Vista and 7 dual boot - two HDDs

Jakstaar2007 · 5 Jul 2009 at 17:55

I have just installed Windows 7 x64 onto a 160gb HDD that i had lying around and added it to my system along side my 50gb HDD with Vista x32 installed on it. I would like the option to choose between the two OSs at boot but at the moment, the only options that come up are:
Earlier Version of Windows
Windows 7
Windows Recovery Console

then press tab and:

Windows Memory Tester (or something similar to that)

once booted into Windows 7 i can access the data on the second drive but, as i said, i would like the option to boot to either at startup. Is there anyway to stop Windows 7 being the only option?

Cheers
Jack

theheyes · 5 Jul 2009 at 18:27

You have tried pressing earlier version of Windows right? Vista should be listed in there.

Jakstaar2007 · 5 Jul 2009 at 18:37

I didn't, no, because even when the second hard drive(with vista is plugged in, it still comes up) but yea will press that next time, lol. cheers
Can you not have it just list both Windows 7 and Vista instead of earlier versions?

Will reboot and update on what happens.

also, as i have all of my games installed on my second hard drive( actually my proper hard drive, just using this one currently with Windows 7 x64 on to test my 8gb of ram) can i play them by just navigating to my programs on the other drive ( f:\program files) and running them from their without any slowdown?

Cheers

Jack

Jakstaar2007 · 5 Jul 2009 at 19:06

nope, when i clicke older versions, it just brought up the recovery console. But when i swap over the hard drives ( the one connected to SATA 0) the OS on the drive connected to SATA 0 will boot without any other options.

Clairvoyant · 5 Jul 2009 at 19:17

hmm I installed Win 7 on a partition with vista ultimate 64 and in my boot menu I have

Windows 7
Windows Recovered (but boots to Vista)

Jakstaar2007 · 5 Jul 2009 at 19:37

OK but mine is on a second drive? I think i need a boot manager program to get the BIOS to look at multiple devices for bootable partitions. Can anybody recommend a decent one?

Cheers
Jack

P.S. correct me if i'm wrong. But when the system is booting, the BIOS looks for bootable partitions on each attached device and looks in order of what is set in the BIOS, so one hard drive would have to come above the other, so it will always boot from one before the other. Hence why you need a boot manager program...?

robinbredin · 5 Jul 2009 at 23:03

Hi, I have vista on one drive and XP on the other drive. I download easybcd and set it up using option 2 of this journal HERE. And easybcd HERE

Jakstaar2007 · 5 Jul 2009 at 23:10

cheers mate, just having a look now. Looks exactly what i want!

edit: OK, that's not it.

Problem is, do not get both options in the boot manager. If the HDD with 7 is higher in the boot list then i will get these options:

Older Version of Windows (when pressed brings up the recovery console)
Windows 7

or Windows Memory Tester

And if the HDD with Vista on is higher in the boot list, then it will just boot into Vista without going into the boot manager screen. It will just automatically boot vista.

robinbredin · 6 Jul 2009 at 09:48

Hi, Lets say for the sake of an argeument, that you installed Vista on one drive and XP on the other. When you went into Xp and installed the easybcd and it did not work. Then you could use your Vista install disc to boot into vista, then install easybcd from there to give you the menu to boot into XP.