Two Hard Drives Already Loaded XP/Windows 7-Install Into One Computer?
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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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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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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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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Oct 13, 2012
How to run through a quick clean install of windows 7 and my hard drive as I believe I have some nasty root-kits. All I need to know is where I can download windows 7 again - I have product key). And some basic steps doing the clean wipe. Also could you take me through partitions and how to do one? I want my hard drive completely clean restoring my system.
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Nov 23, 2012
I have built many computers but am having a little bit of a problem with some things and my new one. My new install went great. All programs installed without a hitch. Fast and furious is the way it went to get everything installed. Now, after a week or so I have started having a couple glitches. When I go to install a new program or update it the program just sits there for 4 or 5 minutes before doing anything and then finally starts to do its thing. The other issue is that I am trying to do a backup and image clone to get my new system backed up. The problem there is that the windows backup won't see my hard drives. I then tried Norton Ghost and the same thing happened. What is causing this?
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Nov 1, 2009
i can't see the hard drives in my computer
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Jan 29, 2012
Can we install same OS in different hard drives?
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Mar 30, 2012
I just bought a new computer with Windows 7 Professional 64 bit . I added 2 hard drives from my old computer to the new one. The old computer was Windows XP 32 bit with a Raid 1 configuration. I just want the added hard drives as storage and non raid. The installation went smoothly but the new computer recognizes the 2 added hard drives as one drive. Also when I boot up, the boot screen from the old computer shows briefly with the intel raid 1 info.
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Jun 4, 2012
i recently built my computer and it has four hard drives, a new SSD, and three HDDs all taken out from my old computers. when i open my start menu and type something in only the results from the SSD will come up, how do i fix this, also all my old HDDs still have their operating system on the i never bothered working out how get rid of them.
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Dec 9, 2012
I'm installing Windows 7 on an older PC. It was running on it before but my hard drive bit the dust. When I boot from the install disk and go to install it, there are no hard drives listed and the message says "No drives were found. Click Load Driver to provide a mass storage driver for installation."
It's an old Dell Dimension 8300 with a couple WD hard drives in it, a 250GB and a 500GB. I could get the model numbers if that's necessary.
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Feb 23, 2012
Recently my computer's hard drives started clicking, both of them. I wasn't able to copy off my files or boot up as it would constantly freeze. So in order to save my data I bought a sata to usb cable to connect to my laptop to copy off the data. When I connected it I was able to save all my data and the hard drive didn't freeze one bit...a friend of mine suggested that it wasn't the hard drive but in fact the power supply that was causing it. Could it really be that or is my HD really dying or is it something else?
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Dec 1, 2012
my computer does not starting up...so i choose to press f12 then diagnostics then it shows that no hardrive detected -warning.
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Nov 13, 2012
I recently noticed an issue when trying to connect to external hard drives. Initially noted that it wasn't showing in 'my computer' and so assumed I had driver issues and sought to update them from Dell's site. After doing so there was still no change, but noted that It was appearing in 'device manager'.I even tried updating the USB hubs from the Device Manager, and it states that they are all up-to-date with the correct drivers. Both external hard drives that i have tried has worked on other PC's so i assume that mine is the issue.
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Jul 25, 2011
I am running windows 7 64 bit, and have 4 external hard drives attached (not the best way, but until I can afford a server, the only way). I am using my computer as a media center only. When I wake my computer it can take a while (30 seconds to a minute), before I can use it, due to it starting up my external hard drives, but I have noticed a couple of times, my computer will wake without starting up my external hard drives (able to use media center within 2 seconds). Does anyone know if there is a way to get my computer to wake up without starting up the external hard drives every time?
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May 18, 2012
I just updated to a z77 i5 3.4 and everything has installed fine except for my creative arena headset usb. It was working just fine on my other machine earlier today but now that I have a new mobo and cpu it will not install the drivers. My SSD and HDD were not reformated and I have tried uninstalling and reinstalling the drivers a few times with no change. I just get 3 rapid beeps when I plug the USB in.
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Dec 5, 2012
I have a lenovo pc 9210 all diags pass all hardware is good. was running xp fine loaded vista ok loaded windows 7 32 bit runs ok, needs windows 7 64 bit...loaded windows 7 64, reboots after load begins first time setup then completes as normalreboots ....and hard drive light blinks .... then starts to start windows 7 but gets the four colored dots then just sits there no more hd lights no , no nothing.
