Windows 7 On Two Hard Drives In Same Computer?

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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Windows 7 On Two Hard Drives In Same Computer?

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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