Slave HD Drive, Do I need windows on it?

[peterdg]

I have xp on the master, but I would like to run other programs on the secondary drive, but it has windows on it, so should I format it prior to fitting it to the xp computer and then just install the programs that I require?

[MulderMan]

I dont think you can install software on a salve drive without an operating system on it, and if the slave drive did have and OS on it i think you would have to boot into that drive to play the game, but ill have to double check on that one. Welcome to Pc-Mech!

[mc2phat]

No, you absolutely DO NOT need to load an operating system on your slave drive. Once it's fomatted, you can install programs and move files to and from it.

[mc2phat]

You can format the drive from Windows XP after you install it. Here's how to do it, straight from the XP Help files:

"To format a basic volume
Open Computer Management (Local).
Right-click the partition, logical drive, or basic volume you want to format (or reformat), and then click Format.
Select the options you want, and then click OK.
Notes

To open Computer Management, click Start, point to Settings, and then click Control Panel. Double-click Administrative Tools, and then double-click Computer Management.
In the console tree, click Disk Management.
Where?

Computer Management (Local)
Storage
Disk Management"