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Installation prep question
I will be doing a clean install of 8.1 Pro - not an upgrade. I have
two hard drives c: and d:, already formatted by WinXP Pro as NSFT and each has files on them. One with data I use in various apps and the other with the O/S and installed apps. When I install 8.1, will it reformat both drives as part of a clean install or only the drive on which I will be installing the O/S (the one on which WinXP is currently installed)? Will 8.1 recognize and read the NSFT format on drive d: or does 8.1 use a different file format from NSFT? Thanks, John |
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#2
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Installation prep question
On 11/03/2013 03:16 PM, Yes wrote:
I will be doing a clean install of 8.1 Pro - not an upgrade. I have two hard drives c: and d:, already formatted by WinXP Pro as NSFT and each has files on them. One with data I use in various apps and the other with the O/S and installed apps. When I install 8.1, will it reformat both drives as part of a clean install or only the drive on which I will be installing the O/S (the one on which WinXP is currently installed)? Will 8.1 recognize and read the NSFT format on drive d: or does 8.1 use a different file format from NSFT? Thanks, John First off, you undoubtedly mean NTFS. Though you do have an option to format or not the format the drive, I would be sure to have the drive with data on it /not/ connected to your machine when you do the installation...just in case you make an error. |
#3
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Installation prep question
Yes wrote:
I will be doing a clean install of 8.1 Pro - not an upgrade. I have two hard drives c: and d:, already formatted by WinXP Pro as NSFT and each has files on them. One with data I use in various apps and the other with the O/S and installed apps. When I install 8.1, will it reformat both drives as part of a clean install or only the drive on which I will be installing the O/S (the one on which WinXP is currently installed)? Will 8.1 recognize and read the NSFT format on drive d: or does 8.1 use a different file format from NSFT? Thanks, John It's NTFS If installing Win8.1 on an existing system with two different discs (hard drives)...you will be given the option to choose one of the drives (or partition if multiple exist on either drive). If you don't choose the drive that XP is on then you will end up with a dual boot system. Any drive or partition chosen will be wiped, formatted as NTFS prior to installing Win8.1. -- ...winston msft mvp consumer apps |
#4
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Installation prep question
philo wrote:
First off, you undoubtedly mean NTFS. Though you do have an option to format or not the format the drive, I would be sure to have the drive with data on it /not/ connected to your machine when you do the installation...just in case you make an error. When installing 8.1 on a drive with an XP o/s - Win 8.1 will format the drive...once done (finished formatting) the user is prompted to click 'Next' which will then install Win8.1 The steps are basically in this order Agree to install Windows Enter product key Agree to license terms Choose type of install (unless Win7 or later is present only a custom clean install) Choose where you want to install Click the partition and the formatting option When formatting is finished - click Next Win8.1 installs to a now clean and blank drive/partition -- ...winston msft mvp consumer apps |
#5
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Installation prep question
Hi, John.
