Change letter of the boot drive or the system drive

Contro · 12 Oct 2012

gregrocker said:

Contro, maybe you can try again to explain exactly what it is you want to do because I can't understand it at all.

Here's a start:

What I want to do is __________________________________________.

What I want to do is install several times windows 7 on the same pc.

gregrocker · 12 Oct 2012

You need to have a separate license for each one.

How are you activating Win7? _____________________________

Is this for testing purposes? Yes ___ No ____

Please explain exactly why you want to have several Win7 installs on same PC:

__________________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________________

MilesAhead · 12 Oct 2012

Hmm, could it be a numerology thing? 7 x 7 ?? heh heh

edwar · 12 Oct 2012

Greg if you install Windows on the same PC in different partitions you don't need a License for each install. It is on the same hardware. I can install Windows on the same hardware as many time I as I like. If you couldn't then no one could do a Reinstall of the OS. You can only boot from one install at a time so none of the installs are running at the same time as another.

If you Image the install drive you could then load that image on multiple hard drives connected to the same sytem and only have to activate it one time.

gregrocker · 12 Oct 2012

Edwar I am familar with the issue as it's been gone over many times before during the three years since beta.

When the Admins have weighed in there is never any variance given from one license per each Win7 installation.

What one can get away with in this case is different than what is legal, and acceptable in the Forums.

Layback Bear · 12 Oct 2012

Let me rattle my brain a little. If one installs Windows 7 on one hard drive and makes a image of that install and put it on 6 more hard drives in the same computer their/there could be a problem. How would one boot the PC without unplugging 6 hard drives. All Windows 7 installs are on drive C. My understanding is that is the problem the OP is having. He wants Windows 7 on several hard drives in the same computer all hooked up at the same time but with different drive letters so he can pick what hard drive to boot from. Why one would do that, I don't know.
My understanding is simple. One computer, one license and one Windows 7.
Post #41.
You are trying to do something as far as I know has not been done before with Windows 7 because their/there is no legal reason to do so.

SIW2 · 12 Oct 2012

Plenty of people do it - testing purposes mainly.

He wants the drive letters to be consistent, whichever o/s he is booted into.

I dunno why this is causing so much interest. Seems a perfectly reasonable question to me.

Most of us have 3 or 4 o/s installed don't we?

Not necessarily the same one of course.

I have a few more than that atm, as I am updating my install media - I need to check I have done it right, so I install the updated versions - don't usually bother putting the key in just for that - could have up to 6 o/s installed at a time.

Because I have 16 or 17 drives - if they are different from every o/s I boot up - I won't know where anything is.

Layback Bear · 12 Oct 2012

If one bought 10 computers from HP all the exactly the same for a office and installed Windows 7 Home Premium on all computers how many license would he/she have to buy. I'm thinking 10. One computer with 10 hard drives with Windows 7 Home Premium is the same thing.

gregrocker · 12 Oct 2012

You can name each OS on the Boot Menu using EasyBCD and in it's drive name, and they could still all boot showing C as designed.

If the question is only how to install Win7 to another drive letter then it was answered here:

gregrocker said:

It is possible to have another letter assigned to Win7 during install by running it's installer from another OS instead of booting it. This will lock out the drive letter which you are installing from and assign to the new install the next available letter.

And how to determine the exact letter was refined here:

SIW2 said:

If you run it from within an existing o/s - setup.exe is aware of the drive letters already assigned by your running o/s and will use the next available one.

So, if you only have one partition already with your running o/s called C - then run setup.exe from within that - your new installation will be D.

If you then have only C and D , running the setup.exe installer again - will give the new installation letter E and so on.

Just make sure the next drive letter you want chosen is available by removing it from wherever it exists before installing and substituting a replacement letter - remembering that you cannot change an OS drive letter after install without ruining it: Drive Letter - Add, Change, or Remove in Windows 7 - Windows 7 Forums

AddRAM · 12 Oct 2012

Contro said:

gregrocker said:

Contro, maybe you can try again to explain exactly what it is you want to do because I can't understand it at all.

Here's a start:

What I want to do is __________________________________________.

What I want to do is install several times windows 7 on the same pc.

So do it, what`s the problem ?

Changing the drive letter ( which you can`t do) has no bearing on choosing the installation you want to boot into. You wouldn`t even see the letter yet. You would have to change the name on the boot list so you would know the difference.

Once again: YOU DO NOT SEE the drive letter til you boot into the system.
This last statement is for arguementive purposes to move the project along. Bit it`s probably true.