I'm using windows vista now and I'm going to install back XP.. I have 3 hard drives and I'm only going to format the main drive and leave the other 2 alone..

the question is.. when I install back XP will there be any security issues with those 2 drives? will I still be able to access them?

As long as you have not encrypted nor compressed the files I see no problem.

If you have then unencrypt or uncompress them with Vista prior to installing XP.

The only other possibility I can think of is any proprietary Vista file types. For example Windows Mail and Outlook Express are not the same file types.

If you have saved e-mails you wish to preserve created by Windows Mail then get them onto other media or transfer to Text files as XP will not be able to read them.


...

I just installed XP and it can't seem to detect my other two hard drives.. anyone know what happened?

Are they detected in the BIOS?

Are they detected under Disk Management?

Right click My Computer then click Manage then Disk Management.

its not detected under disk management

Check your BIOS.

Any functioning drive regardless of file system or operating system should appear in Disk Management assuming the computer (BIOS) detects it.

Are the other two drives SATA? Did you install the necessary 3rd party drivers during XP install when prompted?

okay.. for some reason I just checked the BIOS and it appeared again.. and now it works.. thank you

Glad to hear it.

Any problem accessing your Vista created data?

Just to add if you find any Access Denied errors read this:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/308421