Hard Drive Question

[QuikSilv3r47]

Ok I bought a 160GB HD to work together with my 40GB HD but when I try to make the 160GB one the primary and the 40GB one the slave, I install windows on the 160, reset, run it, and it does not load.

Anybody know whats wrong?

(i do have windows still on the 40GB so that might be it?)

[knghtwhosaysni]

Re: Hard Drive Question

try using the 40gb as the master and then see if you can set your computer to boot from that in the BIOS. But I'm not even sure how well harddrives do in master/slave situations... I use SATA

[Shamus]

Re: Hard Drive Question

You are on right about the other active install of Windows on the other drive. A PC will only boot when the Master Boot Record (MBR) is identified on the first sector in the first partition of the first drive. Otherwise, it will simply fail to load anything.

The solution is to remove the 40G and install Windows on the 160 in the box alone. Once things are stable, you can boot into safemode to reformat, partition or what ever you need to do with the 40G. It just can't have an OS on it without some kind of boot manager installed.

I use my second drive for the swap file and for storage.