3rd Hard Drive and Vista

**trajillo** · 01-02-2007, 08:07 AM

hello i currently have 2 hard drives. the os and program files are on the c: drive which is 20GB and all my media is on the F: drive which is 120GB
both of these are IDE drives...now when vista is ready i am going to get a 300GB+ SATA drive and im going to partition 50GB from it to replace the old C: drive so it then becomes to OS hard drive, now to do this i will have to
1. parition the 300GB+ drive to to make a 50GB drive
2. clone the C:/ to the new 50gb drive
3. remove the c: drive or format it to use it as another hard drive
4. install vista on top of the parition

now i do not want to loose my settings and program files, now is this possible when installing vista and how will i got about cloning and making partitions for this setup?

thank you

**zapjb** · 01-02-2007, 01:57 PM

What OS is on the 20GB? And do you have the specs (yours) for Vista?

**Virtualbody1234** · 01-02-2007, 03:09 PM

I would...

- Unplug your current drives and put them aside for safe keeping.
- Plug in the new drive and install Vista on it (partitioned the way you like).

If ever you want to go back to the older setup, just unplug Vista and reconnect your old drives.

**trajillo** · 01-03-2007, 11:48 PM

Originally Posted by Virtualbody1234

I would...

- Unplug your current drives and put them aside for safe keeping.
- Plug in the new drive and install Vista on it (partitioned the way you like).

If ever you want to go back to the older setup, just unplug Vista and reconnect your old drives.

yeh but i want to keep my settings and programs that were on my 20GB
its windows xp pro sp2 so can you choose an 'upgrade' option when installing vista?

**Virtualbody1234** · 01-04-2007, 01:32 AM

Originally Posted by trajillo

Originally Posted by Virtualbody1234

I would...

- Unplug your current drives and put them aside for safe keeping.
- Plug in the new drive and install Vista on it (partitioned the way you like).

If ever you want to go back to the older setup, just unplug Vista and reconnect your old drives.

yeh but i want to keep my settings and programs that were on my 20GB
its windows xp pro sp2 so can you choose an 'upgrade' option when installing vista?

I highly recommend that you avoid going the upgrade path.

You're much better off with a fresh install.

Also be aware that software that works in XP may not work in Vista.

**trajillo** · 01-04-2007, 11:44 AM

Originally Posted by Virtualbody1234

Originally Posted by trajillo

yeh but i want to keep my settings and programs that were on my 20GB
its windows xp pro sp2 so can you choose an 'upgrade' option when installing vista?

I highly recommend that you avoid going the upgrade path.

You're much better off with a fresh install.

Also be aware that software that works in XP may not work in Vista.

ok then thats a good idea then...when do you think i should convert to vista? i was thinking after the offical release.

**clocker** · 01-04-2007, 01:51 PM

Originally Posted by trajillo

...when do you think i should convert to vista? i was thinking after the offical release.

Assuming your hardware is good enough to run Vista (a rather large assumption actually) then the final release should be worlds better than the Betas or RC1.

One hopes.

**Virtualbody1234** · 01-04-2007, 03:22 PM

Originally Posted by clocker

Originally Posted by trajillo

...when do you think i should convert to vista? i was thinking after the offical release.

Assuming your hardware is good enough to run Vista (a rather large assumption actually) then the final release should be worlds better than the Betas or RC1.

One hopes.

Haven't you heard? The final (RTM) has been out for quite some time now.

There was even RC2 a really long time ago.

**physter** · 01-06-2007, 12:29 PM

I just use EZ-Swap drive caddies with a different os on each HDD (98SE/2000/XP/Vista). Whichever one goes in the master slot is os of the day and the others are slaves so the data is always accessible. Makes sense to me and keeps life really simple!