Can I have two instances of Windows 7 on one harddrive?

[MLaviation]

Eventually a Windows 7 system will get corrupted. Can I have second instance of Windows 7 already installed on the hard drive for comparison and a fast swap?
Thanks.

 

[edwar]

Eventually a Windows 7 system will get corrupted. Can I have second instance of Windows 7 already installed on the hard drive for comparison and a fast swap?
Thanks.

Eventually a windows system WILL NOT get corrupted. Whatever makes you think it would?

I have XP system running for years, like 8+ years, that have not gotten corrupted and my present Win 7 desktop that has been running the same install of Win 7 for almost 2 years.
No glitches or corruption in any of them.

What causes OS corruption always lead back to User Error. Whether it is from installing bad software to getting viruses and malware on the system. All of that is caused by User Error. Viruses and Malware don't just come streaming down from the internet on to your computer without some User intervention.

Yes you could but for legal reasons it is stated on this forum that for every install of Windows, Even on the same system, you need a separate License for each. Even if only one instance is being run at a time.

Best thing to do is create and image of your system then load that image onto another drive then remove that drive from your system and have it for backup. Swapping the drives if needed, because of some User Error that corrupted the original install on the main drive.

 

[x BlueRobot]

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/663-backup-complete-computer-create-image-backup.html

Once you created a Image Backup of Windows 7, move the backup onto a external media, such as a USB drive, external hard-drive or on to another hard-drive and then disconnect the hard-drive from the computer.

Hope this helps,

Harry

P.S

Good Work edwar, sorry that I'm unable to give you anymore rep at the moment.

 

[PaulyStones]

Not advisable...if you end up with a corrupted MBR...you wont be able to access ANY partition on the hard drive...have you considered setting up a RAID 1 configuration...a mirrored system??

 

[bigmck]

Eventually a Windows 7 system will get corrupted. Can I have second instance of Windows 7 already installed on the hard drive for comparison and a fast swap?
Thanks.

That is like carrying four spare tires in your car in case they all go flat at one time, not likely to happen. Same as your Windows scenario, not likely to happen.

 

[hArLtRoN]

I would just make an image of a clean install to restore if something does happen to your Windows install.

I had a Windows XP system running for 8+ years with no issues and my current Windows 7 install has been running for fine for about 2 years. You just have to watch what you download and make sure its from a reliable source so you don't get a virus.

 

[UsernameIssues]

Eventually a Windows 7 system will get corrupted. Can I have second instance of Windows 7 already installed on the hard drive for comparison and a fast swap?
Thanks.

Plenty of people have commented about W7 and corruption - I'll speak to the comparison part of your post. You can create a W7 virtual machine and take a snapshot (freeze it so that nothing ever changes). You can run your host W7 OS and run the W7 VM at the same time to make comparisons.