Multibooting Win 7

sybaris · 18 Jul 2010 at 19:19

I have built a new rig.
I have 3 drives and several partitions.

I have installed a clean install of Win 7 on lets say drive 1 with a single partition.
I then created an image using windows 7's tool

I would like to duplicate this install on say drive 2 partition 3 as a backup OS.

If i perform a basic win 7 install in that location and then restore from my image to that location, will I end up with 2 installs and a modified windows boot loader menu that will have the option to select which install to boot to?

If not what is the best way to get that?

Django x2 · 19 Jul 2010 at 11:58

If you perform a basic install to that partition the bootloader will offer to locations to run windows from. Instead, just restore the image to that partition using whatever software it is you are imaging with.

SiriusB · 19 Jul 2010 at 13:43

I am wondering if there is some kind of license issue with having two installs of the same OS [both using the same Product Key].

Why not just keep the backup image on the spare HDD/Partition and recover it when you need to. It is a fast process so I don't really see the point of having a "standby" copy and messing around getting the correct bootloader settings.

sybaris · 19 Jul 2010 at 15:46

I do a lot of work from my PC.
If I lose or corrupt an OS, then I can boot in to the second OS and carry on (ok with a little updating) and they fix the first OS when I have a moment.

License wise, I have site licenses and besides I am still operating one OS on the same single PC.

Also until I actually recover from an image, I don't completely trust windows or other backups. I want another option incase that fails.