"wizof103" <wizof103@verizon.net> wrote
> On Jul 1, 8:33 pm, "Rock" <R...@nospam.net> wrote:
>> "Mike Busch" <wizof...@verizon.net> wrote
>>
>> >I have only one hard drive onmyDell Demension E510. I would like to
>> > purchase a new drive (SATA), make thatmyprimarydisk, and takemy
>> > present
>> > primary and make it asecondary. Can I just pop it in and I will be able
>> > to
>> > read thediskor do I have to wipe everthing off it and reformate. Thanks
>> > for
>> > thehelp.
>>
>> You're post is unclear. What do you mean by "make thatmyprimarydiskand
>> takemypresent and make it asecondary". Primary andsecondaryonly refer
>> to drives on the ATA IDE interface. It does not apply to SATA. Also, as
>> a
>> general rule, the drive from which the OS boots can be any drive, as can
>> the
>> drive where the OS files reside.
>>
>> So what exactly are you trying to do and what it the hardware setup? Do
>> you
>> have connections on the motherboard for both SATA and IDE? Do you want
>> to
>> make the SATA drive thebootdrive, and have the windows OS files on that
>> drive, using the original drive as storage?
>>
>> If you provide more specifics someone will reply with a more focused
>> reply.
>>
>> --
>> Rock [MS-MVP User/Shell]
>
> OK I have an SATA drive that is my boot drive. It is my only drive. I
> would like to purchase a new SATA Drive and format and install the
> Opeating system and make the new one my Boot ot Primary drive. The
> original boot drive I would like to use it as my secondary drive but
> keep all the data on it. If it connects I would then delete the
> operating system off the original so the PC will not be confused. I
> need to know if this is do-able.
Yes it is certainly do-able. Use the copy utility provided by the drive
manufacturer or use one of the disk cloning utilities such as Acronis True
Image or Casper. Clone the old drive to the new, remove the old drive, set
up the new one as drive to boot from, and do the first boot with the new
drive. After that you can install the old drive and delete what you want.
--
Rock [MS-MVP User/Shell]