Quick Questions: Hard Drive Upgrade

Basically I plan on upgrading my current 80gb 5,400rpm HDD with a 160gb 5,400rpm HDD.

When I receive my new HDD I plan on installing and putting a fresh copy of Windows XP on it. Make two or three partitions, C:\,D:\,E:\.

I plan to buy an enclosure for my old HDD with the old Windows install and all my stuff. When I connect it to my computer via USB will Windows recognize it even though it has a partition labeled D:\ on it which will already be on my new HDD? Should I rename the partition in case of conflicts? All I care about is D:\ on my old HDD.

Then I plan on using my old HDD as an external or whatever.

Thats it and thank you.

 

Yes it will be fine. since Windows on your new drive already has D assigned, it will simply assign the partition/s in your old drive with other letters that arent used

 

That's correct, Windows is smart enough to do that. If you dual boot XP/Vista, you'll notice the C: drive always refers to the partition of the running OS.

Looks like you'll need to update your signature usapatriot.

 

I plan on keeping Windows XP so it is the same. Thanks guys, I will be updating it soon once I receive it.

I thought 80gb would be good for a while and now I see myself needing twice the space.