Windows 7: A few hard drive problems.

Me and my dad both bought new hard drives and we're having a few problems setting them up.

hard drive 1: (vista)
Plugged the hard drive in, the start up screens and the bios both recognise it, yet under 'My Computer' and when trying to install vista on it, it wasn't showing up when asked where I wanted to install vista to. I'm positive I have wired it up properly as there's only 2 wires which are completely different from one another. I do have with me the original installation disk that came with the PC also.

hard drive 2: (windows 7)
Same sorta situation with the PC not finding it really. Though his PC only has enough power connections for the 1 hard drive and he wants both at once (there's 2 power connections that fit, but the other goes to the CD drive) Also in the 'cage' bit there is only room for 1 hard drive. also I can't seem to make a installation disk, when I have the old hard drive in, it created a repair disk, not installation disk.

Finally, is there any way I could use my dads windows 7 key for my computer? It would be nice to upgrade from vista if possible.



Thanks for any help! Also if you need any extra details just ask.

Hi Sam and Welcome to SevenForums

The answer to your last question is NO, the key and the license is only good on one computer at a time if it's retail version. OEM version is tied to the original comp it came on.

Now not understanding, you bought a new hdd, what was on the old one, are you going to run two hdd's, why is your dad wanting to dual boot Vista and Windows 7, Windows 7 is a refinned Vista and is so much smoother and better all around. Just some questions to help us fix your problems

I just thought of something else, first you can't dual boot Win 7 64bit and Vista 32bit on the same computer they have completely different drivers, second the reason you couldn't see the hdd while trying to install Vista it needs the sata controller driver installed early on in the installation, you can get around this by going into bios and turning off Sata and installing in ide mode

No, he isn't trying to dual boot it, he has windows 7 on his old hard drive, and wants to use the new one as the main hard drive using the old one as extra space.


Okay i'll have a little look in the bios to see if I can see anything like this.

Thanks for the help

You absolutely can. Dual-boot discussions aside (meaning I feel dual-booting is dead), you can absolutely mix-platforms like this. I'm not sure why you'd say it can't be done. Of course the drivers are different, but you'd install the proper drivers for the OS you are booting into at the time.

Now, to the OP, I'm having a very hard time understanding what it is you are doing. For disk 1, if you are trying to install Vista, you shouldn't be looking in My Computer at the drive. Pull all drives out of the system, except the one you want to install Vista on, and boot from the disc. If the disk is seen in the BIOS, but not in the Vista setup, you probably have a unique, uncommom chipset and would need to load drivers for the controller.

For disk 2, I'm really confused, so try to explain what it is you are exactly trying to do.

[QUOTE=DeaconFrost;1127003]You absolutely can. Dual-boot discussions aside (meaning I feel dual-booting is dead), you can absolutely mix-platforms like this. I'm not sure why you'd say it can't be done. Of course the drivers are different, but you'd install the proper drivers for the OS you are booting into at the time.

Your absolutely right DeaconFrost, I stand corrected and am sorry for the miss statement.

For disk 1:
Okay i'll try having the new hard drive plugged in by itself and see how that works out. If this does work, would I be able to plug in both my hard drives and see them both at the same time to transfer stuff between the two drives, or would this be like having two separate instances of vista installed, only being able to access one at a time.

disk 2:
The main thing here is, I don't have any original disks (there wasn't any provided) and I don't have the foggiest idea how to make an installation disk of windows 7. I did try one thing but that ended up being a repair disc instead.

Another small problem with disk 2 is that there is no spare power cables that fit, 1 goes to the DVD drive and the other goes to whatever hard drive is plugged in. We should be getting this sorted out on wednesday though.

As stated unplug the other HD while you are installing to the target HD, making sure it's set as first HD to boot in BIOS setup.

After install, plug the other HD back in and boot it using one-time BIOS Boot menu key given on first boot screen: Asus - F8
HP/Compaq - Esc
Sony - F2
Acer - F12
Gateway - F10
eMachnes - F10
Toshiba - F12
Dell - F12
IBM/Lenovo - the blue Thinkvantage b