Adding 2nd HD

[Johnathan]

I am currently using a Seagate ATA 250gig HD, I want to add my Western digital SATA 80gig HD.

Now I would like to install the old western digital 80 gig SATA drive as a back up drive but it has a virus on it so I want to just reformat it and start over.

How do I make my computer recognize the 250 as primary and the 80 as secondary? How do I reformat the 80 gig drive(to get rid of virus)?
Would I have to reload XP on the second drive? Thanks for your help, Johnathan

 

[mmattb]

If XP is already loaded on the 250gb drive, then you dont need to do anything fancy or reinstall XP. Just plug in the new drive. Once in Windows, you can do the reformat yourself.

If the old drive has windows on it, I would suggest using a bootable HD utility to do the reformat. This lets you reformat without going into Windows (saves the stickiness of having to force your computer to recognize the 250gig as the primary). Most HD manufacturers have a bootable HD utility for download. I know for a fact that Seagate does, my guess is WD does too.

(I just went and looked at the WD website, try this: http://support.wdc.com/download/index.asp The data lifeguard tools for DOS is probably what you want. You may want to read the documentation to make sure).

Once you make the disks, pop them in and turn the computer off. Plug in the 80gb HD and turn the computer on. Load the bootable utility and use it to reformat the 80GB hd. Pop the bootable disk out and restart the computer. When you get to Windows, it should recognize the new drive.

Again, you should NOT have to reload windows for any of this unless you plan to move windows over to the 80gig drive.

Good luck, you shouldnt have too much difficulty.

EDIT: Nice job buying Seagate SATA btw