Results 1 to 8 of 8

Thread: Multiple Hard Drive Help

  1. #1
    Registered+
    Join Date
    Aug 2009
    Posts
    16
    Thanks
    0
    Thanked
    0 times in 0 posts

    Multiple Hard Drive Help

    I have just built a new tower that I have installed the windows 7 release candidate on, but I still have my old tower that is running XP. I would like to be able to transfer the Hard drive from this old Tower to the new one, and be able to choose which one I want to boot from on start-up. I DON'T want a raid array and would like to be able to keep all of my files/programs on my XP HDD. Is there a simple way to do this that wouldn't involve wiping my XP HDD (although the windows 7 one I wouldn't mind, there isn't much on there anyway)

    I think the old HDD is IDE (and the new one SATA), And I have enough ports on my Mobo/PSU regardless of the connections.

    Thanks in advance.

  2. #2
    Senior Member
    Join Date
    May 2009
    Location
    Norfolk
    Posts
    474
    Thanks
    3
    Thanked
    26 times in 26 posts
    • pipTheGeek's system
      • Motherboard:
      • Asus P6T Deluxe
      • CPU:
      • Core i7 920 @ 3.6GHz
      • Memory:
      • 3 * 2Gb Corsair XMS @ DDR3 1800
      • Storage:
      • 300GB 15K SAS + 500Gb
      • Graphics card(s):
      • GTX570
      • PSU:
      • corsair 760i
      • Case:
      • Corsair 550d
      • Operating System:
      • Windows 7
      • Monitor(s):
      • Dell Alienware 23"
      • Internet:
      • VM 50Mb

    Re: Multiple Hard Drive Help

    You are un-likely to get your XP build to boot with new hardware. It will probably blue screen. Also, you can't go from a single core to a multi core, even if it does boot it will only use one core.
    If, and it's a BIG if, you manage to get the XP install to boot on the new hardware then you will be able to configure one of the operating systems to be aware of the other.
    You can test without doing this though. Either only plug one drive in, or see if your BIOS has some sort of Boot Selection Popup - This will be a key you press during POST, that then gives a list of devices to boot from, just pick whichever hard disk you want. The last option will be to change the hard disk boot priority in your BIOS settings.

  3. #3
    VTECmeous Vimeous's Avatar
    Join Date
    Aug 2003
    Posts
    2,006
    Thanks
    62
    Thanked
    52 times in 51 posts

    Re: Multiple Hard Drive Help

    If your new machine is big enough and fast enough you could always convert it to a virtual machine and keep it on the W7 PC. Then clean down the old drive and use it as storage - say to hold your new virtual machine
    I VM'd my old Win2k PC onto my current XP PC using VMware Server. I fully expect to maintain that when I move to W7 on that machine.
    Vimeous : i7 7700K | 16Gb | ASUS Strix Z270G | GTX1080 | 960 EVO 500GB NVMe | 850 EVO 500GB | TX650W | NZXT S340 Elite | Dell U2713H + 17" | 10 Pro
    Willowin : i7 3570K | 16Gb | ASUS P8Z77-I Deluxe | GTX 660 TI | 2x 1TB 840EVO | Sugo SG05BB-450 | Dell U2713H + 17" | 8.1 Pro
    Svr : X2 4200+ | 2Gb | ASUS A8N-SLI Premium | HD6870 | SonicFury | 8x 250Gb (2x RAID10) | 3Ware 9650SE-8LPML | Seasonic 700W | CM Stacker 830 | XP Pro
    NAS : DS1511+ | DX513
    W : Dell Precision T3610 | E5-1650 V2 | 16GB | Quadro K2000 | 256GB SSD | 1TB HDD | 8.1 Pro | 2x Dell U2515H


  4. #4
    Overclocking Since 1988 nightkhaos's Avatar
    Join Date
    Apr 2009
    Location
    Sydney, AU
    Posts
    1,415
    Thanks
    93
    Thanked
    127 times in 106 posts

    Re: Multiple Hard Drive Help

    If you get Windows 7 Professional or better you could use XP mode to run any programs that don't play nice with Windows 7 (of which there are few).
    Desktop (Cy): Intel Core i7 920 D0 @ 3.6GHz, Prolimatech Megahalems, Gigabyte X58-UD5, Patriot Viper DDR3 6GiB @ 1440MHz 7-7-7-20 2T, EVGA NVIDIA GTX 295 Co-Op, Asus Xonar D2X, Hauppauge WinTV Nova TD-500, 2x WD Caviar Black 1TB in RAID 0, 4x Samsung EcoDrive 1.5TB F2s in RAID 5, Corsair HX 750W PSU, Coolermaster RC-1100 Cosmos Sport (Custom), 4x Noctua P12s, 6x Noctua S12Bs, Sony Optiarc DVD+/-RW, Windows 7 Professional Edition, Dell 2408WFP, Mirai 22" HDTV

    MacBook Pro (Voyager): Intel Core 2 Duo @ 2.6GHz, 4GiB DDR2 RAM, 200GB 7200RPM HDD, NVIDIA 8600GTM 512MB, SuperDrive, Mac OS X Snow Leopard, 15.4" Matte Display

    HTPC (Delta-Flyer): Intel Core 2 Q8200 @ 2.33GHz, Zotec GeForce 9300-ITX, 2GiB of DDR2 Corsair XMS2 RAM, KWorld PE355-2T, Samsung EcoDrive F2 1.5TB, In-Win BP655, Noctua NF-R8, LiteOn BluRay ROM Drive, Windows 7 Home Premium, 42" Sony 1080p Television

    i7 (Bloomfield) Overclocking Guide

    Quote Originally Posted by Spock
    I am not our father.

