Need Advice On What To Do

[Dudelive]

I am having to reinstall the OS (Win XP) for various reasons. Here is my problem...Upon trying to reinstall I have to remove the ide card in order to install.
If I have to reinstall again is there a better way of connecting this so as not to have to remove the ide card. The ide card was in the second slot down from the video card or 5th from bottom and yes there is a spare slot between it and the video card.

MB...Shuttle AK35GT2 Processor...2.8GHZ Barton Ram...2-512 sticks

3 Hard Drives (ide) all with 8meg buffer
80 gig master
80 gig slave
200 gig Primary at ide card

CD-RW Drive Lite-On
CD-Rom Drive Lite-On
DVD-RW Drive Lite-On Secondary at Ide Card

1 Ide controller card.

What is the best way to connect all this for the best performance and NO lock-ups. Sometime back (January) I added the ide card, 3rd hard drive (200)Gig), and the dvd writer.

[Dudelive]

Sorry for the double post, It was giving an error

Thanks
Dudelive

[Zone-MR]

Are you saying the installation locks up if you have the IDE card present? If that's the case, it's either a faulty card, or windows being buggy as usual.

As a temporary workaround you should be able to disable the IDE card in the BIOS, rather than removing it physically.

[PCTech]

I was always told that if you had a CDRW or a DVDRW that you would like to have those on there own buses, for ovious reasons. I dont think it would matter how you connect the harddrives as they are all 8mb cache ones. I would however, do as zone said and disable the extra ide card, because windows XP DOES NOT LIKE 200GB harddrives on install, after you install SP1, it will recognize it, I had the problem once and was like wtf is going on here? but at any rate, zone is on to something, and if you need any other help just ask us

[unicorn]

Install, make a Ghost image (or use the free alternative; BootIt NG) and next time you want to reinstall just use your image and restore it. Hnady thing - before making the image I usually install standard things I know I want to have there next time too.

EDIT: Spelling...

[Dudelive]

@unicorn Can you make a recommendation as to which to use..Ghost or Acronis. Thinking of trying Longhorn and see what it does.

Thanks
Dudelive

[unicorn]

BootIt NG - works ok and is free, recommended
Ghost - always works, never let me down, not free but recommended
Acronis - Works, but isn't rock stable which is irritating, it also loads a bunch of services. Good thing: You can make images while running your OS. Not recommended.

Something like that.

[roadworker]

If you have a Promise card,seach for the latest bios and drivers,and flash...they will remove the 137GB limit.
Connect only your harddisks to the pci ide card,and your dvd/cd burners and roms to the mobo ide channels.
When installing XP,press F6 and feed it the pci idedrivers with your floppydrive.