Dual boot issues

[atticus14]

I need to send my laptop off for repairs so I took the HD out and I have plugged it into my desktop pc for backing up... my desktop detects it is as OS (D .... but i cant figure out how to boot from it. I looked at windowskey+break > advanced system settings > and the pull down menu only shows 1 option "Windows Vista" so i guess im missing something. I always went into bios and tried setting the boot drive to the laptop HD but it went on to load my 64bit anyway.

My desktop is vista 64 and the laptop is vista 32

 

[pinaplex]

why can't you just access the files on the laptop hdd while booted into your desktop OS?

 

[atticus14]

well i eventually want a fresh install of the OS from the dell image thats on the hard drive, which i only know how to access through booting up that OS.

 

[4Ryan6]

We're obviously talking SATA HDD here, and you would not want to even try to boot from it since you'd be trying to boot to completely different hardware, thats a bad idea.