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#1
Different BSOD behaviour on two systems
I have read the BSOD threads to see if there are any references to this particular problem. Especially
BSOD Analysis - Getting Started
As I couldn't spot any, I post this quick(ish) question to see if anyone can point me to a thread that covers it.
I have an Acer desktop that originally had XP Pro 32 bit. I wanted to try Win 7 before the XP EOL date, but I didn't like the dualboot method that MS provided some years ago. To get round that, I added a hard drive and loaded that with Win 7 Pro 32 bit. The XP was left untouched as it worked fine. That was about 6 years ago.
I carried on using XP but gradually transferred programmes and functions to the Win 7 HD. I kept the XP up to date, but by 2014 I only ever booted into the XP HD to use programmes that were not suitable for Win 7.
(Both the HDs were of course available to either OS to recover/copy any files I did not have on the OS in action at the time.)
Three months ago the XP OS was getting very dodgy and so I decided to upgrade it to Win 10 as a tryout, but leaving the Win 7 OS untouched on its dedicated HD. The compatibility check I ran showed severe limitations with the Acer, so in the end I upgraded the OS from XP to Win 7 Pro to give me a backup to be useful if the working Win 7 HD/OS ever gave me any trouble. (In the meantime I bought a refurbished 64 bit Lenovo desktop with a clean Win 10 Home license and installed that. It is that PC that I am using to send this question.)
Now the question!
The new Win 7 installation on what was the XP HD completed successfully and after LOTS of updates, booted correctly. But after a few days I got a BSOD on the original Win 7 HD when booting into that! Then it failed to boot at all. I tried a few minor things, including using the install DVD to Repair Startup.
It now will boot into Safe Mode with Networking. Trying any other boot option immediately gets BSOD - no Win 7 OS in any form.
Why? And what should I do to investigate?
I had a look at various threads/tutorials but couldn't find a basic step by step guide.
NOTE - the BSOD message about hardware or drivers cannot(?) refer to hardware as the whole PC is physically the same when booting from either HD. I do NOT plugin or switch on any hardware specifically for the HD I boot from.