Considerations for Configuring Additional SATA Hard Drive?

[Chip]

I intend to add a new Seagate 300Gb SATA Barracuda to my current Dell Optiplex just to expand my storage. The OS is XP Pro SP2.

The current primary drive is a very similar Seagate but only 40Gb. It seems to be functioning well so I have no plans to replace it at this time.

I am assuming that when the additional drive is added, the XP OS from the primary will format the added drive to access files with XP, but since I've never added a hard drive before (only replaced one, years ago with a much older OS) I don't know how this works.

My first question is:

Will the XP OS of the primary do this or will I need a separate utility to do this formatting?

My second question is:

In the future, if I would experience a failing primary drive, will I be able to add a boot sector to the newer, larger capacity drive, install XP and then set it to become the primary drive? Or would I need to completely reformat the new drive from scratch to boot and install XP on that drive (losing all the files contained in the process)?

I would be interested and appreciative of what any of you have experienced as far as configuring additional hard drives and what the limitations are. Thank you, in advance, for your reply.

 

[cube_]

Will the XP OS of the primary do this or will I need a separate utility to do this formatting?

No, once you add your new drive the BIOS will recognize that you have a new drive and boot from whichever is configured to boot up first. Lets sat your 40GB hard drive boots up first. Once XP is loaded, it will detect your new 300GB hard drive and you can now access its contents. NO formatting will be done to the new drive.

In the future, if I would experience a failing primary drive, will I be able to add a boot sector to the newer, larger capacity drive, install XP and then set it to become the primary drive? Or would I need to completely reformat the new drive from scratch to boot and install XP on that drive (losing all the files contained in the process)?

Yes, you could easily do that. If you want to install XP on your new hard drive, boot up your XP installation disc by setting your CD-ROM to boot up first before your hard drive (get into your BIOS settings by pressing DEL or F1 or whatever your BIOS requires and then look for "Boot Priority" settings).
Once you've booted from the CD, the installation will ask you eventually which hard drive you'd like to install XP in. Make sure you choose the right hard drive because if you choose your old one by mistake, your settings and files will be gone!
Once your done you can reset the "Boot Priority" settings and choose to boot upfrom your old or new hard drive.

 

[Chip]

I wasn't expecting such a quick response so thanks for clarifying my posted concerns! Fantastic!

The BIOS set-up you outlined to load and boot XP on the new drive (if needs demand it) seems to indicate that a new virgin hard drive "automatically" reserves a sector for booting purposes. Is that correct?

If it doesn't, how can I be sure that the boot info wouldn't overwrite files that are there when it was only being used as an alternate storage drive?

In that same vein, when XP is installed, will it install "around" the pre-existing files?

I'm concerned that if this eventuality occurs (primary drive goes bad), it may be necessary to archive all the files on CD/DVD before making it the primary and then re-loading after install. (Of course, I expect to be using the 300Gb subdrive fairly aggressively, so this would require lots of back-up discs, kinda defeating the purpose for installing the 300Gb HD in the first place... trying to get away from burning piles of discs that will eventually be discarded)

 

[cube_]

I wasn't expecting such a quick response so thanks for clarifying my posted concerns! Fantastic!

Your welcome!

The BIOS set-up you outlined to load and boot XP on the new drive (if needs demand it) seems to indicate that a new virgin hard drive "automatically" reserves a sector for booting purposes. Is that correct?

Yes, i believe each drive reserves 8mb's or so for that purpose. That reservation is actually a small partition so it can't be harmed by your O/S.

In that same vein, when XP is installed, will it install "around" the pre-existing files?

If you mean by the 8mb's of reserved files then yes. When you select a partition to install your O/S on you'll have the option to select between the small, reserved partition (which you obviously can't choose because its too small to begin with), and the second, larger, untouched partition.
If you were to install an O/S on a partition with existing files, the installation would replace your registry settings, windows files, and your documents, making it seem like a clean installation.

I'm concerned that if this eventuality occurs (primary drive goes bad), it may be necessary to archive all the files on CD/DVD before making it the primary and then re-loading after install. (Of course, I expect to be using the 300Gb subdrive fairly aggressively, so this would require lots of back-up discs, kinda defeating the purpose for installing the 300Gb HD in the first place... trying to get away from burning piles of discs that will eventually be discarded)

Yeah, i would make some back-up CD's if there isn't so much data to burn. Otherwise, i'd suggest you install Windows on your new drive while still keeping your old drive your primary drive. Then boot back into your old drive and copy all your files to your new drive. That way if your primary drive fails you can always boot up to your new drive with no problems! :)