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How can I erase all information and start over with my hard drive?

Posted By : Leonida of Chandler-Gilbert Community College on September 24, 2000

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I recently got a 13G hard drive from a friends computer. I would like to replace my current 1.2G hard drive with it and upgrade from Win 95 to 98 or 2000 (have both). My question is how to do this. The 13 G drive has all of the stuff that my friend had on it before he removed it including Win 98 (he DID NOT erase it before removing it). I want to completely erase the 13G drive and start over with it. I have experience reformatting hard drives and installing Windows from a boot floppy (which I have for my system)but I have not done this before. Also, with the exception of the operating system, is there a way to get the info from my old drive onto the new one by slaving it or some other method? Thanks in advance for your much appreciated help. :-)

This question was answered on September 24, 2000. Much of the information contained herein may have changed since posting.


Hello and thank you for sending your question.

You can have both if you like With two physical hard drives, it's possible to have multiple operating system You can run Windows 2000 on one hard drive and Windows 98 on the other Before you can do anything, you have to physically attach this 13G hard drive to a slot in your computer I suggest that you start from scratch As you have mentioned about your experience in reformatting hard drives, this should be a piece of cake for you Reformat the hard drive and load the operating system of your choice Reformatting and installing new operating system will erase all the information that your friend had in there.You can designate this drive as your default or normally C: drive(master) and have your old one as the slave or you can keep your old one as the master and have this one as your slave You have to make sure that your "jumper switch" is set in right whichever hard drive you decide to make your (master or slave) You can assign the slave drive any letter of the alphabet you want other than the C or the letter assigned to your CD.

You can upgrade your old computer to Windows 98 and still access your old records/files without disturbing your other hard drive.

I hope this helps you with your question If not, please do not hesitate to resubmit.

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Posted by Leonida of Chandler-Gilbert Community College on September 24, 2000

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