  5. #5
    Senior[ish] Member Singh400's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jun 2008
    Posts
    2,935
    Thanks
    136
    Thanked
    310 times in 247 posts

    Re: Multiple Hard Drive Help

    You won't be able to boot from the old hard drive in your new PC. You can however just connect it as normal as any other drive, and transfer any important stuff you have over to the new hard drive.

    I did the exact same thing, I found my old hard drive wouldn't boot (to be expected, but worth a shot). I then just installed it as a normal bog standard drive, and I could access my old documents and stuff.

  6. #6
    Anthropomorphic Personification shaithis's Avatar
    Join Date
    Apr 2004
    Location
    The Last Aerie
    Posts
    10,857
    Thanks
    645
    Thanked
    872 times in 736 posts
    • shaithis's system
      • Motherboard:
      • Asus P8Z77 WS
      • CPU:
      • i7 3770k @ 4.5GHz
      • Memory:
      • 32GB HyperX 1866
      • Storage:
      • Lots!
      • Graphics card(s):
      • Sapphire Fury X
      • PSU:
      • Corsair HX850
      • Case:
      • Corsair 600T (White)
      • Operating System:
      • Windows 10 x64
      • Monitor(s):
      • 2 x Dell 3007
      • Internet:
      • Zen 80Mb Fibre

    Re: Multiple Hard Drive Help

    First thing you need to do is disconnect/disable the SATA drive and install the IDE drive.

    You will then almost certainly need to boot off of the XP CD (you can try booting off of the HDD but as has been said, XP will probably blue screen) and run an XP repair.

    Once XP is repaired, re-enable your SATA drive with Windows 7 and download EasyBCD and set up a boot entry for the XP install on the other drive.
    Main PC: Asus Rampage IV Extreme / 3960X@4.5GHz / Antec H1200 Pro / 32GB DDR3-1866 Quad Channel / Sapphire Fury X / Areca 1680 / 850W EVGA SuperNOVA Gold 2 / Corsair 600T / 2x Dell 3007 / 4 x 250GB SSD + 2 x 80GB SSD / 4 x 1TB HDD (RAID 10) / Windows 10 Pro, Yosemite & Ubuntu
    HTPC: AsRock Z77 Pro 4 / 3770K@4.2GHz / 24GB / GTX 1080 / SST-LC20 / Antec TP-550 / Hisense 65k5510 4K TV / HTC Vive / 2 x 240GB SSD + 12TB HDD Space / Race Seat / Logitech G29 / Win 10 Pro
    HTPC2: Asus AM1I-A / 5150 / 4GB / Corsair Force 3 240GB / Silverstone SST-ML05B + ST30SF / Samsung UE60H6200 TV / Windows 10 Pro
    Spare/Loaner: Gigabyte EX58-UD5 / i950 / 12GB / HD7870 / Corsair 300R / Silverpower 700W modular
    NAS 1: HP N40L / 12GB ECC RAM / 2 x 3TB Arrays || NAS 2: Dell PowerEdge T110 II / 24GB ECC RAM / 2 x 3TB Hybrid arrays || Network:Buffalo WZR-1166DHP w/DD-WRT + HP ProCurve 1800-24G
    Laptop: Dell Precision 5510 Printer: HP CP1515n || Phone: Huawei P30 || Other: Samsung Galaxy Tab 4 Pro 10.1 CM14 / Playstation 4 + G29 + 2TB Hybrid drive

  7. #7
    Registered+
    Join Date
    Aug 2009
    Posts
    16
    Thanks
    0
    Thanked
    0 times in 0 posts

    Re: Multiple Hard Drive Help

    Thanks for all your help - I will try these when I get a chance (Windows 7 RC not playing ball right now, but that is a whole different kettle of fish).

    Sorry for slow response, I have been away since Thursday.

  8. #8
    The late but legendary peterb - Onward and Upward peterb's Avatar
    Join Date
    Aug 2005
    Location
    Looking down & checking on swearing
    Posts
    19,378
    Thanks
    2,892
    Thanked
    3,403 times in 2,693 posts

    Re: Multiple Hard Drive Help

    One other option might be to use a third party bootloader, such as grub, that would present you with a choice om=n machine start up - although configuring it would be fairly tricky.
    (\__/)
    (='.'=)
    (")_(")

    Been helped or just 'Like' a post? Use the Thanks button!
    My broadband speed - 750 Meganibbles/minute

Thread Information

Users Browsing this Thread

There are currently 1 users browsing this thread. (0 members and 1 guests)

Similar Threads

  1. Hard drive not detected but still boots.
    By Anisur in forum Help! Quick Relief From Tech Headaches
    Replies: 9
    Last Post: 07-01-2009, 01:42 AM
  2. Terrible hard drive copying speed? problem?
    By mayan in forum Help! Quick Relief From Tech Headaches
    Replies: 8
    Last Post: 21-09-2007, 02:12 PM
  3. Hard drive windows issue
    By bellyboy in forum PC Hardware and Components
    Replies: 3
    Last Post: 13-09-2006, 12:08 AM
  4. Looking for a Database Programmer
    By tillyoubreakit in forum Software
    Replies: 35
    Last Post: 25-04-2004, 05:00 PM

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •