Dual booting the same Windows 7 installation

whs said:

zero50 said:

whs said:

Are you willing to buy a second license - because else you will be in trouble.

But, essentially it's the same installation...
Would a new license be needed?
It's the same hardware, the same software, just "cloned".
I'm not trying to evade buying a new license, I want to understand
how this stuff works. :)

Yes, if you have 2 systems installed you need 2 licenses. There is no escape. But you can avoid that with the imaging approach that Michael suggested.

PS - and don't finagle anything. You may lose the license you currently have in the process.

I see.
You guys seem more experienced so I'll take your advice.
I may dual boot Ubuntu and figure out how Wine works to use my programms somewhere down the line.

By the way, I just saw that support for Windows 7 will cease in 4 years... Didn't know that!
And it's my favourite OS...

mjf said:

zero50 said:

I see. I was thinking of buying an internal 3TB Toshiba drive that costs about 100$
and a Samsung Pro 500 GB SSD. I'd transfer the windows files over to the SSD for faster booting.
But unfortunately I can't afford this at the moment.

So you 're saying I should move my larger files to another partition?

I think you are MBR booting which is fine (I do) so I would choose a HDD no greater than 2TB otherwise you need to change your booting to UEFI/GPT - I wouldn't be doing this at this stage. Also you want a performance 7200 rpm drive.
Here are a couple of links to making your copy. The first is for Macrium 5 but is much the same as Macrium 6 and provides some guidance if you have booting problems. The second is a Macrium KB for V6.
How to Upgrade Your Existing Hard Drive in Under an Hour
It's going to take more than an hour.
Cloning a disk - KnowledgeBase - Macrium Reflect Knowledgebase

So, to use an SSD for booting I would need to change settings?
Is that difficult? I was planning on getting the SSD soon.

whs said:

Nah, moving to an SSD is a piece of cake. We'll help you - for starters have a look at this:

SSD - Install and Transfer the Operating System

I see so the problem is just with drives bigger than 2TB.
Didn't know that!
Is there anything I can read about MBR/UEFI/GPT?
How do I change from one to another?
I just want to know the proccess to see if I can do it or not and plan which drive to get accordingly.
That Toshiba drive seems like a bargain!

whs said:

Here is some reading that may help


http://www.howtogeek.com/193669/whats-the-difference-between-gpt-and-mbr-when-partitioning-a-drive/


https://wiki.manjaro.org/index.php?title=Some_basics_of_MBR_v/s_GPT_and_BIOS_v/s_UEFI


https://www.maketecheasier.com/differences-between-mbr-and-gpt/

Nice! Thanks for the links! You guys saved me from buying the 3TB and losing my mind over not being able to use it. I'll study the material you gave me.

I see now that changing Bios to Uefi risks losing data and making the Os unbootable.
Would a system image help in this case?

mjf said:

zero50 said:

Is there anything I can read about MBR/UEFI/GPT?
How do I change from one to another?

Your motherboard is getting older now and it appears some people may have had problems upgrading their BIOS. You need to do your own google research. Given your motherboard and CPU in your specs I see no significant advantage in moving from MBR/legacy boot while you stick with Windows 7 only potential headaches. I'd focus on your original concern.

I see. I guess I have to get a new computer sooner than I expected.
For now I'll look for a 1-2TB internal drive, maybe a 2TB one so I can use half of it as storage for system images and another half as data storage.

My current hard drive seems to be the weakest link in my system (Every component get a Windows score of 7.5 except the drive which gets 5.9) so I really want to get an SSD too.

When it's time to let go of this PC, I'll sell the old mobo,cpu and gpu and keep the same drives.
Anyway, I'm cleaning up a bit to reduce the used size on :C. I'll try making a system image using Macrium and see how it goes.