Installing Windows 7 With Windows XP But On Separate HDDs
Mar 26, 2012
I have a common problem, which I see has afflicted many (wish I had read the forum b4 venturing forth). I have a Win XP SP3 install working on the C drive. No problems there and working for over a year. I wanted to set up a dual boot Win 7 on a separate disk. No problem in the installation.
When I went to boot the system I realised that the install had changed the XP install because when I removed the Win 7 HDD my old system would not boot. I now realise that I have to use the two HDDs in tandem to have a working dual boot, which is not what I had wanted.
Another silly mistake made was that I didn't set a restore point when setting out as I thought I was being careful in installing Win 7 on a separate HDD. Now I realise that theWin 7 boot loader has overwritten the old boot.ini file. Without a restore point how do I get back to a working Win XP boot.
I am wanting to return to old state and install Win 7 again, but this time disconnecting the Win XP drive. The system will detect a new formatted blank drive only and hopefully set up a stand alone Win 7 installation.
Am I making sense and more importantly can it be done given I didn't set a restore point on my Win XP installation before setting out? I have read in forums that in Win XP I can go to the boot.ini file via msconfig and manually make some alterations to make the dual boot go back to only booting the Xp install.
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Aug 4, 2012
I want to combine my 2 desktops into one, since I never use both together and the older one is very dated by now (think Time/tiny computers old). My current machine is an Asus P5Q-E with a C2D and has one HDD on a SATA connection running windows 7 64bit. The old computer is a single core Athlon 2700+ thing with a pair of hard drives on a single IDE ribbon.What I want to do is put the hard drives from the old machine into the newer and be able to choose between Windows XP already installed on the old master IDE hard drive and Windows 7 on the newer SATA drive (I've only kept the old computer to run XP for compatibility), all the while keeping the old slave IDE drive as a slave.
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Mar 12, 2012
I would like to remove Vista from my dual boot setup. Here is how I got to where I am now.
I had Vista installed on my PC hard drive (was C. Later, I decided to install Windows 7 HP on a new and seperate HDD. I unplugged the Vista HDD and added the new HDD and installed Windows 7 as if from scratch (I was worried that the install would mess up all my files on Vista). After the Windows 7 was up and running, I then reconnected Vista redesignated it as drive E: and after some searching on how to, I created the dual boot using my Windows 7 disk so I'm assuming the boot file in on drive C: along with Windows 7.
I now want delete the dual boot and Vista so I can use the drive as a backup drive or possibly Win8. I have found several methods to do this but none that really have my specific situation.
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Nov 3, 2009
I've done some searching for this and found some similar issues but nothing fits exactly what I'm trying to do. I have been running Vista Ult. 64 bit for a little over a year and have loved it. It solved all the problems I had with XP Pro 32 bit on my hardware. I bought 7 Pro 64 bit through www.theultimatesteal.com since I'm taking some night classes. I forgot I couldn't upgrade from Ult.
to Pro so I had to do a clean install, which I did, on a separate drive. I have five drives in my system, C, D, and E are all 1TB while F and G are 1.5TB. C is where Vista is installed and G is where 7 is located. I'll be going back and forth between the OS's until I get everything the way I want it.
At that point I want to remove Vista and have 7 be the only OS. But I do not want to migrate the install onto the 1TB C: drive, I want to keep it on the 1.5TB drive but have it recognized as the C: drive. The install was done from within Vista from the download since my physical media has not yet arrived. So even when I boot into 7, it is seen as being installed on the G: drive; it did not make itself the C: drive.
So I'll need to get rid of Vista, get 7 to see itself as being the C: drive, get rid of the boot menu, and swap the drives and cables around to put my 7 install at the head of the HDD pack. I've already done a full system backup of my Vista install with Acronis TIH 2010. How do I need to go about this? On another note; why did MS only offer home and pro through ultimate steal? They offered Vista Ultimate. I mean, it is called ULTIMATE steal, not Pro steal afterall, and it would have made the upgrade process that much easier.
