Windows 7: Cloned existing drive to new HDD...can you have 2 Win 7 drives in box

Tried my first attempt using Acronis clone feature to upgrade my Win 7 Pro 64bit system from a Hitachi Sata 2 750 GB drive to a Western Digital Sata 3 500 GB drive.

Cloning seemingly has gone flawlessly from within Windows 7 Acronis app/tools.
Now I don't remember how I setup the new drive partitions. I still have the original Hatachi drive in the box but it is not connected to a power cord.

The new system booted relatively smoothly...only activity was at first boot Windows showed the installing new hardware (new Western Digital drive) icon...install successful...please restart.

Restarted and alls seems well...question is can I reconnect the power to the old "C" drive and restart ? At this point both drives are 'named' the same: "Win 7 Hitachi 750 Main Drive"...but they had the same name after the innitial clone also

Do I have to change the status/partition setup on the old C: drive prior to reconnecting it and starting the system and if so how ?

Or...will the system/bios automatically correct the start up to the new "C" drive and re-assign a drive letter to the old "C" drive ? New WD drive is now on Sata 1 MB connection

At this point I plan on reformating the old "C" drive and using it for Media Center storage.

My concern is having 2 Windows 7 Pro 64bit "installations" in the same box ?
The bios has an option to set the boot drive...which was and is now Sata1...the new cloned drive.

No issues/problems having 2 Windows installation in the same box then ?

Thanks...TRinAz

Could you change the boot device?:

how to select boot device - Bing Images

If anything goes wrong, just change the order back. That should do the trick. Should be able to try it. It may have a BIOS pop up when you start the computer asking which windows to load. Select the right one and boot up. That could be tricky in the event they look the exact same.

[QUOTE=DustSailor;1936189]If anything goes wrong, just change the order back. That should do the trick..../QUOTE]


Reconnect worked fine...Bios has option for which Sata channel is boot device.

Nesx question is can I change the old drive to logical (its' still active/primary in attached jpg) and...can I later change it back to active/primary in case I decide to use it as a cloned backup of my C: drive ?

Thanks...

Mark Partition Active the cloned Windows 7 now. It appears to already have the System Boot files. Having the Active flag in place assures the boot cannot be derailed during repairs or reinstall. Make sure the WD HD remains HD set to boot first in BIOS setup.

You can relabel the HD in C Properties box.

Best way is to wipe the old HD with Diskpart Clean Command from Windows 7 on new HD. Make sure you choose the right HD or use free Partition Wizard to have a picture of what you're doing.

Then repartition as desired in Disk Mgmt. Partition or Volume - Create New
or using free Partition Wizard if you want it Logical.

OK...think I have it right now (jpg). Whats' the difference between a 'primary' partition and an 'logical' partition

Thanks...as always

Primary can be used to install OS's while Logical are more commonly used for data partitions.

However you can store your data on Primary. Just make sure it doesn't get marked Active to derail the System Boot files during a repair or reinstall - and unplug all other HD's during reinstall/reimaging to assure this.

And you can install OS's on Logical as long as there is a Primary partition for the boot files to reside upon.

You can have four total primary partitions on a Basic HD, or three Primary and unlimited Logical. Sometimes it requires a partition manager to press these limits, since Disk Mgmt may want to convert to Dynamic in some cases which is perilous.

Opps...one more issue with this. I decided (just to be safe) to run the startup disk just to see if it showed the 2nd "J" drive as an installation. At first it didn't BUT it did say there were boot errors that should be fixed

So I ran the repair boot option...it said issues repaired and log is placed 'somewhere' and to restart.

Restarted but now I get the following Boot screen at startup which I think never appeared before)

It does show the "J" drive "Windows 7 Professional (recovered)" ?

In the jpg..the glare covered the 1st option so I typed it in as is for clarity.

1) should I care about this ?
2) should I return to the saved boot record and how ?
3) is there a way to skip this screen at startup ?

Thanks...

It is not correct and should be fixed.

What's happened is that the repair function likely found the source OS and added it to a dual boot. Try booting into each entry to see.

Install EasyBCD to see how many listings it shows. Determine the unwanted listing and remove it on Edit OS Entry tab. EasyBCD (free Download at bottom of page - no name or email required)

When ready you can wipe the source HD to avoid problems in the future, then save a Windows 7 backup image to that HD which is the correct way to back up an image. Backup Complete Computer - Create an Image Backup

Uhm...probably a false positive but when i go to the download page I get this screen in my browser:


I do use Bitdefender ( 3years) and this is the 1st time I have received this warning page ?

Thanks

It's one of the most reliable tools we use here, thousands of times over three years.

I'd change to Microsoft Security Essentials which doesn't make those kinds of mistakes.