i have 2 hard drives, a 40gb master (which crashed and had xp on it) and a 160gb slave (working fine, used for extra storage)... the 40gb is no longer working along with my os of course, and windows is no longer booting up. My question is, when installing a fresh copy of xp, can i just use the current working 160gb to install to? or should i replace the 40gb with a new hd and add the OS to that? would the 160gb need to be re-formatted if used?
2007-07-09 14:40:00 · 5 answers · asked by Lt. Pliskin 1 in Computers & Internet ➔ Hardware ➔ Desktops
Buy another 40. All your stuff on the 160 will be gone if you use it.
2007-07-17 04:59:37 · answer #1 · answered by Old Man 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Do not do anything to the 160 gb hdd. Your data will be fine and should be accessible.
If the os will not boot but the hard drive still boots, you can try to do a recovery. This will attempt to fix the os on the 40 gb hdd and is much quicker than re-installing the os. It keeps most of your settings and installed software intact.
If the 40 hdd does not boot, you have to replace it with a new hdd. As stated in a previous answer, hdd's are cheap. Buy a new - size is your choice.
If you partition it and place your data on it, you can use the 160gb hdd as a backup drive for your data.
It is always better to have your data stored on a physically separate hdd.
You should also consider burning your data to CD's or DVD's.
If you do not have a burner, they are also very cheap. Purchasing and installing one would be a good especially if the data is very important to you.
Good Luck.
2007-07-17 05:57:28 · answer #2 · answered by Comp-Elect 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
If you try to use the current 160gb HDD you have with all your files on it...they will be LOST! XP needs a full partition to run. By default all Hard Drives (HDD) are with 1 partition. Once that is set...it is in STONE till you decide to start from scratch with fdisk. Now there are 2nd and 3rd party applications that can make partitions out of running hard drives, but i stay away from those. Use only if you are ready to mess up your hard drive and lose everything. Since hard drives are so cheap. Go buy anther 200gb hdd and partition 1 space for 40gb for XP and applications, and use the other 160 to add to your current 160gb. That is the best way to go i'd say right now.
Good luck
2007-07-09 14:48:26 · answer #3 · answered by Scharf 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
If you require more space replace the 40GB if it is totally dead. If there is free space in the 160 GB you need not format it and you can install directly to it.
2007-07-09 14:50:28 · answer #4 · answered by vin 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
no need to format 160 gb hd .
just install os to 40 gb hd .
yes it will work ,
u can also try repairing windows
so need to install it .
2007-07-09 14:45:49 · answer #5 · answered by clmlbx 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