malgazz

Hi Ken Thanks for the reply. All 3 drives are physically mounted in the chassis of the pc. I disconnected the "daily use" and "backup" drives ( removed data cables) and loaded a fresh copy of XP onto the 3rd drive. Although all 3 drives are still in the pc. Only the one with the fresh XP copy is connected. The others have their cables disconnected.

Hi Ken All 3 drives are physically fitted into the pc. I disconnected the daily use and back up drives ( removed the data cables) when loading a fresh copy onto the 3rd drive.

Hi I have an older pc, which shortly will be used as a dedicated unit for controlling a machine. This pc has 3 identical hard drives. The one hard drive contains a copy of XP, which has all the stuff for day to day use (internet, mail, antivirus, etc) The 2 other drives, one for back up and 1 for later use - storing drawings. I am still in the process of finishing off the cnc machine and getting to a stage where I would like to start testing the motors etc. This has meant that the machine control software has to be installed and configured. Bright spark that I am..... I realized that the system to run the machine control software, has to be one with ideally no interfering "junk" ( antivirus, web browser etc etc). So bright spark says ok easy enough, just disconnect the drives, leaving one which will be used as the dedicated pc and load a fresh copy of XP and the programes which are required. Which I duly did, with the idea that the back-up drive will be partitioned for back up and drawing storage. Leaving me with the original daily use drive flapping about the case with nothing to do but sit idly by and wait till the others are disconnected and it reconnected on it's own. I would like to know whether it is possible to run both of the drives simultaiously (boot to either one); they were created individually of each other as a single drive (1 drive in pc) and both are "C". The way I am doing now is to turn off the pc, disconnect the cable from the drive, connect the other drive and restart. Is their some kind sole to shoot me or some advise to clear up my woes.