Replacing 60Gbte Primary PATA drive with 500 Gbte SATA drive ?

I have a Primary 60 Gbte PATA drive on which XP Pro SP2 boots. There
is also a second 200 Gbte SATA drive which is used for some Apps and
also data.

I want to swop the 60 Gbte Primary PATA drive for a new 500 Gbte SATA
drive and have the present 200 Gbte SATA become the bootable drive ,
probably saving the replaced 60 Gbte PATA drive as an external drive.

How do I organise this ?

Would I first have to install XP Pro onto the present 200 Gbte SATA
drive and make that one the bootable drive before I removed the 60
Gbte PATA drive ?

If that is the correct procedure , how do I change the bootable drive
over to the 200 Gbte SATA drive after installing XP onto that drive ?

B.N.
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wrote:

I have a Primary 60 Gbte PATA drive on which XP Pro SP2 boots.
There is also a second 200 Gbte SATA drive which is used for some
Apps and also data.

I want to swop the 60 Gbte Primary PATA drive for a new 500 Gbte SATA
drive and have the present 200 Gbte SATA become the bootable drive ,

Why do you want the 200G drive to be the bootable drive ?
The 500G drive will normally be the better performing drive.

probably saving the replaced 60 Gbte PATA drive as an external drive.

How do I organise this ?

Just use something like True Image to clone the 200G drive to
the 500G drive, and then clone the 60G drive to the 200G drive.

Would I first have to install XP Pro onto the present 200 Gbte SATA drive

No, its better to clone the current XP Pro install instead of doing a clean one, unless
the current XP Pro install is one hell of a mess and you want to make a clean start.

and make that one the bootable drive before I removed the 60 Gbte PATA drive ?

If you do want to do a clean install, it would generally be
best to use the files and settings transfer wizard to get the
files and settings from the original install to the new one.

If that is the correct procedure , how do I change the bootable drive
over to the 200 Gbte SATA drive after installing XP onto that drive ?

Just specify that in the bios, in the drive boot order list. You'd normally
end up with a boot time choice between the new install on the 200G
drive and the original install on the 60G drive if you do a clean install
of XP Pro on the 200G drive, so its generally best to physically
disconnect the 60GB drive while you do the clean install on the 200G
drive to avoid that, and so you get the new clean install on the 200G
drive with the C: drive letter. Once the clean install has been done,
and you have installed all the apps on the 200G drive too, then put
the 60G drive back in the system to copy the files and setting across.

wrote:

I have a Primary 60 Gbte PATA drive on which XP Pro SP2 boots. There
is also a second 200 Gbte SATA drive which is used for some Apps and
also data.

I want to swop the 60 Gbte Primary PATA drive for a new 500 Gbte SATA
drive and have the present 200 Gbte SATA become the bootable drive ,
probably saving the replaced 60 Gbte PATA drive as an external drive.

How do I organise this ?

Would I first have to install XP Pro onto the present 200 Gbte SATA
drive and make that one the bootable drive before I removed the 60
Gbte PATA drive ?

If that is the correct procedure , how do I change the bootable drive
over to the 200 Gbte SATA drive after installing XP onto that drive ?


you'd be safer to replace the 60GB boot PATA with
a bigger/faster PATA (make sure you don't exceed
the HDD size limit of your mobo/chipset/bios).
use Acronis True Image 9 to clone the boot drive

a bigger/faster PATA will cost less than $100
and will work without any hassle

bill