Moving to new disk

[ljung37]

Hi
I guess this is an OS question. A simple one I think.
I'm going to install my OS(Win98)and all the rest of programs,and
copy files to a new empty HD I have installed(and formatted and partitioned) and wich I will use as my main working disk. I don't mind to do this the regular slow way,
even if it takes some time. I'd like a clean install.
After it's done, I'll just swap the cables and hopefully it will boot from the new disk.
The question is, do I start with installing Windows? Does it matter?
I just have a feeling that it would be best to do that, but I don't know why.
Also, will there be any problem with having Windows on both my disks?
Since I will just leave the first disk as a backup with all it's content,including Windows.

[Budfred]

You definitely need to install Win98 first before other programs if you plan on making this your primary disk, so that programs will be set up properly in the Registry. You also may want to disconnect the other drive while you are doing this and make the new drive Master, then use a Win98 Startup disk to boot and install Win98 on the new drive. When you get it done, reconnect the old drive jumpered as slave and proceed from there. Make sure the new drive is at the end of the IDE cable.

Before you do any of this, hang on for more opinions, since I am not sure about having Windows installed on both drives and potential problems that could come from that.

Good luck,
Budfred

[ljung37]

Thanks Budfred
I seem to have embarrased myself here. Of course I need the Windows installed first to be able to install programs. It was a bit silly of me not to think of that.

But let's say I first created folders on the new disk, and copied over files into them. And then install Windows. I suppose these folders would show up in Win Explorer, whouldn't they?
It's a theoretical question, because I won't do it, but I just wondered.

But the second question whether the two Windows OS will disturb one another wasn't so dumb was it?
I don't think they need to, because I will have the two disks on separate channels. And it will always boot from the first in line,that is the primary channel.

[Budfred]

I think they would show up in Windows Explorer (or a better file manager), but they wouldn't work properly from that drive because they wouldn't be registered correctly for that drive.

I agree that it shouldn't make any difference having Windoze on 2 different disks, but I am not certain.

Budfred

[Sylvander]

Hello ljung,

I've already been through this and it was simple enough if done correctly but BEWARE, if the wrong things are done you could find yourself in deep trouble.

What I did was to go to the website of the manufacturer of my HDD [Western Digital] and downloaded [onto a floppy] a program designed to copy the contents of the old HDD [WDC] to the new HDD.

This partitions and formats the drives and sets the new "active" primary partition, Extended DOS partition and logical drives within it.
Then all you do is shut down, swap over the [primary] master/slave jumpers and switch on again.
The c: drive is now the new primary partition on the new drive and the "Master Boot Record" and "Master File Allocation Table" are on the new drive and refer to the "Logical Drives" which are now located on the old drive.

So you see it's more complex than you'd think, but this programme makes it all so easy, IF YOU DO THE RIGHT THINGS. You need to read the instructions and follow them diligently.

If you want to start afresh you could just:
1. Connect the drives [to the IDE Primary] with the new as the master and the old as the slave.
2. Boot to a startup disk "without CD-ROM support".
3. Partition and format both drives as desired then shut down.
4. Boot to a startup disk "with CD-ROM support".
5. Install Windows.
6. Install various software.

By the way;
When you try to run the "setup.exe" file on the Windows disk using DOS commands beware of the "RamDrive" which is created and sets the drive letters [including CD-ROM] back by one. The DOS command MUST use the correct letter & you must put the CD in the correct drive corresponding to that letter. If you put it in the other drive you'll get "unable to access drive" error.

[ljung37]

Thank you Sylvander for your extensive answer.
Yes I always try to be careful. As an amateur I manage to get things right most of the time. But I'm always a bit nervous when doing things like this. So far I have only used one partition on both my disks,
but i intend to have two on the new one, wich perhaps makes it slightly more complicated.
About the program you mentioned, isn't that only for Western Digital?
But I'm sure there are other similar programs wich might do the job.
And I'm in no hurry.
By the way, I was just defragging my main disk. It took 3,5 hours to
defrag a 20,4 Gb disk, with 3/4 full of data. Is that normal? I suppose it depends on the size and the content. But are there no quicker way of doing it? Other programs?
This Windows program seems not to work very efficiently.I mean it
keeps the same speed throughout the operation. It should be able to
scan more quickly over those parts that contain no data.

Ron.G

[Sylvander]

You could try your HDD manufacturers website to see if they offer a similar service.
If not go here
http://212.223.28.218/english.htm
to download "hdcopy.exe", which is a HDD copying utility.
I got a copy way back then and didn't use it so I don't know how good it is.

"I was just defragging my main disk. It took 3,5 hours"
When you enable FAT32 to get the increased efficiency of space usage [this results in HUGE numbers of much smaller clusters], the downside is that it takes HOURS to defragment all these tiny clusters. Smaller clusters mean less wasted space. Each file wastes [normally an average of] half a cluster. Total wasted space is found by multiplying the number of files by the cluster size.

It's like buying your milk in small bottles rather than huge plastic drums. If your customers only want one litre each and it's supplied in 22.5 litre drums you waste an awful lot of storage space.
Even if your customers were buying in large quantities the average waste for each would be half of a 22.5 litre drum.

One way of dramatically reducing this problem is to use smaller partitions. I think the optimum is about 5 GigaBytes.
It's worth studying the subject, it's interesting.