new hd/reformat/slave

[Diamanteking]

ok so i just bought a new 40 GB hd and i was going to slave it to my original. I also wanted to reformat my original, but wanted to save most of my files, but my cd burner isnt working. So I was wondering if i could install the 2nd hard drive, transfer my files to there, reformat my orignal, move the files back, and then slave my new hd to the old one.

[blockcipher]

All you have to do is install your new hard disk. Then boot up windows, format the hard disk using the Disk Maintaince utility in My Computer > Manage. Once you have that formated into the File System of your choice. Start moving files to your secondary hard disk. Once you have all your backups, boot to your OS CD and reinstall, reparition, format your first hard disk and install Windows on that. Once you have Windows up and running well on the primary disk, simple move your files from your second hard disk to your first hard disk. Just make sure you are installing windows to the right disk so you don't wipe out all your backups :(

If you feel more comfortable removing the second hard disk temporarily just to be sure you won't ovewrite anything then do so, better safe than sorry! I hope this makes sense, there many different ways to go about this, but this 'to me' is the easiest. I'm sure others have tons of other suggestions.

Hope this helps.