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I am planning on taking a c hard drive from a computer I am no longer using and adding it to another computer as a secondary hard drive for more space. The old computer was windows vista and the computer I am installing it in is xp. Since the old hard drive was a C drive, when I connect it to the other computer will it want to boot from vista? I would like to just wipe it and format it for more space. What steps should I take to ensure it is partitioned correctly.

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  • This belongs on SuperUser
    – gWaldo
    May 16, 2012 at 15:44
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    May 16, 2012 at 15:50

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It will try to boot to whatever the BIOS is set to try first. You will most likely have significant problems trying to boot the system to Vista from the other PC's HDD though as the drivers and settings will be for the old PC.

If you are just going to use the drive for additional storage, just a standard format as NTFS (or whatever you choose is best for your application) should be fine.

Note: The drive letter assignment is not hard coded onto the drive, that is handled by the OS. The fact that you are installing an old "C drive" from a different PC will have no impact. The OS will see the drive and treat it like additional storage.

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  • Ok that's that I wanted to know. Wasn't sure if it war going to see vista os on it and think it should try to boot from it
    – Lars Hovden
    May 16, 2012 at 15:48
  • @Lars Vista has nothing to do with it. However, the partition on that drive must be marked "Active" since a computer was booting off it. Thus it will still be bootable in any other computer. The order of presidence will be set in your BIOS/UEFI.
    – Chris S
    May 16, 2012 at 16:31

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