Yes, to all those advanced Technical guru's out there, I have a problem; and a question or two.
Sometime ago I installed a 500-Gb HDD in my system. I then designated and setup a 40-Gb partition (Drive "C") to install a fresh version of Windows XP Professional and assigned it as the "active" drive, of course. I then designated the remaining 460-Gb +/- portion of the drive as Drive D. I had hoped to install all my previously installed software to this Drive "D" 460-Gb HDD. My BIOS recognizes the 500-Gb HDD, and My Computer has established a Drive "C" and Drive "D" drive icon.
However, when I attempted to freehand install (from a CD)some software, I was not able to install this software onto Drive D; every install was forced to install onto Drive "C".
Although it took me some time and effort to finally install Windows XP Professional onto this new HDD, I now am experiencing problems during Windows Startup.
Sometimes I can start my system and everything goes as it should. Yet other times this occurs: The POST screen does its thing; then the Windows Logo Startup screen appears with the three blue square running inside that window. Once this completes, the screen goes black and remains that way never changing.
I have made attempts to start my system in SAFE MODE, but cannot determine what the problem could be which causes Windows Startup to freeze.
At first I though maybe a Windows Startup driver was intermittant. But why does Windows startup just fine after you turn the machine off for abour five minutes and restart it?
Second, I thought about running the WIndows XP Pro Setup disk again and clicking "R" (Repair) when prompted. I just don't have the heart to reinstall Windows XP again.
Also, I re-installed my old 80.0-Gb HDD and assigned it a as a Primary "slave" drive. This drive also contains a great deal of my software and files. I had hoped to transfer these files over to the 460-Gb (Drive D) partition by My Computer did not create a drive icon. My BIOS recognizes, and lists the 80,0-Gb drive as a Primary slave, however.
So, question #2 is this: How can I transfer my software and files from the 80.0Gb HDD to the Drive D partition of my Master Drive HDD? And, why doesn't My Computer not recognize this 80.0Gb HDD?
Can anyone out there please assist me with these issues?
My O.S is Windows XP Pro, of course. My CPU is an 1.0GHz Athlon (Thunderbird) Processor; I have 2-GB of memory (Maxed); and my Motherboard is an Aurora Giga-Byte 7X Motherboard.

If anyone is out there, please help if you can.

Mainman407