(2) Hard Drives Wanting Separate Windows 7 OS One On Each
Sep 28, 2012
I have (2) internal hardrives in my current pc, what i want to do is install a separate Win 7 OS on each. I have read that you unplug the main hardrive which already has the Win 7 OS on it. And I proceed to plug in the other hard drive, but my pc never allows my to install the Win 7 CD Rom Install disk. I keep getting the "No Boot Device Available error" It sees the hard drive and the CD Rom when I try to click on either i get the No Boot Device Available Error. When both Hard drives are plugged in there is no problems windows boots fine. How can I get the second hard drive to install the CD Rom so I can have (2) separate OS systems on the two hard drives. I am using a Dell Precision T3500 if that has anything to do with it.
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Nov 26, 2009
I want to install 7 on a separate hard drive to see how it works & work indepenantly on it's own system. How can I if at all make it so when I am booting up I can toggle in between 7 & xp startups.
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Dec 1, 2009
i have xp home 32 bit as my OS now and i have another hard drive installed and ready to install win 7 64 bit on to. can i do this with xp running or should i disconnect the HD with xp on it, then when i start the computer it won't see any OS and then i could boot from the win7 dvd and do a clean installl and then re=connect the HD with xp on it.
then when i start computer i should get the choice of which one to boot from or is this not the way to do it?? i want the OS's on separate HD's for now as i am sure that not everything that i want to run will work on the 64 bit win7 until i can afford to get all the programs i use to work on win7.
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Jan 6, 2010
I currently have windows 7 ultimate in a Dell Gx270 P4 2.6ghz I know its old. And i want to Install Windows XP in another hard drive i have, but how do i make both hard drives boot, so i can select which one i want to boot.
I'm doing this because XP mode doesn't work in this computer. And i don't want to partition.
Most information i find in google requires partitioning and i don't want that.
If you know how please post it, or post the Links where i can find it.
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Aug 8, 2012
in the past i had a seperate personal hd for my work laptop I would take my work HD out then install my personal drive in and it worked great. But now on new laptop there is a biosandhard drive can I still switch hard drives or will it not work or will my work know I swap. Them.
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May 19, 2010
I have 5 hard drives in my system and I have installed windows 7 x64 on 2 separate drives and done this within windows. However a few times it booted okay but then started hanging on the post where it states verifying DMI pool data. Subsequently I tried everything to repair as I thought that the MBR was probably corrupted.
I have installed windows separately now on each drive by disconnecting all drives except the one that I am installing and then shut that down, disconnected it and connected the next and installed a fresh copy there to.
I am concerned that windows will corrupt the MBR again when I connect the drives one by one. I am not overly optimistic about windows boot manager and its reliability.
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Jul 5, 2012
I want to run two separate drives from the same windows. I want to have all of my personal stuff on one disc and my business on the other disc, but still just running one windows from one hard drive. What is the best way to do this?
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Nov 23, 2011
Ok I have Win XP on a ide drive (still use) I bought Windows 7 and installed on a seperate drive (sata) I also Have a 1TB Storage drive for media, files etc... (sata)
Now how do I do a dual boot with what operating system I want to start with Currently, I am disconnecting one of the drives from inside the case to use either Xp or 7.
As I know when using XP it says C Drive and the same for Windows 7 when Im using that...
Think it will crash or fail to install as they both say C Drive where the O.S. is.
Ok.I got it using Easy BCD..with no issues apart from a major one now!
I have 4 Sata connections on mobo
1-Data Drive for files / media (1TB)
2-Win 7 (320Gb)
3-DVDRW Drive
4-Blank
on iDE cable - is Win XP
Now upon startup where it asks wither I want 7 or XP I can open/eject the drive but when either OS Starts and is ready to use ...my drive sticks ...cant open screen freezes!
Tried in 4th Sata connection and also other drive and same thing happens!
Mobo specs are : MCP6P M2+
4GB Memory
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Mar 4, 2012
I currently have Windows 7 installed on two separate drives in my box. I can only set (select) boot sequence in the BIOS. If I recall correctly, way back when a boot selection menu would appear when I think I was running Windows 7 (when it first came out) alongside XP but that screen no longer appears with my current setup. Is there a way to get that screen back, or an alternate way to select the OS of choice without the hassle?
