new to two HDDs

[omghaxcode]

I bought a velociraptor for my new computer I'm building but I want to use my raptor from my old computer as well. on the new computer I'll be using vista and on my old hdd I used XP. is that a problem? how will this work?

 

[QuixoticOne]

Uh.. just plug both the hard drives into the NEW PC and it'll work as long as the PC has the ports to plug them into.
If you want to dual boot, well, that may be a problem if your old OS doesn't have the drivers for the new PC but usually it can be made to work.

 

[omghaxcode]

dual boot? I want to be able to access the information on both HDDs interchangeably without changing boot devices.

 

[DSF]

Dual boot means having multiple OSes loaded onto one hard drive, and choosing the one you want to use at bootup.

In your case it's not really dual booting. It should load the OS on whichever hard drive you set as the primary boot device.

 

[omghaxcode]

yeah that is what I want but if I boot onto vista, can I still access the XP hard drive without rebooting or something?

 

[QuixoticOne]

Yes Vista will see and read an XP hard drive no problem unless there's something very unusual about your setup.
As long as you can plug in the XP hard disc into your motherboard, Vista will read the files on it.
Put the new Vista HDD on something like controller port #1 / Primary port, and the old HDD as #2 / Secondary
(it probably isn't a big deal, you can switch the drive priority / ordering in the BIOS usually anyway).

Install Vista on the right drive (be careful not to pick the wrong one and wipe out the XP drive), and it'll just come up with Vista on C: and the XP drive on D: for instance.

If you want to you could split the Vista drive into two paritions C: and D: one for Vista and the applications you install of size 60GB or so and D: partition for your main collection of personal files like music / documents / media or whatever if you want ... that makes backup / restore a little easier in some cases, but you can do what you want.

In that case if you had split the vista drive into different partitions then the XP drive would typically just show up after that, so C: and D: = on the Vista physical drive and XP drive = E:.

It might be easiest if you installed Vista without the XP hard disc attached at all, then once Vista and your applications is installed you can plug in the old XP drive and the next time you boot Vista it should find it and just appear as a new subsequent drive letter ready to use. Just set the BIOS to make the Vista drive the "boot"/"priority"/"primary"/"first"/"#0" drive to the extent you may encounter it set the opposite way. Typically Vista will want to install to the primary/boot drive's first (or only) partition, and that is typically where the computer will try to boot from which is why you'd set the drives to be in such an order either physically on the controller ports or in the BIOS settings whatever.

 

[QuixoticOne]

Vista could be slightly picky about the way that it handles file permissions, for instance if on your XP system you had your main account called Todd and the second account on XP called Lisa, but your Vista login is called Myself then sometimes it might be a little strange about having you logged in to Vista as "Myself" but then going to look at the "My Documents", "My Pictures", etc. files under Todd/Lisa on the old XP hard disc.

If that happens and it doesn't show you files you "know" should be there then you can just "Take Ownership" of the XP drive / folders on it so Vista will realize you "own" them and it is all really stuff belonging to the same user since usually it doesn't give you full access to someone else's files.

This has nothing really to do with it being a 2nd drive or from XP... Vista would do that even between two user logins on the same drive...and XP would do the same more or less if you had had multiple logins on the same PC... "Desktop", "My Documents", "My Pictures", "My Music", browser bookmarks / history and stuff are all sort of private to a given "username" on the system so sometimes you have to be a little explicit about getting access to them if your user name isn't the same as the one you're trying to access.

It is kind of confusing, I know, sorry. Don't worry about this too much just be aware of it as an explanation if you are missing stuff.

To save your browser bookmarks or emails saved to the local PC via a POP/IMAP mail program like Outlook or other kinds of "personal" things like that it is usually best to "export" them from your user account while you're still running the old OS (if convenient) and while you're logged into the account that owns that stuff, and save the exported stuff to some easy to find place you'll know to look when you change OS / login / whatever.

 

[n7]

Yeah the only real issue may be permissions, as you'll likely get a Denied error if you try to access the stuff under the old XP Documents & Settings folders.

You can take ownership again though & then access those files...that's likely the only real hassle involved, & even that isn't that bad.

 

[omghaxcode]

thanks a ton guys. exactly what I was talking about. one more thing, the old driver still has all the drivers for my previous hardware. if it isn't selected as my main boot disc, will it still cause problems me my new hardware?

 

[QuixoticOne]

No, if you don't boot from it VIsta and your PC will mostly ignore it.
It is possible Vista's Media Player or some other things might at some point go out and scan that drive for music / picture files or something, or your anti-virus software (I suggest Avast home edition for a free one) might do some scans there, but in general you'll never notice it doing much with that drive unless you tell it to do so.

Originally posted by: omghaxcode
thanks a ton guys. exactly what I was talking about. one more thing, the old driver still has all the drivers for my previous hardware. if it isn't selected as my main boot disc, will it still cause problems me my new hardware?

 

[omghaxcode]

I'm now getting a problem where XP is won't load up because it says there was a hardware problem and I have to reactivate. it won't let me connect so I can't reactivate.

 

[omghaxcode]

bump

 

[omghaxcode]

bump

 

[sonnygdude]

Did you have the OEM version? The licensing doesn't allow moving it to a new computer, so if the OS detected a new CPU it may have inactivated itself. I think you can clear this up with a call to MS tech support - if they ask just mention that it's the same computer and you had to replace failed parts and they should reactivate for you after checking that your key isn't running on another computer.

At least, this is how it works with Vista, I'm assuming that it's the same with XP