Create Installation Partition On Second HDD

[fatedquest]

I've a laptop with two HDDs and no DVD drive.

How do I create a bootable recovery partition that holds the complete Windows 7 installation disc contents.

This has to be able to boot even when my first HDD with my OS on it becomes corrupt.

I also hope if you can guide me to do this without interfering with the current smooth boot I have. I don't want to choose whether I want to boot from my primary HDD or my backup partition on every boot. I just want to be able to choose to boot from that partition when I need to.

 

[MilesAhead]

Just do an image backup to the 2nd HD. Many free programs can do it. Macrium Reflect, Paragon... go to this site for even more:

Free Hard Disk Backup and Restore, Hard Disk Image and Cloning Utilities (thefreecountry.com)

 

[fatedquest]

Creating the image - checked. I'm using Windows' 7 built in backup to do it.

However I need to make a bootable partition on the second to restore the image if my first HDD can't boot anymore.

 

[gregrocker]

Do you have the 100mb hidden System Recovery partition which is sometimes installed with Win7?

If so, it will place the Win7 Repair My Computer console on the Advanced Boot Tools menu available by tapping F8 at bootup. You can Recover Using a Backup Image from there.

 

[Saltgrass]

Do you have a USB port to use a bootable flash drive?

 

[MilesAhead]

Do you have a USB port to use a bootable flash drive?

Yup. If your machine has option to boot from USB then you can make a bootable "Rescue CD" on the USB stick. I've done it with Macrium Reflect.

If you look here:
Boot Land

or google, you can find step by step how to format and set up a flash drive as bootable.

 

[fatedquest]

Do you have the 100mb hidden System Recovery partition which is sometimes installed with Win7?

If so, it will place the Win7 Repair My Computer console on the Advanced Boot Tools menu available by tapping F8 at bootup. You can Recover Using a Backup Image from there.

No I do not have the 100MB partition. I do not want a recovery partition on the first HDD. This is because if anything on the first HDD ever becomes corrupt, I won't be able to access that recovery partition. This is why I want to create a complete install partition on my second HDD so that I can troubleshoot anything on my first HDD should anything happen, and if I need to I can reinstall or reimage my whole Windows 7 in a flash from my second HDD to my first HDD.

Do you have a USB port to use a bootable flash drive?

Yes I have a USB port and my motherboard/BIOS supports booting from a flash drive. I've already created a Windows 7 Installation partition on a flash drive that works great. However I do not want to bring a flash drive with me wherever I go, I want to have all the recovery options on my second internal HDD so wherever and whenever something happens I get things working right away with my second HDD.

Thanks alot for the suggestions.

 

[gregrocker]

Someone posted a way to add WinRE to the partition where backup system image is stored, then make it bootable using EasyBCD which places a listing on Boot Menu.

I have looked for it but cannot find it yet. Was about 4 months ago as I recall. Maybe someone remembers it or it can be found by Googling. We have members here who can recreate it as well.

 

[fatedquest]

Someone posted a way to add WinRE to the partition where backup system image is stored, then make it bootable using EasyBCD which places a listing on Boot Menu.

I have looked for it but cannot find it yet. Was about 4 months ago as I recall. Maybe someone remembers it or it can be found by Googling. We have members here who can recreate it as well.

That sounds great! I'll try googling this.