Solved Hard drive tray used to swap W7 boot drive?

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randyrls

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I do vertical systems integration and am getting more and more requests for W7.
I have a drive tray used as the boot drive and I want to be able to swap out the boot drive in order to change OS's and Options. I don't trust multi boot installs, they get in each others way, and sometimes I need Linux in various distros. All the data i may need "across platforms" is on FAT32 partitions.

On my XP machine I have 4 HD that have XP installed with different software sets and options, and 2 with Linux. I just power down, swap the HD and power on again.

I already made a W7 System Image and Recovery disk.

Is this doable in W7?

Next is to figure out how to lock down the BIOS so it doesn't keep changing my boot options!

My HD list is
DRIVE 1 C: NTFS
WD 160GB SATA
Drive 2
WD WD5002AALX 500GB
partitioned:
Data files D: FAT32
Downloaded files E: FAT32
ARCHIVE F: Fat32
DRIVE 3 G: NTFS
WD WD5002AALX 500GB
 

My Computer My Computer

At a glance

Windows 7 Home Premium 64 bit SP1Intel Core i5-2500K Sandy Bridge 3.3GHz8 GBASUS ENGT440/DI/1GD5 GeForce GT 440
Computer Manufacturer/Model Number
User built
OS
Windows 7 Home Premium 64 bit SP1
CPU
Intel Core i5-2500K Sandy Bridge 3.3GHz
Motherboard
MSI PH61A-P35
Memory
8 GB
Graphics Card(s)
ASUS ENGT440/DI/1GD5 GeForce GT 440
Sound Card
Realtek - built-in
Monitor(s) Displays
Flat Screen
Screen Resolution
1024x768
Hard Drives
DRIVE 1 C: NTFS
WD 160GB SATA

Drive 2
WD WD5002AALX 500GB
partitioned:
Data files D: FAT32
Downloaded files E: FAT32
ARCHIVE F: Fat32

DRIVE 3 G: NTFS
WD WD5002AALX 500GB
Hello randyrls, welcome to Seven Forums!


This would be a whole lot easier, no swapping HDDs around, you don't even have to power-down, just reboot.


   Information

The easiest way to do away with boot issues between separate Operating Systems (OS) is to use the BIOS one time boot menu to select which OS to boot at system startup, each motherboard has an individual hot-key to tap during system start-up to access this menu.

If you have 2 separate Hard Disk Drives (HDD) and have one OS installed to one HDD and you want to install another OS to the second HDD, disconnect the HDD with the first OS installed on it and leave only the HDD you want to install the second OS to connected.

Install the second OS to the connected HDD and when complete and the system is booting good, power down and reconnect the first HDD with the first OS on it.

This way the OSs will boot independently of each other and there will be no boot conflicts between the 2 separate OSs to have to sort later.

Then set the BIOS to boot the HDD / OS you want as default and if you want to start the other (new) OS you use the BIOS one-time boot menu to select that HDD / OS to start when the PC is started.
  • Asus - F8
  • HP/Compaq - Esc
  • Sony - F2
  • Acer – F12
  • Packard Bell
  • Gateway - F10
  • eMachnes - F10
  • Gigabyte – F12
  • Toshiba - F12
  • Dell - F12
 

My Computer My Computer

At a glance

W 7 64-bit UltimateIntel Q9550 Yorkfield8GB Dominator 8500C5DATI : XFX 5870
Computer Manufacturer/Model Number
* BFK Customs *
OS
W 7 64-bit Ultimate
CPU
Intel Q9550 Yorkfield
Motherboard
ASUS P5Q Pro
Memory
8GB Dominator 8500C5D
Graphics Card(s)
ATI : XFX 5870
Sound Card
Realtek HD Audio 7-1
Monitor(s) Displays
1x 47" LCD HDMI & 3x 26" LCD HDMI
Screen Resolution
1920x1080P & 1920x1200
Hard Drives
1x 80GB Intel X25-M G2 SSD : 1x 500GB & 1x 640GB WD Caviar Black(s)
PSU
Corsair 620HX
Case
Cooler Master RC-690
Cooling
Tuniq Tower 120, 2x 140mm and 3x 120mm case fans
Keyboard
Microsoft 500
Mouse
Razer Diamondback 3G
Internet Speed
14 Mb/s
Other Info
1x Koutech 3Gb/s SATA HDD Hot Swap Rack
Thanks for the reply. I found that the Windows System Backup will happily reload the OS system onto another drive, and both drives are intact. I moved my Profile to my DATA drive and still need to relocate the documents folder to it's new home.

I once had a piece of _____ software erase the MBR on the system drive because it thought the security wasn't correct. After I calmed down and put the mbr back, my OCD kicked in and I pulled out my hardware debugger to see what happened. I found the code in the program was intentional..... :mad:

The old IDE system had 2 CD/DVD drives, 3 IDE HD, 2 removable drive trays, memory card reader, and a floppy.

Thanks to everyone for the excellent and valuable tutorials!


Randy S
Bare Foot Kid said:
This would be a whole lot easier, no swapping HDDs around, you don't even have to power-down, just reboot.


   Information

The easiest way to do away with boot issues between separate Operating Systems (OS) is to use the BIOS one time boot menu to select which OS to boot at system startup, each motherboard has an individual hot-key to tap during system start-up to access this menu.

Click to expand...
 

My Computer My Computer

At a glance

Windows 7 Home Premium 64 bit SP1Intel Core i5-2500K Sandy Bridge 3.3GHz8 GBASUS ENGT440/DI/1GD5 GeForce GT 440
Computer Manufacturer/Model Number
User built
OS
Windows 7 Home Premium 64 bit SP1
CPU
Intel Core i5-2500K Sandy Bridge 3.3GHz
Motherboard
MSI PH61A-P35
Memory
8 GB
Graphics Card(s)
ASUS ENGT440/DI/1GD5 GeForce GT 440
Sound Card
Realtek - built-in
Monitor(s) Displays
Flat Screen
Screen Resolution
1024x768
Hard Drives
DRIVE 1 C: NTFS
WD 160GB SATA

Drive 2
WD WD5002AALX 500GB
partitioned:
Data files D: FAT32
Downloaded files E: FAT32
ARCHIVE F: Fat32

DRIVE 3 G: NTFS
WD WD5002AALX 500GB
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