Can not reformat drive

I have a 300 gig Seagate that I used to use as my system drive. Some
time ago I bought a 750 gig Seagate. I copied everything over from
the 300 gig to the 750 gig and disconnected the 300 gig. Now I want
to use the 300 as a data drive but when I reconnect it, Windows XP
boots off the 300 instead of the 750 and it will not let me reformat
the 300. Seagate utilities will not let me format it either.

I want to format this drive as one ntfs data partition while booting
off the 750. How can I do what I want? Thank you in advance for
all replies.
--
Whenever I hear or think of the song "Great green gobs of greasy
grimey gopher guts" I imagine my cat saying; "That sounds REALLY,
REALLY good. I'll have some of that!"

"Daniel Prince" <neutrino1@ca.rr.com> wrote in message
news:4ppa34hagjr3ub7k1a49n2g055n65dm2g1@4ax.com...
>I have a 300 gig Seagate that I used to use as my system drive. Some
> time ago I bought a 750 gig Seagate. I copied everything over from
> the 300 gig to the 750 gig and disconnected the 300 gig. Now I want
> to use the 300 as a data drive but when I reconnect it, Windows XP
> boots off the 300 instead of the 750 and it will not let me reformat
> the 300. Seagate utilities will not let me format it either.
>
> I want to format this drive as one ntfs data partition while booting
> off the 750. How can I do what I want? Thank you in advance for
> all replies.


Daniel:
It's probably just a result of the boot priority order in your motherboard's
BIOS indicating a boot to the 300 GB HDD before the 750 GB HDD.

I'm assuming that if you disconnect the 300 GB HDD and just boot to the 750
GB one the system will boot without incident and function without problems.
That's right, isn't it?

I'm also assuming both drives are SATA. Connect the 750 GB HDD to the
motherboard's first SATA connector (if it's not already so connected). That
would be designated the SATA0 or SATA1. The 300 GB drive should be connected
to the motherboard's second SATA connector.

Boot to the BIOS and ensure the 750 GB HDD is the first HDD in the boot
priority order (or whatever the BIOS calls that function).

Then, of course, access Disk Management and partition/format the 300 GB
secondary HDD along the lines you want.
Anna

On or about Thu, 22 May 2008 05:40:18 -0700 did Daniel Prince
<neutrino1@ca.rr.com> dribble thusly:

>I have a 300 gig Seagate that I used to use as my system drive. Some
>time ago I bought a 750 gig Seagate. I copied everything over from
>the 300 gig to the 750 gig and disconnected the 300 gig. Now I want
>to use the 300 as a data drive but when I reconnect it, Windows XP
>boots off the 300 instead of the 750 and it will not let me reformat
>the 300. Seagate utilities will not let me format it either.
>
>I want to format this drive as one ntfs data partition while booting
>off the 750. How can I do what I want? Thank you in advance for
>all replies.

You have to change the boot drive in your system BIOS setup. Exactly how
depends on the BIOS manufacturer, but look for something under a menu called
"Boot". It's typically a list of drives that the BIOS sees, which you can
re-order with +/- or PgUp/PgDown.

"Anna" <myname@myisp.net> wrote:

>Daniel:
>It's probably just a result of the boot priority order in your motherboard's
>BIOS indicating a boot to the 300 GB HDD before the 750 GB HDD.
>
>I'm assuming that if you disconnect the 300 GB HDD and just boot to the 750
>GB one the system will boot without incident and function without problems.
>That's right, isn't it?
>
>I'm also assuming both drives are SATA. Connect the 750 GB HDD to the
>motherboard's first SATA connector (if it's not already so connected). That
>would be designated the SATA0 or SATA1. The 300 GB drive should be connected
>to the motherboard's second SATA connector.

Both of the drives are PATA but changing the boot order in the BIOS
did solve the problem.
--
I don't understand why they make gourmet cat foods. I have
known many cats in my life and none of them were gourmets.
They were all gourmands!