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Dec 1, 2010
I have a question regarding the install of Windows 7 Professional 64 bit. I've done this on one HDD successfully and due to conflicts with additional software I wish to reinstall Windows 7 on a completely new HDD (on the same machine). This way I can keep both programs separate also leaving me with an additional OS in case the other fails. I plan to use the BIOS to switch to the other drive (boot order) when I wish to use the other software on occassion. I plan on backing up my files onto an external drive. So my question is as such, can I load Windows 7 onto a separate drive and switch the drive of which to boot from to achieve my goal?
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Mar 3, 2011
I have separate ide drives one is installed with XP Pro and the other with windows 7. I want to have the choice of either os when the pc boots i.e. choose the drive to boot the pc.
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Feb 7, 2012
I have a Dell inspiron 1545 with a pretty measly hard drive of 135gb. I have an old hard drive from another laptop which is 320gb and i'm wanting to upgrade. I have done this before but i just used all the installation disks to reinstall windows and everything onto the new hard drive. This time however, i want to be able to copy the whole contents of my current hard drive onto the new one so that when i swap them over and i boot up the computer it contains the operating system, software and files that are currently on the 135gb hard drive. I presume there is some sort of wires, software and housing that i might need to achieve this. So far i have been pointed in the direction of this software pack (Apricorn EZ Upgrade Universal Hard Drive Upgrade Kit (SATA and PATA 2.5" Notebook Drives) Deals, #EZ-UP-UNIVERSAL - Expansys.com UK) but i was wondering if there was a cheaper way to perform the required task.
I was also wondering if the new hard drive will affect battery life. The new one spins at 7200rpm compared to the old at 5400rpm.
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Dec 13, 2010
I have Window XP installed on Drive C:. My son installed Windows 7 on Drive E:. However, when the computer is booted up, it boots up in Windows 7, without allowing a choice. I suspect this can be corrected in BIOS, but don't want to screw it up.
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Mar 5, 2011
Currently running Win7(64-bit) in RAID-0 on 2 WD Caviar Black's.I just purchased a SSD drive.What I want to do is load Win7 on the SSD and use that as my main drive, while also keeping my RAID drives boot-able and in tact as they are now. (Thus, a dual-boot Win7 setup)Will the BIOS allow me to select which drive to boot from upon start-up? My mobo is an ASUS Rampage II Extreme.
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Dec 6, 2009
Is there an easy way to dual boot on separate drives, i have installed windows 7 on 1 drive & vista on another. This was done independenly on the same machine as to say put vista on last year the got another hard drive took the vista drive out put new hard drive in & installed windows 7.I connected both. they see each other.I have read lots about reinstall one OS but nothing on if its already installed. IS THERE AWAY?
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Sep 22, 2012
I have read that using a computer specifically for financial transactions with known and trusted entities (such as a bank) is a good way to reduce (though not eliminate) the risk of your accounts being hacked by reducing the likelihood of inadvertently installing a malware, spyware, or virus by reducing internet sites visited. Assuming this is correct, I was wondering about dual booting one computer with two physical hard drives (each with its own OS) versus one hard drive with two partitions. I figure the former would be "more secure" since one drive would be isolated from any unwanted programs. However, since they shared a few things (motherboard and such), is this set up as "secure" as having two computers? If so, how does one go about setting up a dual boot with two separate hard drives of the same operating system using one computer?
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Apr 13, 2011
I dual boot with Windows 7 on a physically separate hard drive, as well as XP, will XP still override my Windows 7 bootloader since it tends to get jealous?
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Nov 7, 2012
I have a Verbatim 931 GB external drive that I use to make backups on my laptop using Acronis TIH 2012. I also have another laptop with Windows 7 on it that I was wondering if somehow or someway use the one external hard drive to make image backups that I will be able to restore if something goes wrong. I gues I would have to split the 931GB into 2 seperate partitions or drives or something. This is what I'm asking. Is it possible to use this one big external drive to make backups on 2 seperate computers?
