Changing HD´s (Boot Question)

[Refreshment]

Hello Anandtech experts:

Have a multi boot pc with 2 HDs. One of the drives is an old 160GB Maxtor and the other is a 1 TB HD. The 160 GB has Windows XP and the other has 2 Windows7 partitions.

Want to replace the 160 GB one, but its the one that has the boot thingy for the multi boot. So what are my options so i dont have to lose the OS and installations in the 1 TB drive? I.E. i want to be able to boot from the 1 TB drive and the new one. I wouldn't mind to press f8 and select the boot drive.

Hope i was able to explain myself well enough. Ancious to get some answers

 

[RobL777]

Are you using the Win 7 boot manager for your dual boot situation, or a third-party boot manager? Plus, what do you mean, you have two Win 7 partitions? Do you have two examples of Win 7 running, for a total of 3 OSes?

 

[Refreshment]

Are you using the Win 7 boot manager for your dual boot situation, or a third-party boot manager? Plus, what do you mean, you have two Win 7 partitions? Do you have two examples of Win 7 running, for a total of 3 OSes?

Hi RobL777. Ok, lets see...

Yes, 3 OS's. XP on the old 160GB drive. 2 Win7 in the 1 TB HDD. The boot manager most be the Win7 one and it resides in the 160GB drive because BIOS is set to boot from that drive.

What i need. Replace the 160GB HDD, keep the 1 TB as it is right now. Then with the new HDD and the 1 TB one, maybe boot from the 1 TB and leave the new one withouth OS. Or install a OS in the new one and boot from either drive using the F8 key.

 

[RobL777]

You are best off using a third-party boot loader to do 3 OSes, two of which are copies of Win 7. You could try the EasyBCD bootloader here: http://neosmart.net/blog/2010/welcome-to-easybcd-2/ . It has a bit of a learning curve, but is not too diffucult to use. If you read around on the EasyBCD site, and use their user forum, most problems can be solved that way. This section of their site will tell you a bit about how Win 7 has a newer, different bootloader process than Win XP: http://neosmart.net/wiki/display/EBCD/Windows+XP

Also, you should make a Win 7 recovery disk for each version of Win 7 you have. Type 'backup' in the Windows orb search box, then click on Backup and Restore in the pop-up menu above the search box. Click on Make system recovery disk. Do this for each different version of Win 7 you have, Home Premium, Pro, Ultimate, 32-bit, 64-bit, etc. These discs are invaluable in doing bootloader repairs to Win 7 systems.

But for your setup, use EasyBCD to get those 3 OSes named and loading properly.

 

[Refreshment]

Thanks for the links Robl777.

But what would happen if the bootloader is in the old drive that i want to replace? What proces should i execute to use the 1 TB with the 2 Win7 after removing the old drive as my boot disk.

 

[RobL777]

Yours is a somewhat complicated booting situation. Some of the boot information is on the XP drive, but some of it is on the Win 7 OSes drive. You need to make a Win 7 system recovery CD for each of those Win 7 OSes, then unplug the XP drive. Next, put the Win 7 recovery CD in for the Win 7 OS you most favor, or most want to retain. Allow it to find that OS, and have the recovery CD repair that OSes' booting information. Now see if that drive will boot into that example of Win 7 on its own successfully.

If it will, add the EasyBCD bootloader app to that Win 7 OS. Learn about EasyBCD from looking around it, and reading its help files.

Then add the second Win 7 OS to EasyBCD, and give it a unique menu name. See if you can boot into this example of Win 7 successfully via EasyBCD.

Once you get another hard drive, put XP on it, either via a reinstall, or via an XP system drive image you made previously. Do this by disconnecting the other drive with the Win 7 OSes on it, and only using the new drive on the system. Add XP to the new hard drive, and update it with all of its zillions of patches, including those after SP3.

Once you have done this successfully, connect this drive to your Win 7 system, then add XP to the EasyBCD boot menu.

Multi-boot arrangements are more complicated systems, and can get messed up more easily than a single OS put on a single hard drive. They are not recommended for most users for this reason. For all practical purposes, you are running 3 computers, all of which need everything done to them that any computer needs, I.E., regular updates, regular backup, etc. It is just that all 3 of your computers are in the same box.

 

[Refreshment]

Super indepth and with no wastes explanation. Couldn't be happier.

Although i see im quiet a bit of trouble here. From now on when i install multiple OS's would do so by installing each one independently in each disk.