From: sunclad@sunclad.com   
      
   In article ,   
    "Will"  wrote:   
      
   > I hope to replace my HD over the week.  Any pitfalls I should be aware of??   
   >   
   > XP Pro - several partions, I wanted to add the new (IDE) HD as a secondary,   
   > copy everything over and then swap it for the original (it is still   
   > working).  Will XPP allow me to run the drive letters consecutively   
   > (original drive C-H, new drive I-N??) - can't find fdisk on the system nor   
   > on my CD, is it needed anymore?   
      
      
      
   Much depends on the age of the machine.   
      
   I recently replaced a drive but found the over-the-counter drives at   
   places such as Best Buy were Serial ATA (SATA) with a new style   
   connector but what my old work horse has is the flat ribbon cable back   
   to the motherboard.   
      
   Check what you have and check what the store is selling.   
      
   In my case I screwed up and had to make 3 trips to 2 stores for the   
   right thing.   
      
   Older IDE drives with the ribbon cable are becoming passe and hard to   
   locate.  I was able to locate one at a MicroCenter store (national   
   chain) not far from me but it was in a stack of OEM drives that they   
   were selling that they got from a manufacturer.  I don't believe these   
   were on their web site.   
      
   There are SATA to Ribbon cable converters out there and results seem   
   to be Ok depending on who you talk to.  It is a ribbon connector with   
   a small daughter board and chip that is powered from the cable itself,   
   which then has the correct SATA connector for the new drive.  From the   
   looks it would only be a problem if space is very cramped.   
      
   Had I not found a drive that met my needs I would have had to have   
   gone that way next.   
      
   In my case I opted to save my data over a network connection on my LAN   
   to other systems that had available storage space but could have just   
   as easily burned it off to CD.   
      
   I also opted to keep the original drive and just add a second one   
   since I had the space and ability.   
      
   I also save all my installers and burn them off to CD every 600 MB   
   give or take so I had all my applications and didn't have to do a net   
   search for any of them.   
      
   I also opted to format and reinstall XP Home from my original CD.   
      
   I did have to run a host of Windows Updates after that as I   
   reinstalled Office and other things and the process was ongoing for   
   several days as I rebuilt everything to current standards, but in the   
   end all is working quite well.   
      
   The only thing I w s not able to installed was Silverlight.  I kept   
   getting a message that it won't work with the chip set in use.   
      
   Frankly speaking I have never needed it so I guess I won't miss it.   
      
   However IE8 is working quite fine which was a surprise to me.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)