Need Help installing new Hard Disc drive!

[wannabgeek]

Hi! I have never changed HD before so if the Qs sound silly please bear with me!

I recently purchased a 2nd HD (200GB Maxtor D/Max 10 IDE) as i want to have a 2nd drive for Capturing my camcorder Video for editing. At the moment my OS is on a single 120GB Maxtor with no Partitions on it. What i want to do is put my OS on the new 200GB drive and use the 120GB as the Capture drive. But what i would like to know is can i do this without Reformating my 120GB drive? I know it has to be done if i want to use it for Captureing,but is it possible to swap the OS onto the new 200GB and then reformat it afterwards?

Ps If you could explain this in a. b. c. termss i would appreciate it!!
CHEERS!!

[Allen]

You have 3 options I think. The first is to use a program like Norton Ghost to exactly copy the 120GB drive to the 200GB drive. The second is to do a fresh install on the 200GB drive, copy all of what you need from the 120GB over to the 200GB, then format the 120GB. And the 3rd, which would be the easiest, would be to leave Windows and the exact setup on the 120GB and use the 200GB as storage, since it can also handle more, and I can't see any needing 200GB for Windows and programs/games!

[darrensen]

I would suggest the same as Allen. Might be worth Starting from scratch anyway then you know you have a nice clean fresh install. I always do as i think its worth spending the time having a nice clean system.

[Rave]

You can download a utility from Maxtor's website which exactly copies your existing drive across to your new drive so you can continue to boot from it. I did that when I bought that very same drive a few months ago.

[wannabgeek]

Thanks very much for your obvious replys! I dont know what made me want to change OS to another drive in the first place!
Rave! You said you brought the same drive! did it come formatted? Or do i have to do something to it as i want it for captureing video footage?

[Agent]

Drives are not usualy formatted when brought.

[YorkieBen]

You can download a utility from Maxtor's website which exactly copies your existing drive across to your new drive so you can continue to boot from it. I did that when I bought that very same drive a few months ago.

will this work on other drives (eg Hitachi) ?

thanks

[wannabgeek]

Drives are not usualy formatted when brought
Sorry for dumbass Qs As i want the new drive for Capturing video do i put it as the primary slave or secondary slave or the secondary master ! At the moment my primary is; 120gb HD-Master and a empty slave. & the secondary is; Nec DVD/RW-master and Panasonic DVD-RAM/R-Slave.
(Sounds like 'ROOTS' ) And do i just install it as it is or do i need to format it? If so How?

[Rave]

will this work on other drives (eg Hitachi) ?

thanks

The Maxtor utility may or may not work, but I reckon all the other HD manufacturers will have similar utilities for download.

Sorry for dumbass Qs As i want the new drive for Capturing video do i put it as the primary slave or secondary slave or the secondary master ! At the moment my primary is; 120gb HD-Master and a empty slave. & the secondary is; Nec DVD/RW-master and Panasonic DVD-RAM/R-Slave.

Well if you want the new disk to be the boot disk then you're best off having it as Primary Master; if you just want to add it in as extra video editing space then have it as Primary Slave.

[wannabgeek]

Thanks very much THE RAVE!!

[wannabgeek]

if you just want to add it in as extra video editing space then have it as Primary Slave.
Sorry mate having a few probs! i want to set the drive as the primary slave but there is them jumper things in the drive, and as there is no info at all with the box i am a bit stuck So do i remove the 2 little pins and put them elswhere or leave them as they are?
EDIT; Sorry i got on Maxtors WebSite that explains it all!