Will 8.1 recognize and read the NSFT format... Might be easier to remember that NTFS means NT (New Technologies) File System. From days (in the 20th Century) when NT was the New Thing. NTFS was - and is - an advance from the former FAT (File Allocation Table system) and its 32-bit version, FAT32. That's for a 32-bit file address on the disk, not a 32-bit operating system. Installation of Windows (8.1 or earlier) might reformat your boot drive, as Winston and Philo said. It won't automatically reformat your other drives; you can do that later, if you choose, using Disk Management or other tools. I have two hard drives c: and d:... As you will see if you run Disk Management and study its screen, the "drive" letters actually refer to partitions on the disk, not to the full physical disk. Each partition must be formatted separately, and their formats may be "mix or match". Almost everything uses NTFS these days, and Win8 insists on NTFS for its boot drive (where it puts the many gigabytes of folders and files in its Windows folder tree), but it will happily use FAT/FAT32 partitions for everything else, such as your data. RC -- R. C. White, CPA San Marcos, TX Microsoft Windows MVP (2002-2010) Windows Live Mail 2012 (Build 16.4.3508.0205) in Win8.1 Pro "Yes" wrote in message ... I will be doing a clean install of 8.1 Pro - not an upgrade. I have two hard drives c: and d:, already formatted by WinXP Pro as NSFT and each has files on them. One with data I use in various apps and the other with the O/S and installed apps. When I install 8.1, will it reformat both drives as part of a clean install or only the drive on which I will be installing the O/S (the one on which WinXP is currently installed)? Will 8.1 recognize and read the NSFT format on drive d: or does 8.1 use a different file format from NSFT? Thanks, John |
#6
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Installation prep question
Yes wrote:
I will be doing a clean install of 8.1 Pro - not an upgrade. I have two hard drives c: and d:, already formatted by WinXP Pro as NSFT and each has files on them. One with data I use in various apps and the other with the O/S and installed apps. When I install 8.1, will it reformat both drives as part of a clean install or only the drive on which I will be installing the O/S (the one on which WinXP is currently installed)? Will 8.1 recognize and read the NSFT format on drive d: or does 8.1 use a different file format from NSFT? Thanks, John Maybe some other people will chime in with their favorite settings, but this is what I'd try. 1) Using Disk Management, see how many physical hard drives are present in the system. (execute diskmgmt.msc) Each horizontal row of blocks is a disk, each block is a potential partition. If any of the physical disks will have nothing to do with the installation, then unplug the SATA cable from the drive. So if you see three rows of blocks, you might want to disconnect any drives not associated with the installation. And if you do actually have multiple disks, and the install target for Win81 is a separate disk from WinXP, then that makes the installation all that much safer. If this is a laptop, chances are you only have one hard drive, and so this step won't have any hardware work to do. You disconnect any SATA data cables, just before the step where you boot the Win81 DVD. 2) For the remaining disk (the one with WinXP where you'll be adding Win 8.1), do a complete backup of the disk. No serious brain surgery goes on, without a backup first. You can use Macrium Reflect Free for this, if you don't have a backup utility. Prepare the Macrium Reflect boot disc, and test that the computer boots the disc, the Macrium recovery screen appears, and the fresh backup you just made, can be viewed there. I use an external USB for this, and the relative speed Macrium runs at, is a pretty good match for a 30MB/sec USB2 connection. So using USB2 isn't really a penalty when backing up. 3) Next step, now that you're down to just the install hard disk drive, is to again use Disk Management, but this time to create a primary partition on the drive. This falls into the category of "leading a horse to water". Create an NTFS partition with standard 4K clusters, format it. Give it a label at this time as well, such as WIN81. You can assign a label to your WinXP C: drive. This step is to enhance your ability to recognize them later. Offering a single partition for installation, may have the side effect of preventing BitLocker full disk encryption from working later. I presume Win81 still prefers two partitions to support that option, where the SYSTEM RESERVED is unencrypted and C: would be encrypted by BitLocker. Offering a single partition for Win81 to install to, may coax it to not create a SYSTEM RESERVED, saving a primary partition for other things. But also preventing a certain BitLocker operating mode. You can move a system from a two partition install (C: and SYSTEM RESERVED) to a one partition install, after the fact. I've done it, on my Windows 7 system. This article kinda shows the component parts these systems use. http://www.terabyteunlimited.com/kb/article.php?id=409 4) (Optional) I disable System Restore on WinXP, when dual booting. On the assumption I'll want the System Restore on Win81 to work. I cannot be sure the two operate independently enough (share System Volume Information folder), without causing