Hot a unknown werid problem on my windows. It runs at a funeral march for 5 mins. Anti virus and registry chers both come back clear and the background programs list isnt too scary.

What I was thinking was to:
*Unplug curent hard disk (A).
*Install new hard disk (B).
*Make B a primary master HD and top of BIOS load list.
*Install windows and other gubbins on B
*Reinstall HD A as secondary master (or primary slave). I know about the bus problems- in reality it wont slow copying down much!)
*Grab what I need off A onto B.
*Format A

Will this work or will Windows throw a hissy with two copies on one machine lathough on seperate HDs?

Should be ok Jamie, But if the comp is running, why dont you save to a storage device (cd/DVD etc) then Wipe windows and reinstall it

Jamie,

That's how I'd do it and I've rebuilt more PCs than many!

Having said that, if it's the end of the world if you lose the data then:

If you have a product known as Norton Ghost you could use that to burn an image to CD/DVD in case it all goes tits-up.com.
Or, if you have a 2nd PC you could copy (or Ghost) the data to there via a network.


Remember! Use anti-static precautions.

HTH,
James


P.S. If you knacker your system in any way from following this I accept no responsibility!

Which version of Windows --- if its Xp OEM you have to be very careful when changing hard disks.

I think I'd be tempted to find out what the original problem might be. I'd look at the following topics:

1. whether the disk needs de-fragmenting.
2. checking for disk space (if there's not enough, the windoze temporary swap space struggles).
3. Running Task Manager to see if one or two programs are hogging the CPU.

...or is there other evidence that the disk is giving up? Odd noises, corrupted or lost files, and similar stuff?

David

[Edited on 24/3/05 by David Jenkins]

You will get a dual boot screen when you boot with 2 copies of windows. Chose the right one and boot to it. Then copy stuff over then format the other drive.

But as DJ says, try to find the root cause.

A better way of doing what you suggest is this.

Install your new hdd as a slave and create some partitions on it. Boot into windows and both hdd's will be accessable. Copy all your stuff onto the new one. Reformat the old one, and reinstall windows to it. Put your stuff back, or leave it where it is. Much simpler IMO.

I run partitions all the time, as it makes maintenance much quicker and simpler.

David

buildings not the issue. usually i can just format a disk after pulling on dvds, but i have some things that cant, ie rugby world cup / f1 / neighbours awaiting editing still. Files sizes are too larege for dvd as some are 8 hours long.
It was purely cos i know you couldnt do the same with win 3.11 and that was the last time i tried daul loading the same os. done different since. anyway, cheers for the info guys.
tired. still recovering from flu 3 weeks back! itll be a job for tomorrow as well as the bushes that arrived today!

If you've got huge files on the disk, I'd REALLY have a good look at your disk useage - Open "My Computer" and right-click on the hard disk - you should see how much disk space you've used. If you haven't got much left then you would get exactly the problems you're describing. A badly-fragmented disk would slow things down, but not quite in the same way.
Personally, I would do what t'other David suggests - fit a second hard disk as big as you can afford, move (not copy) all your data files to it, and leave the first disk for Windoze and programs. This action alone may improve things enough that you don't need to re-install Windoze.

David

[Edited on 25/3/05 by David Jenkins]