Windows 7 installed on 2nd hard disk

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lasthours

Member
Hopefully a simple solution is just waiting for me... Have searched everywhere but cannot quite find the answer. Thought the following was a good idea but now not so sure.

Have Vista x64 Ultimate installed. Decided to install 7 as clean. Wanted to hedge so got a 2nd identical disk. Vista disk labeled as C: as normal, second labeled as Z: in Vista disk manager. Installed Win7 x64 Ultimate to second disk so it picked up Z: as the install drive. That's fine, not wedded to C:. Installed programs etc, xferred data, now happy to ditch Vista and repurpose 'first' drive as backup. Both disks are SATA.

W7 disk manager shows D0: (C:smile: as System, Active, Primary and D1: (Z:smile: as Boot, Page File, Active, Primary BUT the bootloader files are on the C: drive. How do I make D1 (Z:smile: the System volume so that D0: can be reformatted and I will just boot from D1? Happy to leave D1 called Z: rather than C: Not interested particularly in dual boot configuration so happy for Vista to be gone. Is it as simple as running bootsect.exe /nt60 ALL /force and deleting the Vista entry then swapping the hard disk boot order in the BIOS?

Want to be sure before I do that having spent ages reinstalling and patching s/w on my clean W7....

Thanks, and apologies if this is already answered but my searches revealed only partial answers.
 
Hi lasthours, welcome to NST
EasyBCD 2.0 latest build (not 1.7)/diagnostics/change boot drive
This will copy the contents of your Vista BCD into a W7 BCD (point it to your Z:\ partition)
Then alter the BIOS boot sequence to put the Z: HDD before the C:
You'll have a dual boot controlled from the W7 side. You can then delete the Vista entry from the BCD and format the old HDD whenever you want.

If you've been booting W7 as Z: and it can see Vista as C: you might have inadvertently installed parts of some apps on the C: disk, which will fail/need reinstall when you discard Vista. This happens when badly written 3rd party apps/installers put some of their files into C:\Program Files\Common Files, even when you tell them to Install into Z:\Adobe (mentioning no names)
Worse still, if you install the same apps on Vista, the results can be unpredictable.
 
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Terry, I just knew the answer was out there! That was simple and painless, thankyou for that and the quick reply. So now all I have to do is see what apps have been poorly written wrt to install. Sadly I have a large Adobe install which took forever to install and drag its 1gb patch file 6 months after I bouyght it...

Thanks again.

Mark

Addendum:

Just by way of update if anyone follows this. After applying Terry's instructions I rebooted. I thought I'd change D0 Cdrive to drive letter V and see what failed. Nothing so far. I then did a search for files dated after the date I installed W7 to see if any files had crept over to the 'vista' c drive. Looks ok so far. Will keep the 'V' drive up for a while in case but otherwise worked a dream.

Thanks again
Mark
 
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Try a regedit find "C:\" in your W7 registry. That should quickly point out anything which might need fixing, if anything did go astray.
 
Good advice. Did that, looks like they all behaved themselves with the exception of some minor sub components of Sage Accounts - I modified those few values as they were harmless anyway.

Overall I'm pleased I did it this way, the disk was inexpensive considering the cost of W7, I'd already done and stored a Vista image with the Windows backup which I test restored. Maybe I was being over cautious but at least I could have regressed to a fully working system with all my software & settings if needed.

Thanks again for a prompt reply

Mark
 
Happy Sevening then.
It's my 99% system now, though I still keep Vista /XP/Ubuntu quad booted for occasional use.
(keep Vista around if you don't need the space back immediately. It's been useful to "borrow" bits from to improve the W7 experience (Mail e.g), and occasionally a dll or driver which seems to have been omitted from Seven)
 
Terry60 said:
Hi lasthours, welcome to NST
EasyBCD 2.0 latest build (not 1.7)/diagnostics/change boot drive
This will copy the contents of your Vista BCD into a W7 BCD (point it to your Z:\ partition)
Then alter the BIOS boot sequence to put the Z: HDD before the C:
You'll have a dual boot controlled from the W7 side. You can then delete the Vista entry from the BCD and format the old HDD whenever you want.
Click to expand...

This worked like a charm for me, thanks!!
 
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