2 hard disk different operating system

funguST · 5 Jul 2010 at 12:18

Hi,

I have bought a solid state drive which i want to install windows 7 on. I already have a regular 320gb drive with windows XP on, i would like to keep this built (my C drive is around 130gigs with apps, games etc on it).

Now i have been told that if i have windows 7 on my ssd this will interfere with the mbr on windows xp (on the 2nd drive) and that they will both have to be rebuilt.

Anyone know if this is the case or if i can do something to stop this happening (i'd like to keep my current xp setup as it is incase i need to use xp for one reason or another, would rather not dual boot on the solid state).

Any ideas?

Cheers

funguST · 5 Jul 2010 at 12:21

i forgot to mention i will be using my ssd with w7 as the main drive, and would want to use the xp disk as a storage drive (but still built just incase) as it has around 200gigs free on it.

Burnsy2023 · 5 Jul 2010 at 12:23

Which OS's bootloader do you see on start-up? If it's the Win7 one, you can download something like EasyBCD to add XP to that bootloader. If it's XP then you may need to install a third party bootloader like grub, but either way it's a pretty easy job.

funguST · 5 Jul 2010 at 12:33

Hi,

I havent done it yet, i was speaking to a friend of mine last night who did something similar and ended up getting random blue screens.

I can't workout how it would be a problem if i have the boot order pointing to the solid state first, maybe i will even move the windows xp hard drive to last in the boot sequence.

I downloaded easyBCD last night i will have a pla with that. I may just build windows 7 on this solid state and see what happens.

Burnsy2023 · 5 Jul 2010 at 12:48

It shouldn't BSOD. You'll just not be able to access one of the installations, depending on your boot order.

anything I don't mind · 5 Jul 2010 at 12:54

if you install windows 7 on a new disk with windows xp installed on another, it might (should) just add the windows xp to the standard windows boot loader.

SiriusB · 5 Jul 2010 at 13:45

This should be the case. Windows 7 should detect XP and add it to the boot menu.

You could make this much simpler - simply disconnect the XP HDD when you install Windows 7. [once Windows 7 is installed and working, you can reconnect the XP drive]

This way both disks maintain their own bootloaders. The only downside is you will need to change the boot order in the BIOS if you want to switch to the other installation. Unless you're switching every 20 minutes this is a tiny extra step.

funguST · 5 Jul 2010 at 14:12

I think thats what i will end up doing (disconnecting the xp before installing w7).

Thanks for the replies guys.