Hard drive re-use question...

As the result of a recent upgrade (OK...it was essentially a new build
except for the optical drives and case...but don't tell my SO!), I have
a perfectly functional but 40 GB EIDI hard drive sitting in a drawer.

I have multiple machines with available IDE channels. My only real
concern is that this drive is already formatted and contains the Windows
XP install from its previous life. Any tips on making sure that it
doesn't end up being seen as the boot device upon installation (once
it's in I'll simply reformat...)?


Thanks

set it as slave
unless there is a boot altering BAT file it will be seen as a slave
drive.


wrote in message
...
As the result of a recent upgrade (OK...it was essentially a new
build
except for the optical drives and case...but don't tell my SO!), I
have
a perfectly functional but 40 GB EIDI hard drive sitting in a
drawer.

I have multiple machines with available IDE channels. My only real
concern is that this drive is already formatted and contains the
Windows
XP install from its previous life. Any tips on making sure that it
doesn't end up being seen as the boot device upon installation (once
it's in I'll simply reformat...)?


Thanks

JAD wrote:

set it as slave
unless there is a boot altering BAT file it will be seen as a slave
drive.



Thanks very much....and I assume once up and running with this newly
lettered slave drive, I can safely delete the residual OS files on it???

yep they will no longer be 'protected' system folders.

wrote in message
...
JAD wrote:

set it as slave
unless there is a boot altering BAT file it will be seen as a
slave
drive.



Thanks very much....and I assume once up and running with this newly
lettered slave drive, I can safely delete the residual OS files on
it???

wrote:

As the result of a recent upgrade (OK...it was essentially a new
build except for the optical drives and case...but don't tell my
SO!), I have a perfectly functional but 40 GB EIDI hard drive sitting
in a drawer.
I have multiple machines with available IDE channels. My only real
concern is that this drive is already formatted and contains the
Windows XP install from its previous life. Any tips on making sure
that it doesn't end up being seen as the boot device upon
installation (once it's in I'll simply reformat...)?

By a disk manager (PartitionMagic or whatever). It's almost as useful
as the operating system itself. And remember to always back up any
important files. Good luck.

If a machine already has its own C: disk to boot from, your 40 gb EIDI can
be connected to this machine with any position other than c:, be IDE0,
slave, or be IDE1 master or slave, it will be treated like another data HD,
you can do whatever you want to do.

...
As the result of a recent upgrade (OK...it was essentially a new build
except for the optical drives and case...but don't tell my SO!), I have
a perfectly functional but 40 GB EIDI hard drive sitting in a drawer.

I have multiple machines with available IDE channels. My only real
concern is that this drive is already formatted and contains the Windows
XP install from its previous life. Any tips on making sure that it
doesn't end up being seen as the boot device upon installation (once
it's in I'll simply reformat...)?


Thanks