Hi,
I have Windows 7 and would like to have a second Windows 7 installation on the same machine.
I would do that on a seperate internal SSD drive.

I googled a bit and found this information: When I install Windows 7, I can choose "custom install", and specify that it should be installed on that seperate drive. In that case, the installer would not touch the original Windows 7 installation, and instead recognize it, and when everything is finished, I would get a boot menu in which I can choose which installation to boot.

Is it really this simple, will it work like that?

 

Yes, it is rather smart. As long as you don't install it on top of the old one, it will be added as a second boot option.

 

I'm not so sure about the boot menu in your case (different disks).
Anyway, remember the worst that can happen is that you may be forced to change your boot disk (like you may do when booting from USB).
What I always do is to install EasyBcd, a nice free boot menu manager. You set the boot menu and free to rock.

 

I can think of situations where things could get messed up, like when updating, installing software, boot manager problems, etc.
To tackle those I've got this Sata Power switch. It enables or removes drives from system & bios with the click of a button:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/ORICO-HD-PW4101-Drive-Switch-Controller-x/dp/B005NVU1S2
Then you don't need a bootmanager, and systems don't get messed up

 

Seems pretty cool, but I don't think that's necessary.
I use two Windows 10 on different drives and the only problem could be the boot menu, but I don't remember if I had to use a tool or just installed it as I always do.

 

This is what i do (since Win7):
Connect the first HD (and only this one) to the motherborad and install the OS.
Then disconnect it and connect the 2nd HD (and only this HD) to the motherboard and install the OS.

Then I go into the BIOS and choose the OS I want to have started when turning on the PC.
When I like to start the other one I go into the BIOS and start it from there.

 

Thank you very much. Interesting stuff.
EasyBCD looks interesting. But it seems to not support Professional Windows versions in the unpaid version. So it seems like I can't use it unless I buy it (I use Windows 7 Ultimate and want to install Pro as the second one). Anyway, the program looks pretty sophisticated. I have no clue what I'd be doing though so I don't know if I should take that risk. Is there something that is suitable for beginners that you could recommend?

That drive power switch looks cool, I was actually looking for something like that, but I don't want to do any more physical modifications to my current system. I will definitely do this though for my next one, looks great. Thank you.

The idea with disconnecting the drive while installing is something I had actually considered, but there is one thing I am worried about. As soon as I connect both drives and end up booting from both of them (using the BIOS boot menu), won't the drive letters get messed up? Both installations would use C: as the system drive letter. When I boot up both systems eventually, won't one of them just forcibly rename the other drive letter to something else, hence messing up the system entirely?

Honestly what I'd like to do is to do a Windows 10 install on that second drive, but I heard so many bad things about it, apparently it forces GPT partitioning onto the drive and it looks like it will just overlook the Windows 7 installation and you won't be able to boot from it anymore at all. Ugh, this entire boot stuff is very intimidating to me. I wish it was a lot simpler. Anyway, thanks a lot guys.

 

Hey, I have another newbie question about this.
I've seen a lot of posts about Macrium Reflect on this forum.
So I went ahead and made an image of my current system drive. It has two partitions, one is system reserved with 100mb and the other is the C: drive of my current windows.

Will I be able to restore the disk to exactly its current state with this backup? So even if a Windows 7 or 10 installation should mess up with the boot loader or rearrange the hard drive in another way, can I simply go back to exactly how it is now, or is there a caveat?

 

No problem. Both OS are C:, but when starting HD-OS1 it will be C: and the other HD (OS2) will get a different letter - or none if you don't want to see it. And when you start HD-OS2 it will be C: and the HD with OS1 will get a different letter - or none.

Hope it's clear! Good luck!

 

Oh, that is nice. I thought it would be permanent but looks like this should work, then. Thank you!

 

most reliable and rather simple solution:
1) plug first drive, install windows and all the shizz
2) unplug first drive (not from motherboard, just drive itself)
3) plug second drive, install windows and all the shizz
4) plug back first drive
5) during bios boot, choose which windows drive you wanna boot

 

for what purpose is all this? didnt really get the goal

 

Last edited: Feb 13, 2019

Thank you again. @tzzsmk, that is what I plan to do. I don't trust bootloaders and I think down the line it would be better to not have to deal with issues pertaining to them. EddiXx, I simply want to have a seperate system for other stuff. I want to seperate private and work related things. Would be better to have two different machines but I can't afford that right now.

 

tzzsmk's procedure is the same as mine
and as I said above: I do this since Win7 and now for Win10 - never had a problem to do. hopefully it'll work for you too!
about the connecting to the motherboard: as tzzsmk stated above; you can let the HD's connected to the motherboard and dissconect just the drive.

 

I've been running two win7's since forever. One fro the studio, the other as a test bed for any software I'm not sure of, but make a system restore point anyway. When you intall win 7 and choose custom you eventually get to the menu showing all your drives and where you want to install the OS. In the early days when I was less experienced, I would just pull the power or data lead off of my storage drive to make sure I didn't bugger it up.I don't bother any more.Is the SSD going to have samples or data stored there as well as the OS? If so you will need to make a partition on it for the OS. I name the partition and make it it an easily recognisable size as the drive letters can be different so when doing the install so you can easily recognise it if it is say 95 Gb and you already have a 100GB partition.

 

you have such kind of sata switch ? I head that some begin to burn due to bad design, read teh negative comments

 

@huschiwuschi Yes, works flawless, my only remark of the Orico is the cables that came with it are a bit too rigid to my taste, and a little short.
But no, no electrical problems so far (+1 year usage).

 

i've done this in the past and it just works, you'll get an extra option in the bootmenu. i used to have a seperate installation on a different partition for live gigs with the bare minimum installed as i didnt want to get any fuckups during a show. i still do this to this day with osx as well, a seperate installation with only the necessary programs installed for when i dj or have a gig somewhere.

here are some links with info and instructions
multibooting
the tutorial from how to geek
the explanation from how to geek

 

Just clone it to the other ssd drive and then unhook it as a back up.

 

Thank you again for your responses. I did this today and it worked! Unplugged my main drive and installed Windows on the new drive as if it's the only one. Then I plugged the original one back in, and now I can select the drive in the boot menu. The OS that boots up will always be C:. What a relief! I was really worried I'd mess up my system. Spent the better part of two days making a ton of backups of everything but ended up not needing them for now, phew! I had originally wanted to install Windows 10 but didn't want to take the risk, gonna have to deal with this abomination soon enough I'm afraid.

Great idea to have a second system with a minimal installation for live performance purposes, that thought wouldn't even have crossed my mind. It was my impression a lot of DJs use Linux for their gigs, but of course they might not have all the software they need on it. I remember reading forum posts in the early 2000s about DJs beginning to migrate from Vinyl to scratchpads using .wav files on their hard drives, touring with laptops, and stability was a major concern back then. No wonder, they were used to Windows 98 lol!