I just removed a hard drive from my computer (XP Home). I have loads of music and video on it (trashed the computer). I'd like to install the HD on my other computer (XP Home) for only the files and music (no online or email) and wish to boot either one at will. Is this possible?

Thanks for any instructions you can give.

Eddie

Yeah its possible just you will have to set the one you want to always use as the master and the other the slave because if you do just put it in they both are most likely going to boot up together and crash the system, why did you trash the other system, hd's are very cheap these days, you could go buy a 160 gig and put all the files to that one and use the others as back up's

I simply don't need two computers. Is there some instructions out there on the internet that you may know of as to how install the 2nd drive?

Just put it in, it's that simple. Why no need for two computers. Have one as a spare. I have three, one as my internet and the others as spare's. Even more simpler :D but its just as easy as jumpering it and connecting it

Hi,
On the back of any hard drive is a "jumper cable", this jumper cable is very small, looks like a small U shaped piece of wire. You might even have to use tweezers to pull it out.
One hard drive should have this jumper placed on Master, the other hard drive has it placed on Slave.
Then, using your ribbon cable, connect one plug-in to Master, and the other ribbon cable, (running off the 1st one) is connected to the other Slave hard drive.
When finished, go to My Computer, then look to see if both harddrives are shown.
You can find install step by step instructions, using Google search or any search site. Type in something like Installing Hard Drives, and click on Go.

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Best wishes,
fredg

Yea, I understand what you're saying, but I don't want to lose any data on the 2nd hard drive after installation-- won't the HD be erased?

Thanks for your replies,

Eddie

Eddie,
Fred gave you the correct advice. Just adding the drive to your system will not format it. You may need to check with the manufacturer's WEB site to determine exactly how to set the jumper to Slave. It may be listed on the drive itself. You will also need to make sure the main drive is set to master.

This will not allow you to boot to the second drive and frankly I wouldn't try that since the hardware may be different. But it will assign the drive another letter and allow you to access files on it.

Frankly I would move my data files off that drive, reformat it then move just the data files back onto it.

I thank you guys for the responses and will try it today. I just hope that some processes on the 2nd drive don't begin running, since my system is somewhat "over-stressed" as it is.

You guys are great, and I appreciate the help!

Sincerely,

Eddie

Here's a step-by-step web site: http://compreviews.about.com/od/tutorials/ss/DIYSecHD.htm