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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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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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Oct 17, 2012
My computer has windows 7. I created a separate partition on my hard drive to install windows xp, but now when I try to install it I get an chkdsk /f error.
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Jun 3, 2010
Windows 7 Home premium pre installed on system when purchased (SATA0). I put in a new hard drive (SATA1). What i want to do is install windows XP home edition on the HD that i just installed. When i restart and boot from disk the windows installer shows up and gives me an error message that says check drive F: (New HD) for errors, Viruses etc. which i have done over and over and still nothing. I have searched more threads than i can count and have found problems similar but have tried to do what others did to correct with no luck.
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Sep 23, 2009
When the final version of Windows 7 is released I am going to install the Windows 7 operating system to my C drive and put my data on a separate physical D drive. I am going to put the temporary Internet files and the Windows temporary files folders on that D drive. What user folders would anyone suggests go to the D drive and what other data and/or folders would anyone suggest to go on the D drive?
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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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Oct 15, 2011
I installed Windows 7 on a 20GB partition on a 2TB HDD for my PC on a AMD E-350 APU motherboard.
1) Can I use the other partition that doesn't have Windows 7 installed and RAID it with another empty HDD?
2) Will I be able to add another HDD down the road and add it to the RAID without erasing all my data without using a RAID Manager like Intel Rapid Storage?
If Yes: How can I do this?
If No: Is there a RAID Manager that I can use that will allow me to do this?
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Aug 9, 2012
I recently had Windows 7 Pro installed onto my 80GB HDD. This was the only HDD plugged in when the installation too place.
Now, when I plug in either of my other internal HDDs, windows will not detect either. I have tried different jumper and IDE cable settings but it will not detect either of the other hard drives.
Also, while im thinking about it, what is the best way to set up in terms of HDDS and IDE cables and jumpers?
I guess windows 7 should be plugged into IDE 1 Primary Does it matter if i used IDE 1 secondary or IDE 2 primary/secdondary for disc drives and other internal hard drives? Should I have my windows HDD jumper set to 'master with slave' and any other HDD(s) set to 'slave'?
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Apr 4, 2012
I'm trying to install Windows 7 and the setup isn't recognising any of my hard drives. I know they work because I've tested them on another computer. Odd thing is the BIOS just says 'Hard Drive' rather than listing the manufacturer and model like it usually does.
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Nov 18, 2011
It is occurring on my Dell Studio XP - running Win7 Pro. Intel� Core™ i5 CPU 650 @ 3.20GHz.
I'm trying to back up to ext hdd. But however I connect one, I mean to whichever usb port, win explorer fails to pick it up. Although the machine does play a sound so I would have thought it would be recognising it at some level.
The problem is not the hdd. I've tried with two different hdds both of which work with other desktops.
This morning I tried the troubleshooter from Control Panel. Result (copied from troubleshooting report) was as follows:
Issues found Hardware changes might not have been detectedHardware changes might not have been detected Detected Scan for recent hardware changes Completed
Potential issues that were checked Windows Update configured to never install driversWindows Update configured to never install drivers Driver updates aren't automatically installed when detected by Windows Update. Issue not present
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Sep 4, 2010
I have one HDD C: with Windows 7 64bit and another HDD from my previous dual boot PC with two partitions C: and E:, both winX pro.How is it possible to combine both HDDs, creating a multi boot system having as C: my Windows 7 drive?
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May 12, 2011
I have Windows 7 Home Premium on my desktop and want to install Windows XP on a WD External Hard Drive. When I insert the CD for installation will I have the option of determining which HD it loads to?
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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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Sep 13, 2010
My computer has two 1GB HDDs.Disk C: is the boot disk and is running Windows 7 64 bit upgraded from Vista 64.Can I use the same Win 7 disk (and key) to install to Drive E: as a clean install? I think the new installation would pickup a dual boot system and give me the option as to which I wanted to use.I understand that I can't use the same disk for two different machines.But can I use it for two installations on the same machine?
