Questions:
Why move WinXP to the 20GB drive?
What other OS are you planning on using for the dual-boot?
Have you considered using extended partitions and logical drives on either of the hard drives in order to shift around your files, instead of having one large partition per drive?
It seems to me that the simplest way to do this would be to partition the 120GB drive using a tool like Partition Magic so that the WinXP partition was around 10GB. That would mean using the free space currently on the drive to make at least one extended partition that contains a logical drive.
You would then move the large files from the 20GB to the logical partition on the 120GB. With that done, the smaller drive could be formatted, and the second operating system installed on the 20GB.
To avoid a repair installation of WinXP, due to the boot records being overwritten when the second OS is installed (unless you take care to avoid this), you have several options. You could use a program like System Commander to control which OS is bootable. Or, you could select the drive that is to be bootable by changing the selection within the BIOS, although you would have to switch this each time you wanted to boot from one OS to another.
In case it is imperative, for one reason or another, that you really need to have WinXP on the 20GB drive, I'd consider investing in an imaging program, such as Norton Ghost. With this in hand, you could move the OS from drive to drive with relative ease. And it would also come in handy later on, for backing up both operating systems and your personal files.
With that in mind, you could create another partition that contains the free space on the 120GB drive. Move the large files to the new partition from the 20GB. Image the WinXP partition, and burn it to CD disks, and then transfer the image to the 20GB drive, which would remove the remaining partition during the process.
Then you could install the new OS to the 120GB drive, in the original primary partition.
Once again, a boot manager like System Commander could be used to facilitate the installation of the operating systems.
As I recall, Maxtor has a downloadable utility that allows for partition and drive to drive copies, and it is free. That's also something worth considering.
Keep in mind that if you install a new OS, while the drive that contains WinXP is connected to the cable, it is highly likely that the boot records for WinXP will be overwritten ... and correcting this will require a repair install, or working from the command line in the Recovery Console.
IMHO, I think it would be much easier just to invest in a boot manager and a partitioning program, so you can have access to helpful tools that will allow you to accomplish your task with the least amount of fuss and bother.
It's also a good idea to think about using the same file system with both two operating systems (unless this proves impossible), as on occasion, having two different file systems can lead to instability, although this is more likely to happen when the two competing file systems are on the same hard drive.
Toey
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