New HDD, Cloning, Partitioning, Suggestions, etc.

1) The partitioning theme on Disk #1 could be changed to allow more room to expand the OS primaries and store files on the second drive. That would be about 232gb for each edition of 7 or you could simply elect the dual boot across two drives method employed here often while having more then two HDs present however.

2)Which bramd of hard drives do you have installed? If WD they provide a WD free version of Acronis that sees the option for cloning drives as well as individual partiions. The actual term is "copying partiions" which can be done while booted live with a GParted live for cd disk but cloning is far slower then simply copy and pasting folders one or two at a time over to a second drive!

3)For the second drive the partiioning layout will depend if you OS the drive or not. With an OS on each drive many opt to simply see a second storage/backup partition on each or a small OS partition leaving the rest for storage on a second HD.

4)Simply cloning(or copying) a storage partition won't effect the mbr and boot loader on the first drive. By cloning one of the OS primaries however you may run into the need for use of the startup repair tool to recover the boot sector on the second drive.

5)The best method for seeing a dual boot would be performing a clean install of the Ultimate edition onto a new first primaty by creating that first and electing a larger second for storage/backup. The Windows Easy Transfer tool would be used to restore the files and settings once all programs were installed fresh as well.

A simple nuke of the OS primary by a reformat or deletion will see the new installation removed. Here the partition is simply deleted or replaced when restoring a full system image that cleans a drive off entirely.

6) A good 100gb is typically plenty of space allowing for adding programs on later without being cramped and running into the dreaded "out of memory" type errors when the OS primary is almost full.

7)The cloned OS may not run as a clean install would! Any hidden problems currently present but not seen on the original installation would simply be repeated with the clone! With a clean install that can solve many potential problems since it is working with a fresh registry and lacks any major files in case of a bad install the first time around. Much easier to clean off as well since you are not loaded up with files to backup!

I have the 32bit Vista HP edition present on a second drive presently. It's a matter of personal preference as far as which editions and OSs you will run on your own system.

Essentially all you need to do there is take a quick trip into the Disk Management to see the drive turned online and bring up the add new volume wizard or use the partitioning tools right on the 7 dvd when going to install. For repartitioning things a bit that's when you would want the 3rd party options available for resizing the first once you are ready to go on the second.

Note you may run into the invalid key problem when going to install the Ultimate on the new primary. This could come up since you already have the key in use with the first install. You would think it wouldn't being on the exact same system but could where you would have to call in. Other then that a fast fresh install should go right on the second drive without a fuss.