Technique Posted December 9, 2016 Share Posted December 9, 2016 It's been quite a few years since i've done this so i've actually forgotten. So let's say you have 4 hard drives. 2 that you will install Windows on & then 2 that you will use for storage. The windows that will be getting installed on each is actually the exact same - the exact same disc. Windows 7 Pro 64bit. It probably sounds strange but roll with it. So you have operating system disk 1 & operating system disk 2. When you want a specific drive to appear 2nd on the boot menu screen, does it matter to which disk you install Windows first or does it really not matter at all? Second question ... is it best to have all drives connected when installing or not? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hum Posted December 10, 2016 Share Posted December 10, 2016 Be aware that Windows 10 will throw a fit if you try to install on 2 drives. You would have to clone to a 2nd drive. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Gary7 Subscriber² Posted December 10, 2016 Subscriber² Share Posted December 10, 2016 I do not believe it matters which drive you install Windows on first, It may matter in the BIOS in which order you set them to boot. Your second question is really a don't care that is I do not believe it matters. It may take longer with all drives installed. @Hum he is talking Win 7. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
xendrome Posted December 10, 2016 Share Posted December 10, 2016 (edited) 5 minutes ago, Hum said: Be aware that Windows 10 will throw a fit if you try to install on 2 drives. No it won't. http://www.howtogeek.com/214477/how-to-dual-boot-two-or-more-versions-of-windows/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Circaflex Posted December 10, 2016 Share Posted December 10, 2016 2 hours ago, Technique said: When you want a specific drive to appear 2nd on the boot menu screen, does it matter to which disk you install Windows first or does it really not matter at all? It wont really matter, you can edit the boot config to have whichever you want listed first. 2 hours ago, Technique said: Second question ... is it best to have all drives connected when installing or not? I personally disconnect extra drivers when installing Windows. On a side note, have you thought about just installing 7 on one drive, and running a VM within that install for your second Windows 7 installation? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hum Posted December 10, 2016 Share Posted December 10, 2016 3 minutes ago, xendrome said: No it won't. http://www.howtogeek.com/214477/how-to-dual-boot-two-or-more-versions-of-windows/ It did on my 2 drives. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Circaflex Posted December 10, 2016 Share Posted December 10, 2016 1 minute ago, Hum said: It did on my 2 drives. That doesn't mean it will throw fits. Chances are Hum, and please do not take this the wrong way, but I have a strong feeling it was operator error on your part. I have two systems running 10 off of a single drive for testing purposes that did not give me any fits. Anibal P and xendrome 2 Share Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hum Posted December 10, 2016 Share Posted December 10, 2016 5 minutes ago, Circaflex said: I have a strong feeling it was operator error on your part. I have two systems running 10 off of a single drive for testing purposes that did not give me any fits. Incorrect. The Windows DVD did not want to accept my ligit product key on the 2nd drive, even tho it was on the same hardware. I ended up with a 'digital license' key. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Circaflex Posted December 10, 2016 Share Posted December 10, 2016 7 minutes ago, Hum said: Incorrect. The Windows DVD did not want to accept my ligit product key on the 2nd drive, even tho it was on the same hardware. I ended up with a 'digital license' key. Which has nothing to do with dual-booting. You pretty much proved my point from earlier. xendrome 1 Share Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mando Posted December 10, 2016 Share Posted December 10, 2016 (edited) 8 hours ago, Hum said: Incorrect. The Windows DVD did not want to accept my ligit product key on the 2nd drive, even tho it was on the same hardware. I ended up with a 'digital license' key. Buddy, the reason for that is...your hard drive you first activated on, is more than likely part of your qualifying hardware for said 1st activation so when you then tried to install on the second hard drive, you had technically changed part of your qualifying hardware, windows has always been like this since post W2k days. If you do not edit the bootmanager file manually, Windows always lists the first OS installed as 1st option, then any other operating systems after that, regardless of what Os it is. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Technique Posted December 10, 2016 Author Share Posted December 10, 2016 Thanks for the replies And yes it's Windows 7. Time to get on with the job. Not looking forward to it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Technique Posted December 10, 2016 Author Share Posted December 10, 2016 Predictably i ran into a problem. So i installed Windows 7 on 2 hard drives just now 7 & when i open msconfig to decide the boot order & the timeout etc, there's only 1 OS listed. Both drives can see each other & when i hit F8 to select what i boot to i can pick either hard drive. What i did was disconnect ALL drives except drive 1. I then installed Windows 7 on that drive. Then i connected ALL drives, drive 1, drive 2 & the storage drives and proceeded to install Windows 7 to drive 2. Why can't i select the boot order on account of only 1 being listed & how do i fix it? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Technique Posted December 11, 2016 Author Share Posted December 11, 2016 Well i seem to have fixed that. EasyBCD didn't do anything so i had to start again. Format both hard drives, connect everything & install from scratch. That worked. Now Windows Update doesn't seem to want to update anything. It just searches forever, and ever, and well you get the idea. Plus when i have multiple windows open, previously if i hovered over the application on the taskbar then it'd preview those windows. Now i just get a list. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+BudMan MVC Posted December 11, 2016 MVC Share Posted December 11, 2016 Are you trying to do this with both your boot disks in the machine? I would do this 1 disk only, install windows. Take that disk out put in disk two, install. Put both machines in fix your boot menu, or just boot using bios boot prob better option to change. Then add your other storage disks. I Personally would hide the other windows disk from windows so not to get confusing.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Technique Posted December 11, 2016 Author Share Posted December 11, 2016 It's fixed now BudMan anyway (last post). But yeah i'll be hiding one disk from another Thanks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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