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Apr 16, 2011
I've just got a fresh Windows 7 install up, and I was wondering-- is it worth keeping an admin account separate, and running on a standard user unless needed? Would some things be restricted completely, or would it just require a password instead of automatic? Also, if it is the case that I should be running in standard for security reasons, can I make a new account, switch that one to admin, and make this one standard without messing anything up? I have a bit of programs installed on this current administrator account (right now, the only one on the computer. The programs I have installed, specifically, are Avira/Malwarebytes and Firefox.
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Feb 24, 2011
Is it possible to get Windows 7 to use 2 keyboard BUT where the 2nd keyboard has separate inputs associated with it? This is regarding a flight simulator, where I want to use a 2nd keyboard as an input panel, effectively doubling my assignable keys. Is there some hack, 3rd part app or other way to do this in Windows 7?
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May 12, 2011
I have Windows 7 on a 30GB SSD, and a 2TB HD I keep most of my games and whatnot on. I want to learn Objective C programming and Cocoa Touch for developing Apps. But to the point, I need to run the SDK. I can't do that on Windows (I think) and buying a Mac just to learn programming is out of the question. I may be able to build a hackintosh, but I'd rather not. That being said, I want to know if I can create a Dual Boot system where Windows 7 is my main/default OS, and have a separate Hard drive for the OS x leopard. I've seen some tutorials stating on how to partition ONE drive. I don't want that. I want two separate drives. One only for OS X, and the other only for Windows 7. Is this possible? I'm willing to buy a 1 TB drive and get it going. Have Windows 7 and OSX. Want both on my PC without having to partition one drive. Want separate drives for each OS.
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Oct 31, 2011
I have a Lenovo with Win 7 on it and the following specs.Pentium CPU P6100 @ 2.00GHz4.00 GB64-bit OSso what I want to do is create 4 different accounts on my windows 7. Each account has to have its own web surfing history and cookies and private setting. The reason is because I want use on each account a different VPN with its own dedicated IP address.if anybody can let me know how I could do this step.
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Apr 6, 2012
my sister downloads 4-5 games a week that always appear on my computer desktop. she has an administer account that i think she needs to download the games. when i delete her games from my desktop, they disappear from hers
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Nov 20, 2012
I foolishly removed folders from my HDD which I mistaken for one I was cleaning up.For some reason there were windows folders on it even though my operating system is on a separate SSD.I did it in mini XP using hirens.I tried several ways to reinstall and recover the folders before restarting my pc to see if I had stuffed up.On restart it went into repair mode,I tried a few things, still no good.Two questions, 1 why is there OS folders on my HDD? 2 can i recover or do i reinstall?
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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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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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Mar 22, 2012
I am going to reinstall windows 7 on my SSD but when I built my computer a few weeks ago I used a 60gb SSD for windows and a separate HDD for files, programs, etc. Now I am wondering how reinstalling windows 7 will affect the program files on the separate HDD. I'm figured the OS recognizes the programs on my separate HDD b/c it installed them there. But if I install a new OS how can I tell it to recognize the program file on my separate HDD? Or am I S.O.L. and I need to delete the programs folder and reinstall everything fresh with the fresh OS?
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Nov 16, 2011
I have a 2TB drive that is split into 2 partitions, Partition A has a fresh install of Win 7 Ultimate on it, Partition B is a copy of all the info from my old hard drive. For some reason the Windows 7 install Users folder with all the data in it is being copied to the WindowsDocuments & Settings folder of the old data. Also another weird thing is if I delete any of the mirrored files from Partition B x:WindowsDocuments & SettingsXXXX on they will also be removed from Partition A's x:UsersXXXX. Its driving me a little crazy, if anyone knows what could be happening please let me know whats going on. One more thing, I have unmounted Partition B to see if the files are sym linked from Partition A, but it doesn't seem like the folders are sym linked as the files still accessible while Partition B is unmounted. One more thing is that the only data being replicated is the Primary User account and everything that resides in it.
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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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