OT: Computer drive problem

[Don Henthorn Smithville, TX]

OT: Cpmputer drive problem.
Got a complex problem. I have two 20g hard drives one of which was the C drive and the
other is partitioned in three equal parts. I say the master drive WAS the C drive because I
reinstalled the OS because of a corrupted file. Low and behold, I discovered that during
the reinstall XP changed the letters of my drives. The former 20G C: drive is now the D:
drive and the first partition of the second drive is now the C: drive. And XP didn’t even
ask me if I wanted that change made. There are two changes I would like to make. The
first involves getting the master 20G hard drive back as my C: drive. On the second
drive, and I don’t know if this is possible, I would lke to remove the partitions and keep
as backup for the C: drive. That way I would have the operating system on both drives so
if one drive goes kaput I would sttill be able to boot and use the computer. I guess I
should add a third want. I would also lke to reinstall Win98SE and have two operating
systems so I can use some of the hardware and software that won’t work with XP. If
anyone has ideas contact me by email so as not to tie up SMC bandwidth. Thanks for any
help.

[Dennis Peacock]

Woo-Wee..!!!!! Now ain't that a mouth full Don..? ;)

On your drive switcherroo there......Should be able to boot from CDROM and select an option that YOU want to make your OWN choices. You can wipe out the partitions on the old "D" drive. I would more than likely use a utility called fdisk....or maybe a new fandangled utility that comes with XP....Shoot....I just upgraded to Winders 2000 Pro just over a year ago and have refused to move to XP since I am running an old Dell PIII-600....Bought it new in Jan 2000 and haven't had to do nuttin' to it but add a little more memory to it....been running 24 x 7 for almost 4 years now....'cept when there are storm or twisters about..... ;)

If you had a RAID controller in your PC, you could "mirror" drive C to drive D and whatever was on C would also be put on D....This is called RAID 0 (zero) or disk mirroring. There is also RAID 1, 2, 3, 4, 5....and etc......RAID 5 is the most popular today (requires at least 3 drives to be RAID 5..once disk is said to be a "parity" disk.

For what you are mentioning about whatever is on C would be on the other drive as well.....this is what RAID 0 or disk mirroring does best. I think a good RAID controller for EIDE or Serial ATA drives are about $30 - $50......remember both drives should be the SAME for mirroring.

Confused now? :)

[Don Henthorn Smithville, TX]

Thanks for the reply, Dennis. I believe you are light years ahead of me in being computer savvy. I could probably eventually figure out everything you said. However I was given the suggestion of buying PartitionMagic and so I went to the publisher's web site and it was on special sale with another program for about $70.00. I found it on Ebay without the other program for $19.95. So I have ordered that and I hope it works for me. If not I may be bending your ear again for more specific instructions.(-: