I'm still on XP and since support is being cut very soon I'm getting ready to switch to Windows 7. Just a small silly question, my setup right now is one HDD for the OS and two big HDDs for storage, do I need to do anything to the non-OS HDDs or will they be good to go once Windows 7 is installed?
Assuming you have NTFS file system on the data Drives, you may have some initial issues actually accessing the data, this is a function of NTFS file security, Basically your new UserID on windows 7 will not match your current XP one
This is an issue that is seen often, but can be a little off putting
I posted a solution at our sister site Eightforums, a short while ago - you may want to have a read through before you make the change :)
Solved Going insane with Access Denied - please please help.
Are you sure about this? I asked elsewhere and they said I'd be fine. Unless you're talking about installed programs or something? The two HDDs in question don't have anything installed on them, it's just video files and stuff that are stored.
I think if it's just data, you should be OK (Though Barman's advice is sound if you do have a problem). I would unplug the data drives and just leave the OS drive connected while you install Windows 7, though. It's not completely necessary, but it's a good practice in case something goes wrong in the installation and corrupts the drives.
There will be no major problems, the Windows install don't touches anything outside the drive you choose to install in it (make sure you select the right one when asked). Other partitions and drives, as well as files on the very same partition being installed are left alone if you don't explicitly reformat them.
Barman58 got it right when pointing out the possible permission problem. You might get some "access denied" errors, but the files are still there, just take ownership/give full control once on the new system.
Unplug all other HD's, follow these same steps to do a perfect Clean Reinstall - Factory OEM Windows 7 - Windows 7 Help Forums
All are OK, unless you encrypted files/directories on the disk/drive with EFS.
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