Installing to a second HD for second priority boot option.

[Blayd]

First, Hi all, new member.
Had my older rig smoke the motherboard, so built myself a new rig, new to Windows 7, ( old rig was Vista ) everything went as planned, ( I've built about 10 rigs in the past couple years ) but I'm an OLD and many times confused, man when it comes to programming and programs so please bare with me.
The built the new rig with a copy of Windows 7 x64 Pro, and installed on my SSD. ( This is my first rig with an SSD AND mechanical HD's installed)
I would like to install 7 onto one of the other mechanical drives, so I can list that drive in the BIOS as my second option as a boot device, just in case the SSD goes down. My plan was to just unplug all other HD's, and load the install disk, and let it load 7 onto the drive I designate. Then after install, reconnect all the drives, boot to the BIOS and make that mechanical drive the second priority, letting the BIOS boot from the SSD as first priority.
Is there anything I am not aware of or should know that wouldnt make this work? I basically just want 7 installed on one of the other 3 drives as a back up boot. OR, is making a bootable USB a better option. I dont know how to do that yet, but I'm sure I can figure it out with some help. ( hint, hint )

 

[gregrocker]

If you clone the SSD to the hard drive it will immediately be out of date unless you create a separate data partition for your files on the hard drive by moving the User folders which you utilize to it: User Folders - Change Default Location

I would save a backup image to the hard drive, then if the SSD goes down you can reimage it or replace it and apply the image, or apply the image to the hard drive - i.e. gives you more options. Backup Complete Computer - Create an Image Backup


http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/18629-user-folders-change-default-location.html

 

[Blayd]

OK, I was hoping it would just be as easy as creating a partition and installing 7 to one of the mechanical drives and setting it as the second in my bios boot priority. Thanks for the reply.