I am wanting to install a new hard drive as a backup. I now have a 80 GB hard drive on "C" and a 4.00GB hard drive on "D" which is an old hard drive from a previous PC. I have 50.0 GB of free space left on my "C" drive. When I installed windows XP on my pc I installed it on windows ME. I have tried disconnecting hard drive "D" and when I do that my PC will not start up. I have purchased a new 80GB hard drive to replace the 4.00GB "D" drive. I also purchased an Acronis migrate easy 7.0 program to help me install the new hard drive. What I would like your opinion on is should I use the new hard drive as my start up-should i partition my new hard drive-should I install windows XP stand alone on the new hard drive ? Any suggestions would be appreciated.
Thanks, Lowell

Hello lowell,

4gig will bearly fit Windows XP on the drive, you won't have any room for anything else to be installed on this drive?

Installing Windows XP on a partitiion on the same disk isn't my idea of a good backup either. It means that if anything goes wrong with your HDD, you will loose both!

I would recommend buying a bigger hdd and using that as a backup instead?

I have purchased a new 80GB hard drive to replace the 4.00 hard drive. I guess I didn't make myself clear on my original message.
Thanks, Lowell

Right so, you just want to use the 80gig drive and take out the 4gig. But the problem you are having is that when you take out the 4gig, you cannot boot, is that correct?

If so, this means that the startup files are stored on d: instead of c:. What error message to you get when you take out the 4gig, does it say "Operating System not found"?

It will not boot up.

Lowell, does it just freeze during bootup or does it come up with an error message?

One way to do it, is to take the 4gig out, and install windows from scratch on the 80gig. This will allow windows to make the 80gig bootable. Otherwise well look at an alternative for you.

Could I disconnect both of the hard drives I have in my pc now(80GB & 4.00GB) and connect the new 80GB and partition or not partition (?) the new hard drive and then install windows XP on it and after install my old 80GB as a slave. Could I then use the Acronis to transfer anything I wanted from the old hd to the new hd. What would I need to do to make it so I could use either hd for a boot up ?