Lately my computer has been crashing more often. I do run anti virus and adaware quite often so I don't think it's been attributed to that. I run Windows XP. I only have 1/2 gb of ram and I've had this comp for at least 3-4 years. I have had to manually restart the comp a few times do to the computer completely freezing. A couple of times (not all the time) the computer has not been able to detect my master hard drive. I had to leave it alone for a 20mins and then it is able to boot. However, I am nervous that the hard drive might be crashing so I purchased a new one. I currently have 2 internal drives in my comp. My question is can I basically copy and put my master drive's contents in my slave drive, some how change my slave then to my master. Take out the possibly defective drive and install the new one. Oh, while I was at it. I also purchased a new DVD burner and 2gb of ram. DO you recommend I change everything at once, or do one at a time? THanks in advance everyoneI would start by changing the RAM... It's the easiest thing to put into the mainboard.
I wouldn't BOTHER with the burner until you have your HDD problem sorted.

Firstly, do you hear a sort of clicking noise at any POINT coming from your HDD?

Have you ran any anti-virus & anti-spyware (in SAFE mode) programs?
Give this a go and see if it comes up with anything.

Also, download and install (without Yahoo! Toolbar) CCleaner. Let it fix any issues it finds and when you do the registry section, make sure you save a backup.

And to answer your question on copying and pasting your drives contents to your new HDD, this will not work. You will either need to resolve the issue with the current HDD or we can guide you in getting your new HDD into your comp for use (im guessing as your primary drive?)

Hi, thanks for the info. MY HD has become much noiser on start up. Doesn't sound like a click, but more of a whirling, if that makes sense. I will install CC cleaner and let u know what happensAlong with following the good advice above travel to the HDD's manuf. site and grab their free diagnostics and run it on the offending drive to see if it can be trusted with VALUABLE data or not...

Also another good solution for the drive issue:
Select which HDD you now want as the master drive...pick the newest one.
Then travel to that drive's website as well and DLoad their free tools.
You can now boot to the CD you create from that file and "clone" the troubled drive directly to the new one you have chosen...
Then you simply remove all other HDD's from the system...set the "new" drive as master and you will be booting up in no time to your original OS and you're good to go.

Note:
The drive you choose for master is who's software you should use for this procedure i.e. the "new" HDD

Note 2: You will need to remove anything from that drive that you need prior to doing this as all existing data will be wiped.

But don't get ahead of yourself here...follow the advice from GX 44 first and then move on.
Good Luck and keep us posted, and Welcome to CH.ArrghH!!! So I THOUGHT I checked it out and bought the right size RAM to replace my old one, but when I opened up the computer the knotches didn't line up!! My old ram is PC3200U-30330 HYMD232646A8J-D43 AA-A
HOw do I know what the size of it is? It's the stock ram that came with my Dell Dimesion 8300. Also I want ot replace the master drive. What steps do I need to take so that I will be able to boot up? Thanks againTravel to Crucial . com and enter the specs of your machine to determine what type of RAM it can use...
Without RAM the HDD is a moot point right now so lets solve this first.