I have 2 hard drives in my PC. i am thinking of making a back up file for important stuff on 2nd disk. if i have to fresh install windows OS, will back up on disc 2 be safe, or will i have to disconnect it in order to preserve its contents?
Will data on 2nd hard drive be safe if i have to fresh install windows?
- Thread starter binky
- Start date
will second that advice, if you're unsure, just unplug it whilst installing.
if you label your drives/partitions within windows, they will show up during windows setup. that should save you from formatting the wrong one. 
i've seen a few threads in the past where people claim windows formatted the wrong disk. this is absolute nonsesnse. it only does what you tell it to do.
i've seen a few threads in the past where people claim windows formatted the wrong disk. this is absolute nonsesnse. it only does what you tell it to do.
if you label your drives/partitions within windows, they will show up during windows setup. that should save you from formatting the wrong one.
Will that work if 1 drive is labelled C and the other E. Will windows give option of installing on drive C?
drive letters may well be different in windows compared to what they show as during setup. windows setup won't stop you from using any parition during setup. you'll just get a bog standard warning that you will lose whatever is on there.
when i say label, i mean "rename" them like this....
see my partitions named "windows vista", "stuff" and "large files". these labels will show during the text mode part of windows setup so you can't accidentally format the wrong one.
It's always been a simple choice for me. Given the chances of hosing it up:
Both drives plugged in = small chance
Only the Windows drive plugged in = no chance
I know which I go for every time - plus there's nothing more annoying than completing your install to find that Windows claimed the E: for itself - makes installing your stuff a real nuisance.
Time spend disconnecting a molex = 5 seconds
Time spend re-installing/recovering lost data = ...>5 seconds ???
Both drives plugged in = small chance
Only the Windows drive plugged in = no chance
I know which I go for every time - plus there's nothing more annoying than completing your install to find that Windows claimed the E: for itself - makes installing your stuff a real nuisance.
Time spend disconnecting a molex = 5 seconds
Time spend re-installing/recovering lost data = ...>5 seconds ???