Loading Windows 7 On Two Separate HDD Drives, Same Computer
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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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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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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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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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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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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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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Jun 6, 2011
Have upgraded to win 7 home from vista on a laptop. I copied the old vista installation to an external hard drive, with a linux pen drive so was wonder if there was a way to do a transfer from the external hard drive to the new windows install
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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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Apr 6, 2011
Ok so a friend of mine had a problem with his laptop and asked me to repair it. I have it with me back home now but I cant find any solutions ?
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Aug 16, 2011
I have a Windows 7 Pro with a 40MB drive and a 1.5TB drive. I wanted to add the TB drive to the 40MB drive which is the C: drive. I don't see a way to do this. I have checked out 3rd party software to join them but my IT friends say that's not a good idea.
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Nov 5, 2010
I am having a problem with my computer to where I can't load windows without my computer unexpectedly shutting down. I just got a new video card and did not load drivers for it. I just plugged it right in. I am thinking this might be the cause. I tried booting using my other video card and it still did not work though and those are the correct drivers that I had before. I have tried another power supply, ran a memtest, reapplied thermal paste and reseated my cooler. I have also tested a different hard drive and still the same thing. I do not have integrated graphics on my mobo so I cannot boot from my motherboard for a display. The green light for my motherboard is still on so I'm thinking that's not the problem.
Specs: motherboard Asus p5nd
Processor intel q9300 quad core
video card gtx 460 (old one is a 8800gt)
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Oct 16, 2011
my computer started freezing on on the windows loading screen, so i had to turn my computer off again, wait a few seconds and start it agin, it then worked on the second time. i couldnt get into any kind of safemode.when i got into windows i had loads of generic win32 errors, i couldnt acess the internet or any anti spy/virus programs. i shut it down and it hangs so i have to manually swith it off.i was on xp so i thought i would format my computer and install windows 7. This has helped with all the win32 errors but my computer still freezes on start up at the windows loading screen and still requires me to swith it off and restart it, this works most of the time. might have to do this 2 or 3 times.i have looked in the events viewer and it says i have 3 errors: error 6 kernel process power / restart manager.
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Nov 22, 2011
I am attempting to install a fresh copy of Windows 7 on my laptop and am having multiple problems.The HDD is formatted completely empty.
1. When attempting to use the Reinstallation DVD from Dell, the DVD boots and the progress bar moves that says "Windows is loading files," then the computer restarts and it is stuck in an infinite loop.
2. When attempting to use a copy of Windows 7 on a USB drive, the drive boots up until you see the cursor to begin the reinstallation process, then the computer restarts and it is stuck in an infinite loop.
3. When attempting to use a Windows XP DVD, it starts the setup process, and then I get error: STOP: 0X0000007B (0XF78D2524, 0XC0000034, 0X00000000, 0X00000000)
I have been able to boot command line Linux distros (haven't tried any graphical distros) without any problems. Dell instructed me to run diagnostics on everything, and everything passed, so it doesn't seem like there are any apparent hardware issues. I tried pulling the battery and just using the power cord and also removing one of the sticks of RAM and attempting installation, but I have the same problems.
Specs:
Dell Inspiron 1545 (Late 2010)
Windows 7 Home Premium
Intel Core 2 Duo
320GB HDD
4GB RAM
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May 21, 2012
I have just taken delivery of a new Win7 computer that contains 1 HDD (1TB). My old computer (Win XP) contains 2 HDDs (both 1TB). I am thinking of installing the 2 XP Drives into the Win7 box - are there any issues that I need to consider?I am also considering a boot option so that I can boot into Win7 or WinXP (from my Win XP computer). Will this set up work?
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Jun 24, 2012
Need to do Win 7 install on 50 gb partition and keep my 200+ win 7 install intact but don't want to use it as a boot and dont want to delete it just to get rid of Windows and boot. I want to use it just as a data drive. Dont want to have to activate the new small drive.
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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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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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Jul 19, 2011
I shut down windows 7, and it seems to, but the computer fans / lights / drives /Ram all still have power. I tried searching my power options and making sure everything was set properly, etc. I even re-flashed my bios. I didn't make any major changes like add new hardware / software, only some windows updates that I've now rolled-back. It looks like one or two people just had to adjust a power setting, but that does not seem to be my issue. I don't want to re-install windows.
Windows 7 64 Pro
Asus M4A79XTD EVO
AMD Althlon II x 3 435
4.0 Gigs Crucial Ram (1600)
WD Caviar .5 tb drive
LG Combo drive
Mouse / Keyboard through a starview KVM switch (swap from work and home pc's)
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Apr 10, 2012
I have a new computer that runs Windows7 64 bit. I have an older computer hard drive that has XP.I needed something from the old hard drive and hooked it up with the cables from the Windows 7 hard drive and it booted up and ran. I've since gone back to using the Windows 7 hard drive.How do I proceed to add that second hard drive running XP to the new computer so I can have the option of running either OS? I've read through some posts, but they all presume you are installing the OS to new clean hard drives, not have them already installed.Is it as simple as hooking the XP drive into the computer as a second drive and booting it up? Do I need to change some external setting on the hard drive to have it recognized as a slave? Will Windows 7 automatically change the boot to recognize the second OS and allow a choice at startup?
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Jun 4, 2012
This is a brand new Acer Aspire x1430g desktop. I cannot get some microsoft websites to load and windows live messenger will not sign in. Is it possible that Windows 7 is not compatible with my Westell 327 router/modem? Is there a setting that needs to be changed?
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Jun 6, 2012
I recently built a new computer and only had 2 SATA cables, so I had my SSD and HDD plugged in. This morning I went to plug my dvdrom in. I realized my HDD was plugged into a SATA2 port so I switched it to the SATA3, and plugged the dvdrom into the SATA2 port. I was always told it isn't a problem. A few hours later. I get bluescreened (happens every couple of days). But then I get a disk read error ~20 min later... I don't know if it matters, but then my main program crashes ~15 min later. After reloading it, ~15 later again, I get thick vertical *fuzzy plaid-like* lines and comp freezes. Restarted and now I'm experiencing where my computer freezes within a minute or two,with those huge vertical block lines. (I've seen similar when someone overclocked their GPU too high) I am not even running apps, just turning it on and this happens... Haven't done updates in several days. System is in my sig. I didn't build it, my tech-savvy friend installed everything. Windows 7 64-bit.
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