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Jul 30, 2009
I'm in IT (surprise surprise) and I have extra hard drives coming out my ears. I want to move my Win RC x64 install to a larger hard drive.
Whats the easiest way to do this? I know its possible, I used to ghost XP machines at the local highschool (dont fret, they were all licensed).
I'm toying with the concept of making a fresh install, and doing something to the effect of a system restore to it, or something like that.
On a slightly less related note, my system is more powerful a machine than i ever expected to own two years ago. Its a core i7 machine with 12gb of ram and Windows 7 installed on a raptor. Why doesn't a fresh install of Windows 7 simply fly? Sure, multitasking can be done almost infinitely (lol), but there's literally no speed increase in app startup times, opening "my computer" or the device manager. None of it works as quickly or smoothly as i would have thought.
Also, again, where can i find a simple list of changes between RC and RTM?
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Feb 24, 2012
I would like to know, if creating another partition, dedicated to media, would increase performance, and screen capture speed, like a separate hard disk would. I don't think it would because its still running on the same sata cable, meaning the transfer speed cant be dispersed, but I figured id ask to be sure. If I would get even a slight boost from this than I will defrag, and shrink my partition and add another for media.
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Oct 8, 2011
make a dualboot comp by adding windows XP to a new partition. I created the new partition with 20gb. (From the 500 of my actual harddrive)But before I actually installed on that, I got distracted with a second harddrive that my dad got(for no reason). It had a full copy of Windows XP backed up on it from another computer, so I figured I would just use that for the dualboot. I plugged it in (wired the same way as my old harddrive, but different data slot), restarted, checked the harddrive in explorer - all the data was there / reading correctly / etc, and I used 'easyBCD' to add the new harddrive to the boot list.(Which, of course, crashes if I try to start it. I just wanted to see what it would do). For a reason I can't remember, I unplugged the second harddrive for a bit, started the computer on accident (I don't know if anything loaded before I shut it off), and then when I plugged it back in.Windows 7 would not launch. It goes to a DOS-like window, except it's just a flashing _ and it never does anything even after a few minutes. XP didn't work still.. so I decided to reinstall XP (as I couldn't tell which harddrive was which on the list, I unplugged the main harddrive while installing onto the new).. and when I did this.. it formatted and installed fully... then restarted.. then restarted.. and restarted.. and just kept restarting, never showing any thing past the manufacturer logo/BIOS load-button-message-thing. So, I then try to use my 3-disk Windows7Recovery disk(burned myself with a program apparently included by the manufacturer.) It installed fully, appearing to work.. but when I launched it, it said "Invalid Partition Table" and wouldn't boot past that. When I insert my driver installer disk, it gives me a basic DOS window thing. dir A: shows the files in the disk. dir B: for some reason shows the same. C: says "Error reading from drive C: DOS area: general failure". All other letter:'s just say "invalid drive". (I'm doing this with both harddrives in.) I attempted connecting the harddrives to an old computer, but it gave an error for both. (It detected the harddrives, but said it had an error reading from it. Windows Explorer asked me to format it... {i'm willing to format one of the drives if anybody thinks it will help, but the old harddrive has data I'd prefer not to lose.} ) Looking on google, I saw several problems that all have similar problems (less overdescripptive than I am though) but none of the fixes suggested worked for me. Also - as I have two different with different errors, I only need to make one of them work.)Also - my other available computer has a CD burner / floppy drive if either are required. I also have several USB's. The computer can boot from USB's and CD's (tested), and I could easily take the floppy thingy and connect it to the computer.also - this computer is probably still under warranty unless unscrewing the hard drive voids it. .. does that count as modification of the computer?
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Aug 28, 2012
I have got two separate hard drives one running Windows 7 one running xp. I need to be able to chose which os to run but currently I can only do so by pressing F12. I have tried EasyBCD but it wont work - does anyone know how I can do this?
