Storage Solutions Old and new HDD compatibility

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Crossx

Crossx

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Hi, I got a new 500GB 7200.12 Seagate and I already have my old 7200.9 Seagate HDD. The OS is in the old drive. My question is:

1. Can I connect both these HDDs at once and what procedure to follow to do so?
2. Can I have OS installed on both the HDD (say XP on the old drive and Win7 on the new one), will it work?

Please help me with this confusion.
 
Crossx said:
Hi, I got a new 500GB 7200.12 Seagate and I already have my old 7200.9 Seagate HDD. The OS is in the old drive. My question is:

1. Can I connect both these HDDs at once and what procedure to follow to do so?
2. Can I have OS installed on both the HDD (say XP on the old drive and Win7 on the new one), will it work?

Please help me with this confusion.
Click to expand...

1. Yes you can connect both the HDD simultaneously.

2. Yes you can have OS installed both HDD. You can choose two ways to
install based on your requirement
2.a) Single MBR. Connect both HDD to system, Install OS second HDD as you would do on a single HDD. New OS will be added to your boot options.
Incase you want install Linux and Windows. install Windows first and Linux second.

2.b) Two MBR. Disconnect your Old HDD and install OS on your new hard disk. Switch HDD from BIOS boot sequence to boot into required OS.
 
yes, but see that you install your OS in your new drive, since its a SATA and you can get fast boot and performance.
Better make the new drive as bootable and set the old drive for storage...
 
Crossx said:
1. Can I connect both these HDDs at once and what procedure to follow to do so?
Click to expand...

You can connect as many hard drives as the number of slots available on your motherboard (both SATA/IDE)

Crossx said:
2. Can I have OS installed on both the HDD (say XP on the old drive and Win7 on the new one), will it work?
Click to expand...

Yes it will, however I suggest you to install each OS seperately ... i.e disconnect the other HDD when installing on a particular HDD, this way you won't have a common bootloader, so in case you have to reinstall/format one of the OS partition you don't have to play around with the bootloader.

Most modern mobo's allow you to select which HDD to boot from at startup (F12 during boot for ASUS) so you can select which OS/HDD to boot from without having to bother with the bootloader.
 
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anfjavid said:
yes, but see that you install your OS in your new drive, since its a SATA and you can get fast boot and performance.
Better make the new drive as bootable and set the old drive for storage...
Click to expand...

I have installed XP on the new drive after disconnecting the old drive. Now even after selecting to boot with the new drive (mobo has the feature) it boots into the old HDD (which already has XP on it).

I am thinking of just using the old HDD for storage purpose. How to make this work? Plz help.
 
Crossx said:
I have installed XP on the new drive after disconnecting the old drive. Now even after selecting to boot with the new drive (mobo has the feature) it boots into the old HDD (which already has XP on it).

I am thinking of just using the old HDD for storage purpose. How to make this work? Plz help.
Click to expand...

That could possibly happen if your OS is not installed properly on your SATA drive. First of all, did you manage to install WinXP on your SATA drive correctly? As other members suggested, the best way to do it would be to disconnect your older PATA(IDE) drive and get WinXP installed on your SATA drive.

(Note: WinXP + SP2 does not recognize SATA drives. You need to boot from your DVD drive with the CD that came with your motherboard, create a SATA driver floppy, reboot from CD with WinXP CD present in your DVD drive, press F6 during installation and select your floppy drive when specifying the location of a 3rd party driver. I hope you have done these steps to get WinXP installed on your SATA drive.)
 
Now I have installed XP in new HDD and want to use old HDD for storage purpose. Should I format the partitions of old HDD which have XP installed on it.

If both HDD are connected and I boot through new HDD, how will the old HDD show up in "My computer" as a storage device?? Please help guys..
 
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