Installing Windows 7 on a secondary SATA drive.

[Mark Duncombe]

Ok, I have a question....

If I install Windows 7 to a secondary SATA drive, with the drive letter 'I', what happens regarding the ntldr, ntdetect, and bootsect.bak files that are already on drive 'c:' of the same machine. Are they overwritten, or does windows 7 use its own boot files and install them on it's own drive (which would be drive 'I')

I already have an XP installation on a seperate SATA drive, and don't want to completely screw it up.

 

[Scotteq]

Unplug your XP drive

Install 7 to your new one - Patch it, etc etc etc.

When you're done, shut down and plug your XP drive back in.


From here, you have two choices: You can press the F8 (sometimes F8) key to choose which drive you want to boot from. Or, you can boot to your Win 7 DVD, and do an installation repair - That will add XP to Win 7's boot manager.


How to Dual Boot Win 7 and XP

 

[Mark Duncombe]

Is it essential I unplug the drive that has XP installed on before commencing the Windows 7 installation?

 

[Scotteq]

Nope - You don't have to unplug. But you expressed concern the Win 7 installation could mess with your XP. It won't, but if it makes you feel better about the process, then unplugging absolutely prevents even the potential.

 

[JessicaD]

Mark,

To learn more about dual booting it may be helpful to check out the Microsoft supported forums available here: http://tinyurl.com/9fhdl5 . It is supported by product specialists as well as engineers and support teams.

Jessica
Microsoft Windows Client Team

 

[JackNaylorPE]

There's at least 3 ways:

1. Standard MS way in the past required (dunno about Win7) you install them in order of release. Boot files and boot loading config reside on your C drive. I would think, referring to the unplug drive thing, that if that drive is there, the boot config and control will reside on that drive....(again, dunno about Win7) so if that drive goes in the toilet, you won't be able to boot from 2nd.

2. 3rd party Boot Manager usage is determined by the 3rd party tool.

3. BIOS management w/ multiple drives (not partitions) simply results in your BIOS choosing what drive yur puter looks at to get its boot instructions. This way if one drive tanks, you can still boot from other one.