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Feb 3, 2013
I am wanting to purchase Windows 7 64 bit.I was going to purchase it from software4students but they aren't selling it any more.So I am wanting to purchase it but for a relatively cheap but legit price.I preferably would go for Professional but am Happy for Home Premium if the price is above £20 different.This will be for a new build so would an upgrade disk work or will I need to purchase a full version?Can anyone recommend any good UK sites for me to buy it from?
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Apr 18, 2009
I just installed Windows 7 build 7068. 64bit.I have an Asus P5WD2E-Premium mobo, and 5 Western Digital Hard drives of various sizes, all SATA.Windows recognizes only 2 of the drives, the c drive of course, and only 1 of two WD 400gig hds, which are identical.I know this may be a mobo issue, but, wasn't sure about Windows 7.
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Jul 4, 2012
Recently, my ancient desktop died on me. I had some stuff stored on the main C drive (40 GB) and some on an external 1 TB drive. I put the 40 GB HD in the external module to upload it to a laptop with a 360 GB HD. I would then like to transfer that 40 GB to the 1 TB drive. When I plug in the external with the 40 GB, it appears that the Windows 7 machine does not read it or pick it up. It recognizes it as an external device, but not as a drive.
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Apr 30, 2010
I have a HP Pavilion dv9800. It came with Vista and one 250 GB HDD. I added a second internal 250 GB SATA HDD. I got the second drive formatted and so it showed as a second drive where the HHDs are displayed. I didn't have any Vista OS software on it (to my knowledge, as far as I could see) but I could use the drive for extra storage, etc.I went to add Windows 7 with an install disk. I would like to simply replace Vista with Windows 7 and have the second HDD usable as extra space, so it would serve the same function as it has with Vista. However, when I used the install disk it asked me which drive I wished to install Windows 7 on. I installed it on on the second HDD only, so now I'm running Vista on the C: drive (and it's on D: Recovery too) and Windows 7 on the drive added second. can I replace Vista on C: (and D) and then use the other added HDD for storage, etc? In other words, I want only Windows 7 OS on this machine, but want to be able to use both drives, with a similar configuration as I had with Vista.
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Mar 8, 2011
install two hard drives using windows 7
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Jan 6, 2012
I recently completed my first build within the last two weeks. After tinkering with everything for a while I decided to pull my HDD out of my old Dell and use that as a backup.
I then got to thinking about how it might be useful to install Windows on each hard drive and use whichever one I want for whatever I want to do with the computer. IE: One HDD will be only for games and the other HDD will be for everything else I want to do. I've done a few searches and found conflicting results. To add to this problem I returned my Gygabyte MOBO for a different model. I know I will have to reformat my current HDD that Windows is installed on. So here is the twist.
When I get the new MOBO hooked up I want to use my old Dell HDD as my primary HDD because it is bigger. Since Microsoft thinks Windows is installed on the other HDD and different MOBO what will happen with I install it on a new HDD and new MOBO? It would be essentially the same as installing it on a different computer which is obviously not something Microsoft wants happening. How is this done?
Now, given that I get that to work can I then disconnect my primary HDD and plug in my second HDD, boot from disc and install all over again. I have no problem going back and forth disconnecting and connecting which HDD I want to use when i boot up if I cannot have them both hooked up to the MOBO, but I assume I can and will just choose which to boot from in BIOS. I do not plan on moving data between the two drives as I will use an external HDD for any data backup that I might need.
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Mar 26, 2010
I built a new PC and I have my old hard drive. What I would like is to install windows 7 on each hard drive and at start up be given the choice of which one I want to start up. Is this possible and if so how is it done. I did a search and I don't think I know what this is called because while I get the impression from other threads that it can be done I can't find out how. So when the PC powers up I want it to give me the choice of using HD1 or HD2 and each HD having its own windows on it that is completely separate from the other HD.
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Dec 25, 2012
I can not select my boot up drive anymore from my two hard drives, two OS pc. Both drives are SATA drive, but one of them appears as IDE in Bios. What is going on here?
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Jan 24, 2013
im going to install an ssd (and run windows 7 from it) and would like to be able to keep my old hard drive with (exsisting windows 7 installation) for a few days till i sort out what i want to copy.if i select the ssd as the boot drive then i should be able to look around in the old hard drive?? or am i wrong
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