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re: two hard drives! Saturday, September 27, 2003 at 11:59 am Posted by MLS (2200 messages posted) Better yet, add a second drive and use it as a backup location. I would first make a clean install of XP, activate it, update it will all critical updates, and then make an image of the c drive using Ghost or the like. With the image safely tucked away on your backup drive, start adding your hardware and software until you are back up and running. If along the way anything messes up, you can always reinstall the image and start again. Once everything is in order and you are happy with what you have, copy all your data (which I assume you have copies of) into the proper locations, and then immediately make a second image of the c drive. On Saturday, September 27, 2003 at 11:52 am, joanne salutric wrote: >i've had to reinstall xp twice in the last week due to crashes while installing software. >i want to know if its possible to have two hard drives running xp on the same computer >in case one does'nt start the other one may. please help and advise. thank you "jo" [Reply or follow-up to this message] re: two hard drives! Saturday, September 27, 2003 at 12:33 pm Posted by joanne salutric (54 messages posted) to msl: so your saying i can have xp on both drives? if the old xp drive won't bootup , will the new second drive? On Saturday, September 27, 2003 at 11:59 am, MLS wrote: >Better yet, add a second drive and use it as a backup location. I would first make >a clean install of XP, activate it, update it will all critical updates, and then >make an image of the c drive using Ghost or the like. With the image safely tucked >away on your backup drive, start adding your hardware and software until you are >back up and running. If along the way anything messes up, you can always reinstall >the image and start again. Once everything is in order and you are happy with what >you have, copy all your data (which I assume you have copies of) into the proper >locations, and then immediately make a second image of the c drive. > > [Reply or follow-up to this message] re: two hard drives! Saturday, September 27, 2003 at 12:38 pm Posted by MLS (2200 messages posted) No, you would only have XP and your apps/data on one drive, and an image of that drive on your other drive. If your c drive heads South at some time, you can use a recovery diskette to boot into DOS and run the recovery program. Within about 10 minutes your c drive should be up and running just fine. On Saturday, September 27, 2003 at 12:33 pm, joanne salutric wrote: > >to msl: so your saying i can have xp on both drives? >if the old xp drive won't bootup , will the new second drive? > [Reply or follow-up to this message] re: two hard drives! Saturday, September 27, 2003 at 12:50 pm Posted by joanne salutric (54 messages posted) thanks again msl, i have a floppy disc and when i tried to use it the other day, when the "a" prompt comes up i don't know what to type. i'm a real novice! what should i type? also i don't think it will work with ntfs files in xp. is this right? On Saturday, September 27, 2003 at 12:38 pm, MLS wrote: >No, you would only have XP and your apps/data on one drive, and an image of that >drive on your other drive. If your c drive heads South at some time, you can use >a recovery diskette to boot into DOS and run the recovery program. Within about >10 minutes your c drive should be up and running just fine. > > [Reply or follow-up to this message] re: two hard drives! Saturday, September 27, 2003 at 1:24 pm Posted by MLS (2200 messages posted) Let me suggest the following to keep you out of trouble in the future. First, do get a second hard drive and set it up as a slave. Next, perform a clean install of windows XP on your C drive. Michael Stevens and Paul Thurrott each have web sites that give you everything you need to do for a clean install. Once XP is cleanly installed, and assuming you are connected to the internet, activate XP and then download all XP critical updates. Next, install a program such as Norton Ghost on your C drive. During the setup the program gives you the opportunity to create a self-booting floppy disk. Do it!. Once Ghost, or whatever program you choose is installed on your C drive, run the backup program and tell it to make an image of your C drive on your second hard drive. If you are using Ghost, the program will tell you that it must restart in DOS to make the backup. That is OK as it is all automatic from that point on. Once the C drive image is made and placed on the second drive (it is a compressed image that is placed there...not one you can boot from), the program will automatically restart and you will boot back into Windows. You now have a baseline image of an up-to-date XP installation that you can use to restore your C drive if it later gets messed up. Having done that, then go about installing your peripherals and applications until you have your C drive fully populated and working as it should. At that time I would make a second image of your C drive (keep your first as well) so that you now have an image of your fully loaded C drive. You should now have your C drive fully loaded and working properly, and you should have two images on your second drive, one being the drive with just the fully functioning XP, and the second one being the C drive with everything installed and working. From this point on you have a couple of choices. One would be to obtain a program such as Iomega's Auto Backup, which tracks in real-time all changes you make to your important files (My Docs, Outlook, etc.). Programs like this work by first copying everything in your then existing folders that you tell it to monitor, and then adding new copies of files anytime one of the files in your monitored folders is changed. This has a great advantage in that you can now always recover all of your important data by going to your second drive and retrieving the files placed there by Auto Backup or the like. Another approach might be to use a program like GoBack 3.0. GoBack keeps track of every time that you C drive is written to, as well as the same for your second hard drive. If you ever get into trouble, you can reboot, tell GoBack during the boot process that you want to restore the computer to an earlier time, select the time, and then sit back and wait for the process to complete. GoBack works just like XP's System Restore, except that it is much more comprehensive and works (unlike System Restore) when you really need it. For simplicity of use, GoBack is the easier way to go (though you do have to jump through a couple minor hurdles if you later want to make another image of your C drive so that it is fully up-to-date). Any specific questions, feel free to email me directly at slonecker@earthlink.net. On