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Installing Vista on a Different Hard Drive (Switching main drive?)

#1 User is offline   Kazm87 

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Posted 16 November 2009 - 05:35 PM

I'm currently running Windows Vista 64 bit. My hard drive setup is as follows:

C: 70 GB Raptor 1. (The OS drive... System Boot, Page Files, Programs, etc.)
D: 70 GB Raptor 2. (Music, Photos, a few programs.)
E: 500 GB HDD 1. (Empty)
F: 500 GB HDD 2. (Empty)

I would like to do the following...

C: 500 GB HDD 1: (OS drive... System Boot, Pages Files, Programs, etc.)
D: 500 GB HDD 2: (Extra storage)
E: 70 GB Raptor 1: (Music Files)
F: 70 GB Raptor 2: (Picture Files)

What I'd like to do is make one of the 500 GB HDDs the C drive, and reinstall my Vista onto it, and reformat the 70 GB Raptor that my OS is currently on. I've backed everything up that I need to, and I've said my goodbyes to anything I can stand to lose. I just need to know what steps I would need to take to be able to accomplish this. If anyone could help me with that, it'd be much appreciated.

ADD: Just to clarify, I DO have the original OEM disc of the version of Vista that is installed on this comp.
ADD: Also, they are SATA drives.

#2 User is offline   hamluis 

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Posted 16 November 2009 - 09:03 PM

FWIW: Making a 500GB drive your boot/system partition...does not seem very wise to me.

The easiest way, IMO....

a. Temporarily disconnect all hard drives, exernal drives and flash drive...except for the hard drive on which you intend to install Vista.

b. Leave one optical drive properly connected and working.

c. Change the boot order in the BIOS so that the optical drive is the first device, save the changes (F-10). Insert Vista DVD.

d. Reboot, the install begins. If you really intend to use that large a drive, I suggest that you limit the size of the C: partition to be created to something more reasonable (30-40GB, max).

Louis
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