Heh, I'm still looking at this, trying to figure out exactly what the
situation is! But I think it's coming to me now...

I. Now: P166
Hard drive #A (master) has W98SE in C partition.
Hard drive #B (slave) storage

II. Next week: P1.2 GHZ (new computer)
Hard drive NEW (master), will have fresh install of W98SE in C partition
Hard drive #A (becomes slave) storage, from P166

III. After that: P166
Hard drive #B will have W98SE in C partition

If I understand it, in II, after the fresh install on New, the present OS
install on hard drive A can be deleted- not uninstalled????

Okay, you *can* delete the contents of A, but it is much slower, more
complicated, and less comprehensive than running Format.


I would like to transfer, somehow, the present install in I on the A
drive to the B hard drive, to use in III, but can't do that in the I
situation??

Yes, using the software I gave the links to, the Master can be cloned to the
Slave, ie the drive's contents copied *exactly*. The software will set the
old Slave 'Active' and the old Master 'hidden'. It cannot, of course, swap
the
jumpers! But it will do everything else.

Be careful with FORMAT commands - although there is ample warning. The other
command to investigate is FDISK. When you run FDISK, remember to always
select 'Y' for yes when asked if you want to enable large disk support. Many
end up accidentally limiting the size of their disks to 2G by not selecting
this!

Running FDISK, you will get the option to view information for the other
disk (ie not the main one, which FDISK will *initially* display information
for). You can then use FDISK to delete the contents of that disk. And that
*is* deleting, but not so much deleting the operating system - although it
does do that - but deleting the file system! It leaves an unformatted
disk as opposed to one ready for installing another system to. However, if
you're using the disk again (for data this time around) you will still have
to format it, but you can do that in the new computer if you wish.

So, yes, you can blank the old Master before transferring it to the new
machine as a Slave.


Shane