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    Replacing harddrive in XPS M1210

    Discussion in 'Dell XPS and Studio XPS' started by Oceanwatcher, Mar 24, 2009.

  1. Oceanwatcher

    Oceanwatcher Newbie

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    I am changing the harddrive in my XPS M1210 from 100GB to a WD 320GB. In this process, there are several things I am wondering about.

    I am not going to image the old harddrive. I will do a total reinstall to clean out "old trash".

    After looking at the old harddrive with gparted, it seems to have three partitions.

    1 - a 86MB FAT16 partiton - rescue?
    2 - the main partition - NTFS - WindowsXP
    3 - a 3GB FAT32 partition - presumably the MediaDirect partition

    I am not going to have a similar structure on the new harddrive. The resue- and MediaDirect partitions are of no use to me. And I will install Kubuntu as the 2nd OS with a dual boot. So this is the partition I will use:

    1 - Primary - NTFS - WindowsXP - 30GB
    2 - Primary - NTFS - Data - 230GB
    3 - Primary - ext3 - Kubuntu - 15GB
    4 - Extended
    5 - Logical - ext3 - /home - 20GB
    6 - Logical - linux-swap - swap - 4GB

    I have the Kubuntu CD ready for install. And I have the CD from Dell so I can install XP. BUT -

    I want to place Documents and Settings as well as Program Files on the large Data partition. And I have made a winnt.sif file with the necessary settings. I copied all files off the Dell CD and use IsoBuster to get the boot file from it.

    Do anyone know if I need to set up a batch file to get the installer to use the winnt.sif file, or is it enough to just place it there and make the new CD? There was a winnt.sif file there already, but the content was next to nothing.

    When you specify the placement of Documents and Settings and Program Files, you have to use a drive letter. As this new harddrive has just been partitioned, how can I know what driveletters will be used? There are only two partitions on the harddrive that will be readable by WindowsXP. The first one will be C: but will the second be D: or will this be the DVD and the second partition will be E:?

    As soon as I know these two things, I can make the install CD and start the installation :)
     
    Oceanwatcher, Mar 24, 2009
    #1