Using back-up hd with ultimate while master hd using pro

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silversmithy

silversmithy

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Nov 13, 2012
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Sorry if this seems like a foolish question but here it goes. Have an older rig that I want to upgrade and pull one of the hd's from my main rig and place in the one to be upgraded. That hd is an unused back up, and has nothing on it. Now in the donor rig I want to put my other hd which has all my files, photos that I want to keep but it is ultimate, and the machine it is going into is pro 64. I will leave the pro as the boot drive as it is all set up and working fine with intended mobo. My main reason for putting that other drive in is to simply access my old files photos, and nothing more. Is this possible, and if so are there any foreseeable conflicts. I was going to simply do a reinstall of windows 7 ultimate without formatting to hopefully save files/photos etc and put it into rig to upgrade, but have run into issues due to different mobo,bios, etc and getting a little frustrating so it seems like less hassle to simply put empty hd into rig to upgrade doing fresh install and leave other alone to simply go into main machine. Sorry if to this seems too long or confusing. Thanks
 
Solution
USAFRet


Should be no problem.

But the ultimate way to do this is to have a USB dock or cable.
Boot up the regular system, then connect the other drive via the USB dock.
No boot issues at all.

These things come in very handy as time goes by.
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silversmithy

silversmithy

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Nov 13, 2012
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Okay thanks. I guess since the 2nd drive in my main rig, and the one with all my files are about the same capacity my thought was just to remove the empty back up drive and put in rig to upgrade and simply install/leave hd with my photos/ files in main rig. I actually would like to try what you suggested though, but if I did that I would want to copy save files/photos from the drive to be used in other rig into the empty hd which will stay put in main rig. I don't think I can add a third hd as I am set up now so not sure how that would work. I will see what I can do. So when I boot up just go to my computer pick the hd with my files/photos and copy them onto the other drive? Thanks again!
 
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USAFRet

USAFRet

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Mar 16, 2013
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Assuming the system boots from its regular drive as normal, the other drive (Ultimate) will simply be another drive letter.
D or E probably.

Navigate through it, find what you need, copy to elsewhere.
You may be denied access to some files/folders, due to the original permissions and users.
If that happens, look up "Take Ownership"

Remember...you're not trying to copy the whole thing, just your critical, personal files. The OS and applications on that drive are disposable.
 
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silversmithy

silversmithy

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Nov 13, 2012
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Got it. Yep just going to copy photos/files and nothing else. Will I be risking anything by doing this if it does not boot? I figure no, as it will simply just not boot. The other thing I was wondering is that this hd was originally XP, and when I got 7 it kept all my previous photos, etc in a file marked OLD. Will I have access to theses files as well to copy? Thanks again
 
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USAFRet

USAFRet

Titan
Moderator
Mar 16, 2013
171,787
18,136
184,590


Should be no problem.

But the ultimate way to do this is to have a USB dock or cable.
Boot up the regular system, then connect the other drive via the USB dock.
No boot issues at all.

These things come in very handy as time goes by.
 
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