changing the drive on which the OS is on

[blade2]

i was thinking ahead in the future, that if my computer was to ah heck up and i wanted to do a clean install of Windows, id lose all the programs/data on my 40gb disk on which everything is installed so....
i was thinking if i was to install Win XP Pro on my 8Gb (D connected to IDE1 and have everything else like programmes on my 40Gb IDE0 (C so that if i were clean reinstall WinXP Pro, i wouldnt lose all my proggy's and mp3's.

this is a good idea right?
so how would i carry this out? install WinXP Pro on D: and then delete the Windows folder in C: thus retaining the programmes currently installed (would they work?)
or would i have to do a reinstall onto C: and format D: and start all over again?

 

[obenton]

Some programs would run from D:'s XP, but those requiring registry entries wouldn't unless you also installed them using D:s XP. You could use D:'s XP to periddically back up the C: drive, but that's a lot of work. Easiest to just back up C:'s important data, and reinstall XP on C: if ever you have to.