adding a new slave hdd to xp pc

[racerbrownn]

since i have very limited experience with xp, what is the easy way to take a new unfdisked, unformatted drive to make a exact copy to have in case of a primary hdd failure.

i have ghost 2002 utility to make a exact copy in "pc dos"but i don't know if it can copy if fdisk has not yet been done.

i have to check but i believe it should support xp and ntfs.

i would like to then swap the hdds and run the new hdd as primary using the cable select mode i assume.

any recommendations are appreciated. thankx, ray.

p.s. is it true that you can put a new blank hdd in a xp pc and run the partition and format from within windows. or do you have to make the partition upon bootup as xp loads and see's the extra hdd? [i'm new to this type of op sys.]

[not important]

What brand of HDD? Did it come with a utility disk?

[racerbrownn]

oem wd 40 gig, no software.

[racerbrownn]

i found a website www.blkviper.com with a very good tutorial on the choice screens when starting xp with a cd in the cdrom.
i get a choice to make partitions as well as format to prepare the drive.
now, the big question, will the gateway recovery discs have the bootable xp info with the repair etc options.
i'll find out soon. [if i can find them ]. thankx, ray.

[glc]

You can put a blank hard drive into an XP box as a slave and use Disk Mangement to partition and format it. There is NO need for any 3rd party utilities.

Supposedly Ghost will clone the drive with no preparation, but I've also heard that you may need to at least partition it, no format necessary.

[racerbrownn]

i've ran fdisk on all three hdds that i will be installing into their respective pc's.

only the xp pc is has me a little nervous.

if my ghost program floppy functions properly, then i will have these three pc hdd's mirrored onto new drives and ready to swap places inside each pc.

does fdisk set the drive up for fat 32 when you pick the enable large disk support?

and if so, i assume ghost will have no trouble copying ntfs over the fat32 as long as a valid partition exists?

i'm a little wary of xp and ntfs since this will be the first hdwe changeover i've done with such.

[also, the fact that the xp system recovery cd is missing doesn't help.]

[Vladiator16]

I don't believe Ghost 2002 will see a NTFS partition. Ghost 2003 will recognize a NTFS partion. FDISK will not create a NTFS partition in case you were wondering.

Here's a good Ghost site http://ghost.radified.com/ghost_1.htm

[racerbrownn]

i see what you mean. that site is very helpful.

i'll continue with replacing the drives in the 2 win98se pc's while i wait for a chance to order ghost 2003 for the xp pc.

thankx, ray

p.s. i kind of thought that fdisk was only limited to fat.

so, if i have a fat32 partition on the new xp hdd, do you think ghost 2003 will have any problems with the mirroring from the xp hdd to the fat32 hdd?

[glc]

Don't use Fdisk to prep a drive for XP - use Disk Management.

[Vladiator16]

Originally posted by racerbrownn so, if i have a fat32 partition on the new xp hdd, do you think ghost 2003 will have any problems with the mirroring from the xp hdd to the fat32 hdd?

It should see the NTFS partitions.

The real advantage of SW2003 is that will recognize the NTFS partitions. Thus, if you want to create an image and keep it on a storage drive, you won't have to worry about the FAT32 file size limitation (4GB as I recall) when saving an image to a NTFS partition.

As glc suggusted, XP's disk management is the best way to partition a drive. FDISK won't create and format a NTFS partition.

[racerbrownn]

i gotcha.

i'll install the new hdd in the xp pc, run disc management to create a partition and then reboot to run the norton cloning program off floppy before xp boots up.

this sounds simple enough.

thankx and i'll be back [with results he he]. ray.