So I'm in the process of building a PC (just waiting for parts to come in) when my HP Touchsmart All in one PC dies on me. Since it's gonna cost way too much to buy the parts to fix it, I wanted to just salvage the HDD and the Wireless Card from it. However the HDD from my all-in-one PC has Windows 7 Premium already on it, while the HDD I bought for my new PC will have Windows 8.1. Is it possible to install both of these but only run the OS from the HDD with Windows 8.1?
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What happens if I use two hard drives that both have an OS on them?
- Thread starter Barls
- Start date
I may not be correct but someone can correct me if needed, I think if you start the system with both plugged in at the same time you will get a boot menu to choose which OS you would like to start with, also this will continue to show up every time you restart your PC until you format one hard drive.
It's easier that that. When you get your new machine built, make sure you install ONLY the new HDD in it at first. Install Win 8.1 on it and get it all working. After that's done, shut down and add the old HDD. When you power on, go immediately into BIOS Setup to where you set the Boot Priority Sequence. Most people would set it to try the optical drive first, and then the HDD you want to boot from (the new one). Make sure the old HDD is NOT in the sequence. SAVE and EXIT from here, and your machine should always boot from the new drive, and never try to boot from the old one.
The reason to set the optical drive as the first device is this: under normal circumstances with no bootable disk in the optical drive, the BIOS will check that drive first, find no bootable disk, and jump quickly to the second device (your new HDD). BUT in odd circumstances (like, your HDD appears to have failed) you can place a bootable CD in the optical unit and boot from it.
The reason to set the optical drive as the first device is this: under normal circumstances with no bootable disk in the optical drive, the BIOS will check that drive first, find no bootable disk, and jump quickly to the second device (your new HDD). BUT in odd circumstances (like, your HDD appears to have failed) you can place a bootable CD in the optical unit and boot from it.
Electrolyzed
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- Jul 12, 2014
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Your PC will boot from whichever HDD is set to boot from first.
If you set BIOS to boot from the Win8.1 HDD, your PC will load with Windows 8.1.
If you set BIOS to boot from the Win7 HDD, your PC will load with Windows 7.
You can leave the OS on both of the drives, they will not interfere with each other.
If you set BIOS to boot from the Win8.1 HDD, your PC will load with Windows 8.1.
If you set BIOS to boot from the Win7 HDD, your PC will load with Windows 7.
You can leave the OS on both of the drives, they will not interfere with each other.
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