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strategy for replacing multiple hard drives

E

ekard

n00b
Joined
Dec 9, 2005
Messages
38
Okay. I got a deal I couldn't pass up, so I have two new drives on the way to replace my three current drives. Only problem is, I'm not sure what the best way will be to replace everything (it's been a while since I've touched my drives).

I will be going from this:

C: 74GB Raptor - OS + programs (50+ GB free)
D: 74GB Raptor - Pagefile, Music + misc files (45 GB used)
E: DVD drive
F: CD Burner
G: 80GB WD PATA - documents/video/pictures (4 GB free)

To this:

C: 150GB Raptor - OS + Programs
D: WD4000KD (WD 400 GB SATA) - pagefile, data
E: DVD Burner (maybe leave dvd drive as E and dvd burner as F?)

Since I will also be swapping out my cd burner for a dvd burner with all this change, I don't mind doing a fresh XP install. All this while keeping my Asus A7N8X-E Deluxe motherboard (only 2 SATA ports).

So My plan was:

1. Copy data from 2nd 74GB Raptor to 1st 74 GB Raptor.
2. Replace 2nd Raptor with 4000KD.
3. Copy all data onto 4000KD.
4. Replace 1st 74GB Raptor and CD burner with 150GB Raptor and DVD Burner.
5. Fresh format with XP.

Now 2 primary questions: When I replace the 2nd raptor with the 400KD, what drive letter will be assigned? In the end, I want the WD400KD to be "D" but I'm not sure how windows will respond to all the drive swapping.

Secondly, after I've copied all my data onto the 400GB, how will windows treat that drive when I go to reformat? It's my understanding that windows will not recognize the 400GB until I install SP2 (my xp cd only has SP1 and I have SP2 as a separate executable). If I leave the 400GB connected, but don't try to access it until after I install SP2, will windows simply ignore it? Because I will already have all my data on it, I'd rather not have windows do anything screwy.

Anything else wrong with my plan?
 
It seems to me to be a reasonable approach. The only thing I personally would change is the Windows installation - you can create a slipstreamed installation CD with SP2 quite easily. One rather user-friendly route is to use nLite (http://www.nliteos.com/). You can also integrate other MS updates, driver updates, etc., but that's up to you (IMO, it's not as crucial as integrating the service pack). That being said, I believe SP1 can handle larger drives so detection shouldn't be an issue either way.

As for the drive letter - it's hard to say what Windows will do in the middle of all of the swapping around. It should fill in the gap and take the D drive in place of the 2nd Raptor, but Windows isn't always consistent :) However, when you do the fresh install onto the new Raptor, it should end up as the D drive. If not, right after installation you can manually reassign it.
 
I would,

Toss in the 400gb and backup everything to it then unplug the drive.
Slipstream SP2 onto an install CD
Remove old raptors/cd burner, insert new raptor/dvd burner
Format/Install from snazzy new SP2 updated XP cd
When done, plug in 400gb drive and if necessary jockey drive letters via the disk management MMC snap in.

Sometimes XP will get stupid when you have multiple drives hooked up during the install (and install itself to D: for instance). IMHO the easiest 'fix' is to only have the drive you want to be c: hooked up. You cant reassign the system drive letter but you can every other drive.

edit:beaten! :)
 
dirtydr said:
I would,

Toss in the 400gb and backup everything to it then unplug the drive.
Slipstream SP2 onto an install CD
Remove old raptors/cd burner, insert new raptor/dvd burner
Format/Install from snazzy new SP2 updated XP cd
When done, plug in 400gb drive and if necessary jockey drive letters via the disk management MMC snap in.

Sometimes XP will get stupid when you have multiple drives hooked up during the install (and install itself to D: for instance). IMHO the easiest 'fix' is to only have the drive you want to be c: hooked up. You cant reassign the system drive letter but you can every other drive.

edit:beaten! :)
Click to expand...

that is what I would do too. You may want to consider to use some form of md5/sha1 hashing software to make sure that you minimize errors during/ after copy.
 
In terms of md5ing everything, what I usually do with huge file copies is use rsync after I'm done copying; it checks files' checksums as it goes, and only copies anything if there are changes. It's efficient, too - only the blocks with changes in them get copied.

 
Thanks for the feedback guys.

I haven't slipstreamed my xp cd since I put the SATA drivers on it 2 years ago. nLite looks simple enough though, I'll probably give that a try.

Mage or Drizzt, can you provide more details about rsync? I've never heard of it. Or md5 for that matter... I've never considered error checking after large copies, but now's a good time to start.
 
This site has a useful tutorial on how to use rsync under Windows; it's mostly about connecting to a remote site (that is, another machine) but you can do what you want with something like this:
Code: 
rsync /cygdrive/c/myfiles/ /cygdrive/d/mynewfiles
See the man page for more information, including why the first trailing slash is important.

 
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