Changing the order of HDDs and migrating XP

[dmarook]

Hello everyone,

I have 4 HDDs in my system (ABIT NF7-S V2.0).

HDD 1 is connected to SATA port 1 on the MoBo and has my current XP installation designated drive C: in XP. It has 1 Primary partition and 3 extended partitions (E,F,G).

HDD 2 is connected to IDE 0 and has a single partion designated drive D:.

HDD 3 has 2 partitions (L, N) and is connected to SATA port 2 on MoBo

HDD 4 has 2 partitions (K, P) and is connected through a PCI SATA controller card.

My xp installation has been there for ages and is seriously clogged up. I am planning to reinstall XP, gradually migrate my programs to the new xp install and the eventually wipe clean my old xp installation. I have to do this slowly over a few weeks as i can spend very little time on my system due to other commitments and also I need a running system while all these migrations take place.

My question is, if I connect HDD 4 to MoBo Sata port 1 and HDD 1 to PCI controller card and then isstall the new xp on HDD 4, will it recognise the previous install of xp on HDD1? Will I be able to dual boot to the old XP? what will be the implications of physically changing the order of the hard drives on the old installation of XP?

Alternately should I install the new XP while the HDD4 is still connected to the PCI controller and then move it when the migration is complete? I want my primary OS drive to be connected to the MoBo directly rather than through a perripheral card.

I know there would be issues with where the bootloader files would be located. I unfortunately don't have much experience in this matter and all suggestions and help will be grately appreciated.

And eventually if I am successful in migrating, How would I cancell the dual boot option and boot only in to the new installation of XP?

Thanks in advance.

DMarook