Windows 7 Dual Boot on a Seperate HARD DRIVE?

[Stangs55]

I've got several hard drives lying around and I'd like to dual boot W7 x64 from one of them. So far, I was able to partition and format a drive on an extra hard drive set as another 'primary', but when it reboots after copying files, I get a boot error when I try to select Windows 7 from the boot menu. However, Vista boots fine.

I'm assuming because my second hard drive isn't set as a boot drive. I've tried changing the order in my BIOS...but that didn't help.

Is this possible?

Thanks.

 

[Dahak]

usually more trouble way to do it, i have a dual boot but i did the initial install with only the 1 drive installed. and on my asus board it lets me choose which drive i want to boot with the f8 key

 

[nobodyknows]

I haven't done yet but I'm going to try to install W7 on a seperate hard drive. Both hard drives are SATA and i believe i can select which one I want to boot from in the bios.... maybe.

 

[Stangs55]

Dahak - I've tried changing the boot order and that doesn't work

Nobody - that's what I'm trying but it's not working--let me know how it turns out!

 

[SickBeast]

Ok here's how it works with this stuff:

Your Master Boot Record (MBR) contains a list of the operating systems on your computer. When you install Windows, it uses the hard drive that is first in terms of boot order in your bios to determine where it will install the boot loader onto the MBR.

Basically you need to make sure that your hard drive which contains the boot loader is #1 in the boot order within your bios. On my computer, I can hit F8 after the "beep" at post, and it lets me choose which hard drive I boot from.

I haven't tried what you're trying to do personally, but I see no reason why it would not work. So long as you did not mess with the boot order in your bios prior to installing Windows 7 you should be fine.

Oh, and I think your partition needs to be "Active" and should be "Primary". Right click My Computer, pick manage, and go into Disk Management to fix this.

 

[sportage]

Dont know if this is your issue, but I had a no boot issue because I was using DVI video connection with W7. Switching to VGA booted just fine. Vista booted just fine, regardless. Guess its a beta thing.

 

[HannibalX]

Dual boot works for me.

Plug in drive #1, install OS, unplug drive.

Plug in drive #2, install OS.

Plug in drive #1, set boot order in BIOS.

Pretty straightforward.

 

[mechBgon]

Originally posted by: iFX
Dual boot works for me.

Plug in drive #1, install OS, unplug drive.

Plug in drive #2, install OS.

Plug in drive #1, set boot order in BIOS.

Pretty straightforward.

+1 for this, just give them each their own drive. Some motherboards have a boot-device menu you can summon by pressing a key during POST (F8 on Asus, F10 on Intel, F12 on Gigabyte).

 

[Stangs55]

Originally posted by: iFX
Dual boot works for me.

Plug in drive #1, install OS, unplug drive.

Plug in drive #2, install OS.

Plug in drive #1, set boot order in BIOS.

Pretty straightforward.

lol...i don't remember reading about unplugging and replugging physical hard disks in the install guide...so I wouldn't call it "straighforward"...But I'll certainly give this a shot tonight. Thanks!

But just to be clear...since I don't want to touch my current Vista installation...I can just unplug all drives except the blank one, install W7, then replug all drives and select boot order?

 

[mechBgon]

Originally posted by: Stangs55

Originally posted by: iFX
Dual boot works for me.

Plug in drive #1, install OS, unplug drive.

Plug in drive #2, install OS.

Plug in drive #1, set boot order in BIOS.

Pretty straightforward.

lol...i don't remember reading about unplugging and replugging physical hard disks in the install guide...so I wouldn't call it "straighforward"...But I'll certainly give this a shot tonight. Thanks!

But just to be clear...since I don't want to touch my current Vista installation...I can just unplug all drives except the blank one, install W7, then replug all drives and select boot order?

Yeah, you can either select boot order in the BIOS, or you can call up the boot-device selection menu if your motherboard has that feature.

The benefit of this approach is that each hard drive has its own bootloader, they're not both on one drive. You can remove either drive without causing an issue.

 

[Diz2K2]

Get this and the burn the image to a CD.

Set your bios to boot to cd first.

Make sure this cd is in your PC

It will boot from the CD which gives you the option to boot from the first or second drive.

This can be used once each OS is installed on the drives

 

[postmortemIA]

unbelievable . all you had to do is to put that second drive as second drive - no extra magic (stupidity) , and let windows 7 install its boot loader on primary drive.

result: all operating systems work. when you remove second drive it dtill does not affect existing operating systems.

 

[mechBgon]

Originally posted by: postmortemIA
when you remove second drive it dtill does not affect existing operating systems.

True. But if he wants to remove the first drive...? That's where it's nice to have them fully indepenent. I'll put up with the extra keystroke that's sometimes required at POST.

 

[RebateMonger]

Originally posted by: iFX
Dual boot works for me.

Plug in drive #1, install OS, unplug drive.

Plug in drive #2, install OS.

Plug in drive #1, set boot order in BIOS.

Pretty straightforward.

That's how I've always done it. Super simple, it works, and no need to play with boot records.

I used to have a "test PC" with removable drive trays in two positions. I'd put in whatever system drive I wanted and tell the BIOS which drive (which OS) to boot to. The trays were labelled as to what OS was on them.

 

[techmanc]

I have a removable hard drive for testing different systems. I currently dual boot Windows Vista-XP on one drive and have a separate hard drive with Windows 7. I could havea triple booted but fear problems with Windows 7 at this stage.
You can see some example at Newegg here
http://www.newegg.com/Product/...n=removable+hard+drive

p.s. you may have a BIOS that when you swap hard drives you need to reconfigure your drive order but that should be only problem swapping drives