Saturday, September 27, 2003 at 12:50 pm, joanne salutric wrote: >thanks again msl, i have a floppy disc and when i tried to use it the other day, >when the "a" prompt comes up i don't know what to type. i'm a real novice! what should >i type? also i don't think it will work with ntfs files in xp. is this right? > > [Reply or follow-up to this message] re: two hard drives! Saturday, September 27, 2003 at 2:20 pm Posted by joanne salutric (54 messages posted) to msl: i have printed out you last message and i can't begin to tell you how much it helps! i'm busy right now but tomorrow i will write and tell you what has been going on. thank you for your email address i really appreciate it. i hope i won't be a pain. i'm a 63 year old lady and i really struggle with this new computer. thanks until tomorrow. you let me know if i'm a bother! On Saturday, September 27, 2003 at 1:24 pm, MLS wrote: >Let me suggest the following to keep you out of trouble in the future. First, do >get a second hard drive and set it up as a slave. Next, perform a clean install >of windows XP on your C drive. Michael Stevens and Paul Thurrott each have web sites >that give you everything you need to do for a clean install. Once XP is cleanly >installed, and assuming you are connected to the internet, activate XP and then download >all XP critical updates. Next, install a program such as Norton Ghost on your C >drive. During the setup the program gives you the opportunity to create a self-booting >floppy disk. Do it!. Once Ghost, or whatever program you choose is installed on >your C drive, run the backup program and tell it to make an image of your C drive >on your second hard drive. If you are using Ghost, the program will tell you that >it must restart in DOS to make the backup. That is OK as it is all automatic from >that point on. Once the C drive image is made and placed on the second drive (it >is a compressed image that is placed there...not one you can boot from), the program >will automatically restart and you will boot back into Windows. You now have a baseline >image of an up-to-date XP installation that you can use to restore your C drive if >it later gets messed up. Having done that, then go about installing your peripherals >and applications until you have your C drive fully populated and working as it should. > At that time I would make a second image of your C drive (keep your first as well) >so that you now have an image of your fully loaded C drive. You should now have >your C drive fully loaded and working properly, and you should have two images on >your second drive, one being the drive with just the fully functioning XP, and the >second one being the C drive with everything installed and working. From this point >on you have a couple of choices. One would be to obtain a program such as Iomega's >Auto Backup, which tracks in real-time all changes you make to your important files >(My Docs, Outlook, etc.). Programs like this work by first copying everything in >your then existing folders that you tell it to monitor, and then adding new copies >of files anytime one of the files in your monitored folders is changed. This has >a great advantage in that you can now always recover all of your important data by >going to your second drive and retrieving the files placed there by Auto Backup or >the like. Another approach might be to use a program like GoBack 3.0. GoBack keeps >track of every time that you C drive is written to, as well as the same for your >second hard drive. If you ever get into trouble, you can reboot, tell GoBack during >the boot process that you want to restore the computer to an earlier time, select >the time, and then sit back and wait for the process to complete. GoBack works just >like XP's System Restore, except that it is much more comprehensive and works (unlike >System Restore) when you really need it. For simplicity of use, GoBack is the easier >way to go (though you do have to jump through a couple minor hurdles if you later >want to make another image of your C drive so that it is fully up-to-date). Any >specific questions, feel free to email me directly at slonecker@earthlink.net. > > [Reply or follow-up to this message] re: two hard drives! Saturday, September 27, 2003 at 2:45 pm Posted by MLS (2200 messages posted) You are not a bother in the least. Use my email address directly and I will see what I can do to walk you through what you are trying to get done. By the way, it occurs to me that there may be an extremely easy way to take care of problems through just the use of GoBack. Email when you get the chance and I promise to reply with a short note. On Saturday, September 27, 2003 at 2:20 pm, joanne salutric wrote: > >to msl: i have printed out you last message and i can't begin to tell you how much >it helps! i'm busy right now but tomorrow i will write and tell you what has been >going on. thank you for your email address i really appreciate it. i hope i won't >be a pain. i'm a 63 year old lady and i really struggle with this new computer. >thanks until tomorrow. you let me know if i'm a bother! [Reply or follow-up to this message] re: two hard drives! Saturday, September 27, 2003 at 4:49 pm Posted by Kevin (2497 messages posted) Might as well just add a RAID card and a second hard drive. On Saturday, September 27, 2003 at 2:45 pm, MLS wrote: > >You are not a bother in the least. Use my email address directly and I will see >what I can do to walk you through what you are trying to get done. By the way, it >occurs to me that there may be an extremely easy way to take care of problems through >just the use of GoBack. Email when you get the chance and I promise to reply with >a short note. > [Reply or follow-up to this message] re: two hard drives! Sunday, September 28, 2003 at 10:30 pm Posted by Ricer46 (22013 messages posted) I don't think she needs that level of complexity. And I have a hunch it wouldn't even address the types of problems she's described. The MLS solution is easy and works. On Saturday, September 27, 2003 at 4:49 pm, Kevin wrote: >Might as well just add a RAID card and a second hard drive. > > [Reply or follow-up to this message] re: two hard drives! Monday, September 29, 2003 at 8:26 am Posted by Kevin (2497 messages posted) I was being sarcastic...I thought the solution from MLS was way too involved and convoluded. On Sunday, September 28, 2003 at 10:30 pm, Ricer46 wrote: >I don't think she needs that level of complexity. And I have a hunch it wouldn't >even address the types of problems she's described. The MLS solution is easy and >works. > > [Reply or follow-up to this message] Tip: Use one of the [Reply or follow-up to this message] links above to add a message to this thread Search this forum Start a new thread on a different subject Report abuse of the forum Return to the Windows XP Discussion Forum