on the alternate drives so you have more space if Windows complains.

Answer 2

If you were to swap the drives internally, the primary partition on the primary drive will want to boot up. Your windows will be on the secondary drive - thus no boot - unless the other drive has an OS installed also.

I did not look at your previous question and answers, but is there a reason why you cannot simply copy the files from your C to the E/F drive, then delete from the C? You cant do this for system files, but anything in "My Documents" can be freely moved.

Another alternative is to boot from a CD using something like Knoppix (search the net for it) which is a Linux system. Once you are up, you can again copy/paste to the secondary drives. This is a little more advanced process, so with your statement of not knowing much, I dont know if you want to try it.

Your last option is to take it into a repair shop and ask them to move the files for you. They would have all the tools and would know what needs to stay. Sure, they are going to charge you...but...how frustrated are you willing to be over this?

Hope this helps.

EDIT: OK - I just read your other question. Your drives are VERY SMALL. I understand why you are having such restrictions. If the issue is the money, go to a local computer store (not the big ones) and buy a USED 40GB hard drive for about $20. You will STILL have a 3G C drive where your windows and system files are located, but will have much more space available. Once you install it, completely format it and copy everything over.

You might want to think about making this new drive your main C drive. You say that you dont want to reinstall windows. If this is because you lost your key, you can run belarc advisor from http://www.belarc.com which will read all keys and give to you in a nice report. You can then use these keys to reinstall.

Answer 3

If you don't want to move XP, your C: has to remain your C:. Your computer will not work otherwise. My question would be if you actually have three physical hard drives on that system (three separate hard drive units), or you just have partitioned one Physical drive into 3 logical drives. What that means is you have set up three different spaces on the same drive. If so, there are programs that will allow you to reset your partitions without reformatting your C:

To find out which you have, go to control panels/Computer Management/Disk Management, which will tell you if any of those partitions are on the same drive. If they are, you need a program like Partition Magic to alter the partitions (XP may be able to do that itself, I haven't tried. Earlier versions of windows could not)

-Dio

Answer 4

what you want to do will not work but it is possible to keep what you have and work with it. The anwser will be long but what you want to do is mount the e/f drive on the c: get a computer geek to to it for you. Another option would be to get a program like Ghost 10.0 to copy you entire c: drive to a new one without reinstalling windows

Answer 5

Hmmmm. This is a long question that needs an equally long answer. What you are saying really will not change the fact that the C drive has no room. You can email me if you would like some more help.