one another grief. As an adjunct to this suggestion, now you're relying on your WinXP partition backups, in case of an issue. If an April 2014 Windows Update on WinXP borks the machine, use your recent April 2014 backup to put the WinXP partition back, etc. 5) When the Windows installer DVD boots, look for whatever Custom install option it offers. Don't proceed with the installation, unless you're given a view of the partitions. Click the newly created partition labeled WIN81. The installer will want to format that partition again, and let it do so. (This could wipe out the label you put on it, but you can put the label back when the installation is finished.) The idea of step (3), is to give the installer an "easy bombing target", and try to prevent it from doing something stupid. If it does decide to do something stupid, you have your entire image of the disk in step (2) to use, to do a restoration. *Never* let an installer loose on a disk with valuable information on it, without a backup. I had a Win2K installer CD that wiped all the partitions on the drive, and I had to use TestDisk to do a recovery. While installers are thoroughly tested, they will occasionally try your patience and scare the crap out of you. Be prepared. In my Win2K case, the damage was the erasure of the MBR. Nothing serious :-) Easy to fix. Just a little hair loss. 6) Since you're installing a newer Windows over an older Windows, the OS with the boot.ini will be picked up while building the BCD boot menu information. Windows 8.1 will steal the boot flag, the Win81 should be the active partition, Windows 8 will manage booting, and it will hand off to WinXP when you select WinXP in the boot menu at startup. There should be no need for menu editing. 7) During the Windows 8.1 installation, you will be pestered by the request to create a Microsoft account. Before you start the install, study up (Google) on the options to bypass this step. There are a few, such as pulling the network cable just before the account step attempts to function. Or entering bogus information, causing the Microsoft account creation step to fail, for it to relent, and offer you the option to operate with a local account only. This is to prevent unintentional "Skydrive integration". If you love what the NSA does, ignore this step. After the system has come up at least once, and pestered you for settings and the like, you can shut down some time after that, and reconnect the SATA cabling. 8) After the install is finished, you can open a Command Prompt window, right click and select Run As Administrator, then powercfg -h off That will disable hibernation. The purpose of that, is so Win81 will "release" the machine at shutdown, so you have the option to dual boot WinXP. There may be other options to disable kernel hibernation, but the next time I'm reinstalling, I'll probably be using this again. Windows 8.1 has two flavors of hibernation. Full hibernation (like your WinXP does). And kernel hibernation. But if kernel hibernation is used, it won't allow you access to the BIOS. Disabling hibernation, is so I as the user, stay in control of the machine, and can use the BIOS setup screen when I want to. Otherwise, I'll be stuck in a hibernation reboot loop and won't be able to reach WinXP boot. I think there is some option called "full shutdown", where using this hibernation hack would not be required, but I personally am not playing any "Mother May I" games at shutdown. When I shutdown, I expect the OS to release my machine, and that's why I do this step. I don't want to go through any nonsense, like the nonsense they want us to go through to start in Safe Mode. Ridiculous. At the moment, Windows 8/8.1 are not everyday OSes for me, so my visits there are brief, and a lack of hibernation is not an issue. 9) Use Disk Management to put the label back on the Win81 partition. And enjoy your new install. Test that both OSes boot, and there is no mysterious CHKDSK activity on the WinXP side, when it boots. HTH, Paul |
#7
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Installation prep question
On Sun, 3 Nov 2013 21:11:25 -0600, "R. C. White"
wrote: Might be easier to remember that NTFS means NT (New Technologies) File System. A very minor point, but although "NT" was originally supposed to be short for "New Technologies," Microsoft now says it stands for nothing. -- Ken Blake |
#8
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Installation prep question
On Mon, 04 Nov 2013 10:47:24 -0700, Ken Blake wrote:
On Sun, 3 Nov 2013 21:11:25 -0600, "R. C. White" wrote: Might be easier to remember that NTFS means NT (New Technologies) File System. A very minor point, but although "NT" was originally supposed to be short for "New Technologies," Microsoft now says it stands for nothing. As in "NoThing"? :-) -- Gene E. Bloch (Stumbling Bloch) |
#9
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Installation prep question
On Mon, 4 Nov 2013 10:55:22 -0800, "Gene E. Bloch"
wrote: On Mon, 04 Nov 2013 10:47:24 -0700, Ken Blake wrote: On Sun, 3 Nov 2013 21:11:25 -0600, "R. C. White" wrote: Might be easier to remember that NTFS means NT (New Technologies) File System. A very minor point, but although "NT" was originally supposed to be short for "New Technologies," Microsoft now says it stands for nothing. As in "NoThing"? :-) g -- Ken Blake |
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