Adding a new hard drive to a WinXP machine

[Dudster]

My 30GB IBM 75GXP (secondary drive) has developed bad sectors for the second time so I'm gonna replace it with a new 80GB Western Digital Special Edition. With Win98 I'd just Fdisk it and be done but I dunno how to do it with XP.

What I want to do is create an extended partition (don't want a primary partition on it as it'd mess my drive letters up) and create 4 logical DOS drives within it. The drive being replaced is set up this way and I want my DVD and CDRW drives to retain their current drive letters.

I'm guessing it can be done by booting from the WinXP (Home) CD but I dunno. Would now be a good time to get Partition Magic?

Thanks

[fosin]

I think PQMagic is better, but you should be able to do it while in XP.
Control Panel->Admistrative tools->Computer Management->Disk management.
Right-click the items in the gray area for options. And don't use the Dynamic Disks option. You can set the drive letters after partitioning.

[Dudster]

Thanks fosin. Just had a look at some help files in Computer Management and looks like it'll be no problem. Plus I didn't realise I could reassign drive letters if they get messed up.

[dusty]

you could also run Ghost from the old hard drive to the new one. there is an option to move and resize the partitions also..

Rick

[NDC]

Under Windows XP, you don't need FDISK for the initial install or after the install...