Connecting a HDD and SSD but both have two different OS's

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glaudiusmaximus

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Dec 31, 2017
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Hey everyone, so I just upgraded my PC and now will be connecting a HDD and SSD for the first time. The HDD is from my first build and has Windows 7 and my games, the SSD is new and has Windows 10. I plan to transfer some of my games to the SSD and uninstall windows 7. My question is what will happen when I boot up the PC when both OS are still installed? In addition what will happen to my saved data on my HDD when Windows 7 is uninstalled? Any info on how I should handle this will be greatly appreciated.
 
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you can also get into situations where neither drive will boot up.
two drives with active partitions, and reserved partitions the drive letters can get reassigned such that windows will not be on the correct drive. Seems to happen most often when you use the intel rapid storage technology driver.
ie you start with something like
disk 0 200 mb reserved partition with no drive letter assignment, 500 GB drive c: with windows on it.
disk1 200 mb reserved partition with no drive letter assignment, 500 gb drive c: with another image of windows.

you attempt to boot and the drives letters get reassigned to something like this:
disk0 200 mb reserved partition assigned drive letter c:
disk1 200 mb reserved partition assigned drive...
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carltonje

carltonje

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Aug 18, 2006
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although both are installed the one you specify as the first to be seen in boot order will load. you will have to transfer all your files to the ssd then format as you cannot uninstall the os.
 
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R_1

R_1

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Sep 8, 2015
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your system will boot to the one set as the main in the BIOS. you can change the Boot order manually or via the boot loader trigger key (see motherboard manual for exact key) my trigger is F8. after boot up I press F8 and I get a list of my hard drives, I then choose which one to boot.

this is a boot loader built into the motherboard. you can install a boot loader software but I find that manual is best.
set the OS you want as the main (for me its linux) and set that in the BIOS. when you need the secondary drive to boot you hit the trigger and select it. leave the system alone and it will boot to the main.

when either drive is booted up you should be able to copy files from one to the other.
you cannot copy installed programs. you need to install the program to the OS first then you can copy the program folders
 
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johnbl

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Nov 4, 2012
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you can also get into situations where neither drive will boot up.
two drives with active partitions, and reserved partitions the drive letters can get reassigned such that windows will not be on the correct drive. Seems to happen most often when you use the intel rapid storage technology driver.
ie you start with something like
disk 0 200 mb reserved partition with no drive letter assignment, 500 GB drive c: with windows on it.
disk1 200 mb reserved partition with no drive letter assignment, 500 gb drive c: with another image of windows.

you attempt to boot and the drives letters get reassigned to something like this:
disk0 200 mb reserved partition assigned drive letter c:
disk1 200 mb reserved partition assigned drive letter d:
disk 0 500 mb windows partition assigned drive letter e:
disk 1 500 mb windows partition assigned drive letter f:

system does not boot until you use diskpart.exe to reassign the drive letters.
if you pull one drive the system does not boot because c: is now the reserved partition instead of the windows partition.

you end up having to assign a new drive letter to the reserve partition and setting the drive letter to the windows partition. (kind of a pain for most people)
 
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USAFRet

USAFRet

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Mar 16, 2013
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Assuming you've installed Win 10 with ONLY the SSD connected...

You just need to boot up into Win 10.
Locate and copy what you need from the WIn 7 drive.
Your personal docs, and the SteamApps folder.
Once you have that....then wipe the old HDD. There is no real "uninstall" of the old OS. Delete all partitions off that drive.
Then, you can use that drive for whatever you wish.
 
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