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Jun 15, 2012
Would like to get general thoughts on the best way to transfer programs from old computer to my new 8-core Windows Pro 64-bit(new install) computer. One of my areas that I'm concerned with is that several of the programs I'm wanting to transfer were purchased over the internet & downloaded with no physical media involved. Otherwise, I would just do the install via the install cd's
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Oct 12, 2011
Can anyone tell me if I can install an OEM Win 7 64 bit serial number on a system that was loaded from a Dell reinstallation disk? I bought the disk, and what turned out to be a bogas serial number from different venders. Now I have purchased the whole legitimate program from a vender I trust. The reason for wanting to do this involves licensing limits on other expensive software already loaded.
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Feb 11, 2011
At this point i knew exactly what had gone wrong and had a major panic attack, i thought i had lost all my precious files, which i had no backup of. Then i remembered when i first got the computer i had to burn something called Acer eRecovery manager to 3 CDs. I then loaded the CD via the Boot Menu, and from there chose to restore my system but still retain user data (rather than restore to factory settings). the 2 and a half hour procedure, i found that all of my documents had been saved. I immedietly rushed to the store and bought a external hard drive and backed up all of my documents.
Now, moving on to the problem. Well it actually a very easy problem to describe. My new computer is now 50x slower than what it used to be, and im not even exaggerating. When i first got the Computer it loaded in 20 seconds, now it takes half an hour. Before this happened, when i used to click on internet explorer it came up instantly, now when i click on it it takes a minute or so. The problem is that i literally just bought this computer, and it cost me alot of money. It worked brilliantly fast when i first got it, now after this my old laptop is even better than it.[CODE]
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Apr 1, 2012
Running windows 7 ultimate 32bit full retail.
Asus M4A77TD.
Radeon 3850.
AMD Phenom ii black edition.
2 x 2GB Patriot G2 PC3-10666 1333MHz.
Running Windows 7 for about 3-4 months after old motherboard died. System was idle for about 2 hours when screen went blank for about a second, then replaced by bluescreen.
"The computer has rebooted from a bugcheck.
The bugcheck was: 0x000000c2 (0x00000007, 0x0000109b, 0x08060017, 0x87d1d218).
A dump was saved in: C:WindowsMEMORY.DMP.
Report Id: 033112-16177-01."
Got this from event viewer. This has happened a couple of times intermittently, but let it go...til now, not sure if its the same error message, as this is the first time I got BSOD while system idle. Also, have had other erratic behaviour e.g.: while transferring large files to external drive transfer would stop leaving me thinking all done, this would happen when power options set to power down monitor after 30 minutes. Have set monitor to never sleep and problem solved, but maybe worth a mention here. Also, have noticed warning in event viewer, "dll's for all apps being loaded". Using avast free av, and noticed avast real time scanner going crazy with 100%...maybe its scanning all these dll's at that time but again not sure, just maybe worth a mention.
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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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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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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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Nov 19, 2011
I picked up a used computer that has vista. I have an extra hard drive with windows 7 on it. Is there something I need to do other than swapping out the hard drives? Replacing the vista hard drive with the windows 7 hard drive. When I did this, the pc will automatically run system repair. I get patch prevented the system from starting Windows 7 will not start on the pc, so is there something else I must do?
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Nov 13, 2012
I have some questions about window 7. I want to switch two hard drives from a different computers; one mechanical and one ssd. The problem is they both have window 7 os 64 bit oem editions. Is there any legal way for me to accomplish this? And if a an alternate universe me does it regardless, what is the potential consequences it might face?
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Apr 21, 2009
I was running Windows 7 and I decided to test out Linux Ubuntu so that I would know what I was talking about with the OS. The disc run was pretty bare bones so I decided to install it onto my system. Bad news is that it completely messed up Win7 somehow and I was pretty much forced to do a re-install of my Win7 installation. When I went to re-install to fix the lag errors, it says I can't install on any of my hard drives because they have been all changed to ext3 format by Linux. I have no idea how to change them back to NTFS format for Windows. is it possible to format my hard drives back to NTFS using the command prompt that is in the Win7 install disc?
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Dec 6, 2011
I have a M2010 running Windows 7 ultimate using raid. I was wondering if I put in a hd in the secondary spot if I could add XP Pro and dual boot. I have some things that work better under XP. I put my old laptop drive in and set the bios raid to auto detect/ata. It booted to 7 and installed drive E:. I didn't change any Matrix software settings so it's a raid/non raid setup.
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