At 08:34 AM 07/16/2000 Pauline wrote:
>I have two hardrives C & D.  My C is the one I always use. It is Full.
>What do I have to do to make my D the primary It is twice the size of
>my Cdrive. Please tell me where to go or do I need to hire an expert.


Pauline

If you are using Windows 9x with two IDE hard drives....

For your second, larger (current D:) drive to become a bootable drive, it
has to be (a) the first bootable hard drive in the system (i.e., the
primary IDE channel master drive); (b) contain a Primary DOS Partition set
"active"; and (c) contain OS system files.

If there is nothing on your second drive (or you can back up all the
contents onto a removable media), you can use a disk utility like GHOST or
DRIVE COPY to clone the C: drive image to the D: drive. This usually
destroys all data on the target drive so take care. Then you would
physically connect the drives in reverse order so the former D: drive
became the primary master, and the former C: (new D:) drive would occupy
the position of the second drive.

You will have to change the drive select jumpers  or switch data cables (if
the drives are on different IDE channels) and you will have to reconfigure
the drives in CMOS setup.

I.  Clone the drive. Use GHOST, DRIVE COPY **or** do the following.....
  A.  Back up the D: drive contents and format this drive.
  B.  In Windows 9x Desktop (GUI, 32-bit mode), open a DOS window and
        1.  Transfer system files to D: by executing the command: SYS D:
        2.  Copy all the files from C: to D: by executing the command:
                XCOPY   C:\*.*   D:\   /r/i/c/h/k/e/y
        3.  Make yourself a Windows Startup Disk.
  C.  Exit Windows, shut down the computer, and power off.

II.  Change the physical order of the drives.....
  A.  If the two drives are on the same IDE cable, change the
        drive select jumpers on the old C: to SLAVE and the
        jumpers on the new C: drive as master.
  B.  If the two drives are on different IDE cables, at the motherboard
        or I/O controller connection, swap the cables so the cable with
        the old C: drive is on the Secondary IDE channel and the new C:
        drive is on the Primary IDE channel. Make sure the new C: drive
        is set as master and any other IDE is set as slave. Keep the edge
        with the colored wire towards the power connect (Pin #1).

III. Set CMOS.....
  A.  Power up the computer and go directly to CMOS Setup (usually the
        hotkey is the <Delete> key during the memory count).  Use CMOS
        to autodetect the hard drive parameters (Cylinders/Heads/Sectors)
        or input them manually for the "new C:" drive... HOWEVER, on the
        "old C:" drive, set the drive as "NONE".  Save and exit CMOS.

IV.  Use FDISK to set the Primary DOS Partition "active".....
  A.  Boot to your Windows Startup Disk.
  B.  At the DOS Prompt, run FDISK and verify that the Primary DOS
        partition is active (Choice #4: Display Drive information).
        If not, set it active (Choice #3).
  C.  Exit FDISK and Strike any Key to continue (FDISK will re-boot).

V.  Verify system works.....
  A.  Reboot, verify Windows and all your program work.
  B.  If everything's fine, reboot, go into CMOS Setup. Use CMOS to
        autodetect the hard drive parameters for the "new D:" Save and exit.

VI.  Format the new D: drive and restore the backup to this drive.....

VII. Run SCANDISK to test the drives.....

You may have the opportunity to switch the boot drives (i.e., boot from the
second physical drive) by changing a setting in CMOS. This is acceptable
for temporary measures (like a dual boot system).  However, for a permanent
arrangement, I would physically change the drives to set the boot priority.

If one drive is a SCSI and the other is IDE, you can usually change the
boot preference in CMOS.  If you are using Windows NT, I would use GHOST to
clone the drives and then physically change the drive order.

NOTE:  The Operating System assigns the "C:" drive letter to the first
physical drive installed in a system containing a primary DOS partition.
This is your bootable hard drive. The BIOS bootstrap loader will examine
the boot sector of this drive for an active primary DOS partition; if there
is one, it will jump to the system files location and load the operating
system. Also, the changing of drive letters may present issues, so try to
cross-clone your drives when you switch their drive designations.

Hope this is not too confusing. If this is at all daunting, have an expert
help.

Regards,

John Chin

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