2 hard drives with 2 operating systems

Status
Not open for further replies.

regeisle

In Runtime
Messages
182
Location
Virginia
I currently have a 640gb WD drive with 3 partitions (OS, work data, personal data). I just bought a 2nd 640gb WD drive to use as a backup drive. Now I'm about to do a clean install of vista to start a good backup routine from "day 1."

The plan is to move everything over to the new drive and set up 3 new partitions to port over the old data. ** I'm installing on the new drive to both get a fresh drive with no wear and also since I need to reconfigure partitions anyway, changing allotted sizes.

The question... Can I unhook the current drive, install Vista + partitions set up on the new drive (sata port 1), and then plug the old drive back in sata port 2 to copy over data? Or will the it detect the 2 OS's on boot and cause problems? I've never dual booted before, so maybe it will just ask which one i want to boot. I just want to make sure that when I format the (now) backup drive for all data backup, my system's not still looking for an OS to boot from on it.

Hopefully that makes sense. Any advise is appreciated.
 
Yea, thats not the way to dual boot ;) you will have a problem if you did it that way.. heres what you do..

Unplug your old drive or format it after you move your files that you wish to keep..

plug in your new drive install everything.. plug your Original drive in as an "external" and plug it in while your new OS is going and format the OS that way if you like..

For a dual boot you want to leave either an existing install or a fresh one then install your second OS with all drives in and that way they are both recognized by eachother.. the other way you mentiond will cause conflict.
 
Thanks Hampton - I don't have an external enclosure handy - not to mention the time it would take to format the full drive to wipe it clean on usb2. Is there a way to install it on a sata port but have it detected as an external drive, to make sure it knows the NEW drive, that will have all data / vista on it at this point, is the primary drive?
 
Thanks Hampton - I don't have an external enclosure handy - not to mention the time it would take to format the full drive to wipe it clean on usb2. Is there a way to install it on a sata port but have it detected as an external drive, to make sure it knows the NEW drive, that will have all data / vista on it at this point, is the primary drive?

If you have an eSATA port.

plug it in the external port and format the drive.. then plug it back in internal port 2.. then run it as a slave..

Or just plug your new one in as a slave (for now) make your partitions, put the storage stuff inplace.. then switch your drives around.. put in the install CD/DVD install your OS's to what ever partition you want.. use the quick format option for your old OS.
 
For a fresh copy of Windows on the second drive and to see the first reformatted you wouldn't need any external enclosure. You don't even have to swap ports. The default hard drive is set in the bios.

With multiple drives booting three versions of Windows here I made each drive a stand alone bootable drive by first unplugging the data cable on the others when going to install Vista on the first, XP on the second later 7 dual booting with XP on same, and a second copy of 7 on the third new sata drive replacing unbuntu on an old ide model.

With each copy of Vista set up separately there are three methods to boot into each installation. One is the awkward change default boot device in bios with repeat trips there. The second is bringing up a boot device menu to select the drive not set as the default, and the third is seeing one copy edited into the other's boot loader to see a dual boot.

If you plan to keep both installations intact you can actually edit both to add the other in so no matter which drive is set as default you can boot into the other. The free tool to accomidate that is called EasyBCD available at Download EasyBCD 1.7.2 - NeoSmart Technologies

The one thing to see a working dual boot is making sure the entries have a slight change in the name like Windows Vista Home for one while Vista Home Premium for the other so the defauly OS setting isn't changed.

 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top Bottom