Adding an older HDD to existing setup

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Z

Zhoyzu

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To make a long story short, I was going from console to PC gaming and was doing several hardware upgrades. I started with the Dell inspiron 620(?) series with a 1Tb HDD. when i upgraded and slotted it into my new set up (custom) the HDD wanted no part in what was going on. I decided wanted a faster HDD anyways and bought one and got win 8.1 loaded on it.

The older HDD of mine has win 7 and is half full more or less. Is it possible for me to add this into my current system, boot my newer HDD first, wipe the older one and just use it as an expansion?

I just fear im going to cause some software issues with 2 OS on 2 different HDD and my system wont respond kindly to the conflict of interest. I have very limited knowledge with software and am pretty much in the dark.

I want to think its as easy as plug, wipe, partition, and go! but i have my doubts.
 
Solution
reedo_43
They will be seen as separate drives such as C: and D: Zune will be installed on the C drive and I am assuming you can just point it to your music folder on D. Don't be scared!
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mamasan2000

mamasan2000

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If you still boot from your Win 8.1 harddisk, your computer wont even know theres a win 7 install present on another HDD.
The way it works is when you install Windows or any other OS, they write to either MBR or UEFI which OS's are installed. Can think of it like a junction link to the OS harddrives and partitions. And that is what gets listed in the bootmenu. But Windows don't check for Linux partitions so Linux installs wont be listed, have to restore that with Linux bootCD or something. Linux on the other hand can and will list even Windows partitions in its bootmenu, grub2 usually.


TLDR:

If the win 7 HDD wasn't in the computer when you installed win 8.1, your computer wont know to boot win 7. It will not conflict. If win 7 HDD was inside computer, you would get a bootmenu with 2 choices, boot Win 8.1 or Win 7.
 
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Z

Zhoyzu

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Will they behave as a single unit? As in if i have my zune software on one drive and all my music on the other will it be seamless? Or am i going to need to have the software on the same drive as the music.

 
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mamasan2000

mamasan2000

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If you have zune as default program for music files, yeah, you can just doubleclick the music files, drag & drop etc.
If Zune isn't the default, you can right-click an mp3/ogg/wav/flac and select Open With, click Choose default program and pick Zune. If Zune is not listed, click browse and find Zunes exe-file. Usually can be found in Program files.

Basically, your Win 8 has associations, file associations. Win 8 doesnt care on which drive or if the file is on CD/DVD/USB/Tape drive. As long as that file type is associated with a program, it will run.
 
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