XP Installation with 2 drives

  • Thread starter Thread starter DJH
  • Start date Start date
D

DJH

My computer had ME as the OS. It had some problems so I decided to use the
image disks to bring it back to when it was new and then upgrade to XP.
There are two disks to the re-image when I put in the second disk and it
finished it came up with an error that the image disk was corrupted. It
appears that the disk cleaned off the C: drive but did nothing else. I had
put all my data on my second hard-drive D:

I went out and brought a full XP Home edition since I no longer had evidence
of a ME OS. When it started the XP installation it asked questions that I
was unsure of and I guess I choose the wrong drive because it said it was
going to install on F: I freaked because I thought this might be my drive
with all my data. There was no way out except to turn off the computer which
I did. Did I destroy the data? How do I find out? How do I know for sure
which drive is my C: drive it doesn't give any letters when it asks you to
choose. I feel really stupid at this point. Any help would be greatly
appreciated. I plan on calling Microsoft in the morning when the support
lines open.

It also bothers me that I can't access either drive from the a: drive with a
startup disk. Thanks for any response.
 
Did you boot off the winxp cd?

If so, were you in a blue dos looking environment
(otherwise known as text mode setup)? If so, you need to
read very carefully - don't just bypass stuff. When you
get to the portion of what drive to install to, there
should be some drive letters, and size. I don't know
your computer, or how it was setup so I can't say what's
what.

However, you may want to contact the computer make (dell,
hp, etc...) and they can help you through the restore
problem to get you back to winme.
 
Yes, I was in a blue dos environment. But there were no drive letters ever
mentioned but there were sizes. Unfortunately, both my drives are the same
size 30gig. I did call Micron. My computer is 3 years old, they no longer
carry my image disks and their advice was to buy a new operating
system--which I did. I think I will unhook my second drive to protect it.
Second question, does it matter if my second drive is fat 32 if I let XP
change my first drive to NTFS? Or do I need to stay with fat 32 on the first
drive also. Thanks.
 
To be very cautious I would not convert either drive to
ntfs. You can always do this at a later stage.

Good luck!
 
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