Installing a new hard drive

[Robert O]

I have a home built AMD Duron 1200, Jetway MB, 40GB WD
HD, 512 MB DDR Ram, ATI Rage Fury Video w/32MB, CD Rom,
Sony DRU510A DVD +/- burner, running Windows XP home. I
have added a Pinnacle Deluxe system w/pci card, and AVDV.
I have purchased a new Maxtor 80GB Ultra ATA 133 hard
drive, and Maxtor ATA 133 PCI card which I want to use
mainly for the DVD process. I want to add the new hard
drive as my master, and format it with the NTFS file
system. I plan on eventually having the Maxtor on the
primary (master) of the PCI card, and the WD on the
secondary (slave) of the PCI card, and leaving my CD, and
DVD on the motherboard. My question is if I install my
PCI card, then hook up my WD on the primary of the card
as master, and the new Maxtor on the secondary as slave,
boot up the computer, and use XP disk management to
format the new drive with NTFS, then should I reinstall
Windows XP on it, because I want it to be my master. I
will keep all the other stuff on my WD as my slave. I
want to use the new Maxtor because of the faster transfer
rate for my video applications. I will then switch the
jumpers, and reinstall the Maxtor on the primary of the
PCI card, and the WD as slave on the secondary. I have
the Maxblast 3 software which came with the hard drive,
but have heard it would be better to use XP disk
management. I would greatly appreciate any info, and
advice. Feel free to email me. Regards, Robert "O"

 

[LannyL]

DVD on the motherboard. My question is if I install my
PCI card, then hook up my WD on the primary of the card
as master, and the new Maxtor on the secondary as slave,
boot up the computer, and use XP disk management to
format the new drive with NTFS, then should I reinstall
Windows XP on it, because I want it to be my master.

If you format the drive, you'll have to install Windows on it - there
will be nothing on it after it is formatted.

I
will keep all the other stuff on my WD as my slave. I
want to use the new Maxtor because of the faster transfer
rate for my video applications. I will then switch the
jumpers, and reinstall the Maxtor on the primary of the
PCI card, and the WD as slave on the secondary. I have
the Maxblast 3 software which came with the hard drive,
but have heard it would be better to use XP disk
management. I would greatly appreciate any info, and
advice. Feel free to email me. Regards, Robert "O"

It is definitely better do it in Windows. I have had serious problems
with the MaxBlast software...it can be a real headache.

Alternatively, you can just install the Maxtor as the master, then format
it. If you have the Windows CD and your computer will boot from the CD
drive you can format the drive and install Windows without having to
switch the drives around. Even if you can't get it boot from the CD
drive, you can still do it this way if you go to the Microsoft website
and download a startup floppy for installing Windows.

hth,
Lanny
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