Dwarf Shortage Posted August 5, 2010 Report Share Posted August 5, 2010 Riiiight, at the moment I've got my main computer using Windows XP. It's installed on a SATA drive in drive C: Now, on my other computer I've recently installed Windows 7, and due to it's awful spec, I can't do much with it, so I want to put the IDE Drive with Windows 7 into my main computer as a secondary HD. Would it just be a straight fit? i.e. I could just connect all the cables and put the IDE drive in the rack, and on start up I would get a boot-menu allowing me to choose from Windows XP or Windows 7?* Or would I need to go into BIOS and add the secondary hard drive to the boot menu? Any help would be greatly appreciated, as well as some tips to change the look of Windows 7, as on my other computer it looks horrible and blocky *Ubuntu's in there too, but installed via Wubi, so I've not got much knowledge of it from this side of the pond Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Muel Posted August 5, 2010 Report Share Posted August 5, 2010 Probably won't work, whenever I've tried to plug Windows installs into a different computer, it says noe. You need to reinstall. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wrayvon Posted August 5, 2010 Report Share Posted August 5, 2010 You would need to reinstall windows if putting it in a different PC. Other than that, yes the hard drive will work. Just make sure you have your original drive set to the primary boot drive before you start formatting the other etc. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dwarf Shortage Posted August 5, 2010 Author Report Share Posted August 5, 2010 (edited) Ah balls. Nevermind. If I took my SATA drive out, and put my IDE drive into the C drive, would it work then? Edited August 5, 2010 by Ninja Manatee Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wrayvon Posted August 5, 2010 Report Share Posted August 5, 2010 You would need to reinstall windows if putting it in a different PC. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dwarf Shortage Posted August 5, 2010 Author Report Share Posted August 5, 2010 (edited) So if I take the SATA drive out, and not use it again until I put it back in, use the IDE to reinstall W7 on, then when I get bored of it, could I just put the SATA drive back in, and it would work again normally, as if the W7 thing never happened? Edited August 5, 2010 by Ninja Manatee Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Muel Posted August 5, 2010 Report Share Posted August 5, 2010 If you simply unplug the SATA hard drive, then stick the IDE drive in, then install W7 on the IDE to play with, then just reconnect the SATA and disconnect the IDE, you'll be able to go back to XP without any issues. Better though just to backup everything from the SATA drive onto the IDE drive, install W7 onto the SATA drive, then copy it all back across if you ask me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dwarf Shortage Posted August 5, 2010 Author Report Share Posted August 5, 2010 If you simply unplug the SATA hard drive, then stick the IDE drive in, then install W7 on the IDE to play with, then just reconnect the SATA and disconnect the IDE, you'll be able to go back to XP without any issues. Better though just to backup everything from the SATA drive onto the IDE drive, install W7 onto the SATA drive, then copy it all back across if you ask me. The IDE's only a 40 GB, I've got more than that in music alone, so I can't Gonna have a play now, thanks a lot Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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