transfering W95 to W2k disk

[tyro]

Hi

I have a new computer that I want to install Windows 2000 on. My old computer is running Win 95. I want to transfer my data from the old computer to the new computer. I have never done this before and am not really sure how. Is there a problem to transfer the information if I make the windows 2000 NTFS? the win 95 computer is running FAT 16. I was planning on installing both hard drives on the new system and then doing it. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. As I said I have never done this before. I don't want to upgrade to Windows 2000 after copying the files over to the new computer because I want to do a clean install.

Thank you very much

 

[RSeymour]

You need to be careful here or you could lose the lot.

Firstly, make a backup of the stuff you really can't do without or rebuild (just in case).
Dump the data you want to save onto a seperate logical partition on your hard drive, or better still onto a different physical disk in your PC.
Blast out Win95 and reformat the C: partition ONLY as Fat32 (remember your data should naow be safely on partition D: etc)
Start the Win2000 install and be careful to select the install option that allows you to install without disturbing existing partitions, and install ONLY to the C: partition.
Once the Win2000 install is finished and you are happy that you have a working PC and you still have your data on the other partition, go into the drive manager and convert the drive to NTFS.

Thats the safest way as far as I'm concerned. There shouldn't be any risk involved in converting to NTFS but it's better to be safe. Good luck.

 

[tyro]

Thank you very much. will there be no problem because the data on my windows 95 hard disk is FAT 16(I have to seperate hard disks the WIN 95 one and the new empty one).
You say:
"Once the Win2000 install is finished and you are happy that you have a working PC and you still have your data on the other partition, go into the drive manager and convert the drive to NTFS."
Is that refering to the whole physical drive or just the C: drive? If it is just the C: drive will W2K have a problem reading the data?

tyro

 

[RSeymour]

When you do the conversion you have to specify the individual partitions (one or more at a time), so it is your choice as to if you convert the entire physical disk or just one of the partitions on it.

Win2000 doesn't care for the greater part what the partition is formatted as, as long as it is a valid format. It is likely however to recommend to you that you change it to at least FAT32. The choice is yours but if the disk is a reasonable size (say 40Gb and higher) I would think seriously about making everything NTFS. If you do decide to make the second disk NTFS I would personally make a copy of the data on your new primary disk (the new one with W2K installed) before you do the conversion, but then I am a deeply distrustfull person when it comes to my precious data.

Best of luck.