2 HardDrives each having its own OS

I want to install a 212Mb HD(212Mb HD has an existing and operable Win3.1 OS with all my old important data on it)from a 486 computer into another 333 Mhz computer with Win95 OS and 3.2 Gb HD. I have tried all the possible combinations of master/slave connections, fdisk, and other things etc for days. All I want is my data,software,info etc off 212Mb HD onto my 3.2Gb Hdrive. What I want to do is access the 212MB HD treating it as a harddisk of files but instead it seems both drives can't be used on a computer when each HD having a different version of OS installed for use. I believe there must be a way to operate in the Win95 environment and still have access to the 212Mb Win3.1 OS harddrive for its data. I don't want to lose any of my 212MB HD files or data except for files such as autoexec, config.sys,win.ini, system.ini, etc or other OS system files. Presently I have had many results such as computer locking up to harddrive not being visible or accessible upon bootup etc.

It is as simple as this: I unplug my 486 Mhz computer's 212Mb (with operational Win3.1 OS)harddrive and I plug it into my 333 Mhz computer with an operating Win95 system on 3.2Gb HD and I want access to the 212Mb HD files. Simple... but of course it isn't. I have a CD-RW but of course I can't use it with Win 3.1 OS to back-up these files.

P.S. Each harddrive does work perfectly fine when I boot up while each HD is singlely connected at any one time. What gives here?

Any ideas would be greatly appreciated!

Hello Richard,
Welcome to Virtual Dr.
You should set the smaller drive as a slave and then make sure it is detected in the CMOS.

I would remove or rename command.com on the smaller drive.

That should do it.

Dave.

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*** Help others less fortunate.

So if I do rename command.com to some other name I should be able to access the smaller drive files while using Win95. Once I get the backup of the files I want, will I be able to rename the file back to command.com and would Win3.1 OS still work as originally installed on the 212Mb HD?
Thanks for the quick reply Dave.

Quote:

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Originally posted by davidgsmith:
Hello Richard,
Welcome to Virtual Dr.
You should set the smaller drive as a slave and then make sure it is detected in the CMOS.

I would remove or rename command.com on the smaller drive.

That should do it.

Dave.

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There shouldn't be any need to make changes to the files that are on the 212MB drive. I've worked with systems that have had all sorts of variations of OS's installed on two hard drives (Win95 & Win98; Win3.1 and WinME etc. etc.) with no problems. The version of Windows that's booting from the C: drive only looks for the files it needs on the C: drive (assuming that's where Windows and associated programs were installed).

Have you tried attaching the 212MB drive on the secondary IDE controller as the master drive? Sometimes, especially with older drives, there's a conflict between the two drives if they're on the same IDE cable. If the CD-ROM drive is the secondary master, go ahead and disconnect it temporarily. Right now, just for the time you're copying the data files from the old drive to the new drive, you won't need the CD-ROM drive anyway.

Make sure that the 212MB drive is properly recognized in the CMOS after installing it.

What does FDISK report when the drive is in the new system? Does it offer a choice for looking at the second drive?

Only one partition can be the boot partition or "active" partition.

Whenever a hard drive which contains Windows is moved to another computer the OS and Windows should be installed again.

Some drives have 2 "Master" settings.
Master with a slave present on the same channel and Master without a slave present on the same channel.

[This message has been edited by Robert M (edited 03-28-2002).]