windows 7/vista multiboot questions

titsataki · 28 Oct 2010

Hi everybody,

First I want to mention how impressed I am by the wealth of info and the knowledgeable people in these forums. I have been reading for several hours and I tried a few things but I thought I will create a thread with my specific details.

I have a desktop running Windows 7 (64bit)/Vista 32bit/Vista 64 bit. (all ultimate edition). Windows 7 and Vista 64 share one drive and the Vista 32 has part of another drive. I have purchased a SSD drive and I would like to move the windows 7 partition to the SSD drive and eventually get rid of the existing windows 7 partition. The vista install can stay there as i rarely used them I mostly use windows 7.

I read on the forums here and I know the ideal situation is to do a clean install on a separate drive with bios boot but I have my Win 7 all nicely set and I would rather not start over.

I have a piece of software called Active Disk image that can clone a drive/partition. so what I did a cloned the Win7 partition to the SSD drive. I read around and saw the method that it was higly suggested set the new SSD drive as active and reboot with the Win 7 cd and do a start up repair. Well I went ahead and used easyBCD and added the new disk to the start menu then I rebooted through my Win7 cd and did a startup repair. Well the start up repair is being going on for like an hour and it is still saying attempting repairs. Does it usually take a long time?

Any ideas or input will be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

Nick

wish · 28 Oct 2010

Hi,
Maybe your SSD drive need alignment because you cloned existing win7 into SSD drive.
SSD Alignment

Bare Foot Kid · 28 Oct 2010

Hello titsataki, welcome to Seven Forums!

Can you boot to any of the other installs, if so please post a snip of the entire maximized disk management window, with a list of what's what so we can see what you have going?

How to Upload and Post a Screenshot and File in Seven Forums

titsataki · 28 Oct 2010

Sorry I got stuck at work. I was able to fix it. I forgot that I was using seperate SATA controler. The moment I moved the drive to the native MB Sata connectors I was able to boot through the DVD and then repair the start menu. So no issues there.
The not so impressive thing is that I noticed no applicable speeding of Windows boot.
I did perform an alignment but I did not see any head turning improvement.

One thing. I did not make the SSD drive Win7 an active. So I am guessing the boot menu still resides on my regular drive. Would that be a slowing factor?

Regards

Nick

Bare Foot Kid · 28 Oct 2010

Bare Foot Kid said:

Hello titsataki, welcome to Seven Forums!

Can you boot to any of the other installs, if so please post a snip of the entire maximized disk management window, with a list of what's what so we can see what you have going?

How to Upload and Post a Screenshot and File in Seven Forums

Post a snip of disk management and we'll tell you where the boot files are, just be sure to describe what partition is what.

gregrocker · 28 Oct 2010

If you separated your OS's all out to individual HD's, why continue interlocking them with a Windows-managed Multi-Boot.

Much better to boot via BIOS boot order and one-time BIOS Boot Menu key so the HD's remain independent for hot plugging.

titsataki · 29 Oct 2010

ok here are the screen shots:

In this screen shot I am booted into Windows 7 from the regular hard drive.
Drive G is the SSD. Weird observation I see two active partitions? Is that ok?

Any input I would appreciate it.

Easy BCD boot menu: Disk Management:

gregrocker · 29 Oct 2010

Had you correctly unplugged the other HD's during Win7 install you would have been given the C letter on the SSD and could boot it independently via BIOS which is the best way with separate HD's. You can either reinstall to realigned SSD, or unplug all other drives now, mark Win7 partition active, then run Startup Repair to write the System MBR to Win7 partition.

Partition - Mark as Active
Startup Repair - Run 3 Separate Times

Since you didn't tell us what is on the other partitions, we have to guess that your old Win7 is on C. If you want to get rid of it then you can simply delete it in Disk Management since D (Vista?) holds the System MBR for DISK0 Then if you want to continue using the Windows-managed Dual Boot to choose between Vistas, simply boot DISK0 using the one-time BIOS Boot menu key given on first boot screen. Delete the Win7 listings using EasyBCD to Edit OS.

However if you want to configure your three separate HD's with OS's to boot via the BIOS, remove all listings on the EasyBCD Edit OS tab. Now boot DISK0 when needed by tapping the one-time BIOS Boot Menu key given on first boot screen.

To boot DISK2 (if that's where your other Vista resides), you'll need to recover the System MBR into it the same way as you did DISK1, by unplugging all other HD's, marking it Active and running Startup Repair from the Vista DVD.

titsataki · 29 Oct 2010

Yup I did not disconnect the other two drives. Reason being is that I am not sure of the benefit. I know it is the cleanest/safest way but I have had a windows multiboot for years and had not real issues. Would it offer a performance benefit? If it will most definitely try it.

The point of showing the screen shot of the easyBCD is that the partition letter names are showing along with the description of what it is there. F drive is just storage so it should not matter. Yes C drive is my regular partition Windows 7 install (shows as current and C drive) on easy BCD. The SSD drive Win7 install in the screen shot shows as the G drive). E drive is the partition with my Vista 64 bit and E drive is my Vista 32 bit. F has no OS just storage so it should not have any affect. Lots of unallocated space as well.

So D(Vista 32bit) and C(win7 64bi) have OS's G(win7 64 bit SSD drive) and E (vista 64bit).

My current question is performance of the SSd drive.

Thanks again for your help and sorry if my info was not clear.

I booted into Win 7 in the SSD and here it is the screen shot: Boot drive shows as C:

DeaconFrost · 29 Oct 2010

I'm asking out of curiosity sake: I can almost see dual-booting with XP for compatibility reasons, although virtualizing is a better way to go. But what would be the reason why anyone would consider multi-booting with three similar OSes...two of which are identical besides the platform? What would that accomplish, aside of wasting disk space?