i asked a similar question before sorry. i didn't get the answer i really wanted :). I have a 30 gig as the master right now and a 40 gig as the slave i want to swap them and do a fresh install of win 98 on the 40 but i want to keep some stuff on the 30(my mp3's mainly) do i need to format both of them or even the 40(its empty right now) to do the swap? Thanks Ty

Install both drives and set the jumper on the empty one to master and the other one to slave. Partition and format the now empty one. Start the computer with a bootdisk with cdrom support. Insert the windows cd and install. Then copy all the things off the old drive onto the now empty one.

Since it empty anyway it wouldn't hurt to go ahead and reformat the 40, although it's probably not necessary. If you want to keep some of the stuff on the 30, don't format it. Then as Buster says set the jumper on the 40 to master and the jumper on the 30 to slave. Boot from the 98 boot disk and at the prompt type fdisk. Say yes to large disk support and then choose option 2, set active partition. Make that partition active and esc and reboot. (Since the 30 is now a slave the bios will ignore the active partition on it.) Then do the fresh install of 98 on the 40 gig.

If you're going to format the "empty" 40GB HDD, why not remove the "not empty" 30GB HDD from the IDE cable until you're done. That will elimnate the chance of inadvertently formatting the 30GB HDD and losing your mp3's etc.

alternatively you could get a copy of partition magic which will enable you to partition your drives and set the one you want to be bootable e.t.c without having to keep swaping the leads each time.