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How many drives can an Epox 8KHA+ hold?

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  • How many drives can an Epox 8KHA+ hold?

    I'm doing a rebuild of my system and want to use the Epox mobo with my current cd burner, dvd player, and hard drive. I also want to add a small second hard drive to the whole mix, but I don't know how many drives you can add to it.

  • #2
    The standard non-RAID board will handle up to 4 IDE devices. Just make sure to let both hard drives share the same channel so that you're not throttling their performance by hooking them up to a slow CD/DVD device.
    Old age and treachery will overcome youth and skill
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    • #3
      Alright, I'm starting to formulate my rebuilding plans better now. Now my second part of the question: Instead of backing up my current hard drive, reformatting it, and reinstalling windows xp, would it be easier to use the second hard drive as the primary hard drive, install windows xp on it, and then just erase windows xp off my older (current) hard drive? That way I can just switch the jumper to slave and keep everything I have on it except for windows.

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      • #4
        You can, but it isn't necessary to wipe out the old drive unless you just need the space. As long as you set up the new drive as a master, the system files on the old one won't interfere with the system.

        Of course, if you decide to reformat the old drive, just make sure to get all of your vital data back before wiping it clean. ;)
        Old age and treachery will overcome youth and skill
        My Toys

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        • #5
          So let me get this straight. As long as the new drive is set as the master, none of the drivers on the old drive will be used? Does that mean I have to reinstall all the drivers onto the new hard drive, or will that happen automatically when I install windows xp?

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          • #6
            Windows XP does a great job at finding usable drivers for nearly all your components, but you'll still want updated drivers for sound and video at the least.

            And yes, as long as the new drive is set as master, the old system files on your old drive will not interfere at all. Since I have a spare hard drive, this is the method that I always use when it comes time to reformat the primary one. Since my spare is what I use for testing other components, it always has a fresh install of Windows on it.
            Old age and treachery will overcome youth and skill
            My Toys

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            • #7
              An important note I don't think was covered... Not only will you have to reinstall all of your drivers, all of your major software as well.

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              • #8
                Originally posted by zeradul
                An important note I don't think was covered... Not only will you have to reinstall all of your drivers, all of your major software as well.
                What do you mean? Can't I just run them off my old drive? I mean besides installing Windows XP and all the drivers on the new drive, what else do I need to do to the old drive? How do I uninstall Windows XP from the old drive?

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                • #9
                  Let me just make sure I am understanding what you want to do. You are currently using an old slow drive as the main drive in your current computer. You are going to upgrade your system with at least a new mobo, (and I assume new ram and processor too?) And once it is all together you have a new hard drive as well that you want a clean install of XP on?

                  If that is what you are doing, then you are incorrect in assuming that the old installations of programs on the small drive will work. Most of the smaller programs WILL work (because they are very simply made and install completely into the folder they are in.... fewer and fewer programs fall into this category as the years go by... many warezed games and some warezed programs are like this, even while their legal couterparts are NOT) , but the great majority of large programs will have constant errors, and may not even start when you go to try to use them. The easiest way to check is to try to run those programs from another computer over a network... if the program can run over the network, then it is very likely the program will be fine. (Over a network means sharing it's folder within program files, and then trying to run the program over a lan)

                  The reason is because when windows installs a program, it likes to keep certain aspects of the program in places OTHER than the folder the program is in. For example, nearly all .dll files are kept in C:/Windows/System/ The reason for this is simply efficiency.

                  You may think to yourself that you would be able to go copy the old dll's and put them in your new system folder, and in short, this is impossible for the average user. If you really want me to explain why it is impossible, i can, but I bet you can think of the reasons, because a complete explaination would take a thousand words or so.

                  Dll's are just one example of this, in general, the more complex a program is, the more instances you will find that it has installed itself numerous places. Many programs modify the registry, and for you to do that is difficult as well.

                  Just go into this knowing that you will have to reinstall every program you currently have. So have the install files / cd's / disks handy.

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