Can I boot W7 on a new SSD and use an old Vista 1TB C drive as a work drive without reformat?

[Ghhyrd]

Hey everyone,

I recently broke my old PC and decided to do a full system overhaul with modern components and a new SSD.
The original idea was to simply shove my old Vista-running 1TB HDD with all my stuff in it into the PC and then later use a fresh installation of Windows 7 on the new SSD for my OS while keeping the old disk as a bulk storage workhorse (and not losing all my stuff on it).

Obviously since thinking about it I've realised I'm an idiot for thinking Vista would load up on that drive with entirely new hardware when It would likely instantly BSOD as soon as it tries- I understand I probably won't be booting from that drive any time soon so I'm not going to try...

Basically, can I now install W7 on the SSD, use that as a boot drive for my OS and select programs as many people do, and then access the files on the old drive as a D drive or whatever without booting Vista?

Essentially I just don't want to lose the information I have on the old disk as I foolishly didn't get a chance to back it up properly before my last PC went up shit creek.

Thanks!

 

[D_Know_WD]

Hi there Ghhyrd,

Yes, you can install Windows 7 on your SSD and access the data on your HDD. Any programs on the hard drive should be re-installed though, in case you want to use them.
Also, it may be a good idea to take out the HDD out of the system when installing OS on the SSD(so the SSD is the only drive in the system).

Cheers,
D_Know_WD

 

[asgard1123]

To get the best results plug the SSD into a high speed SATA port on the motherboard. You can use the BIOS to boot to the Vista OS drive if you need it but the SSD should be set to the primary boot device in the BIOS. Go to properties on all the data storage folders and point them to the old hard drive folders and then if you are using libraries add these folders to the library. You may want to delete the C: My document and other data folders from the library if you are not using them but be aware that win 7 defaults may need to be changed to prevent them storing data automatically in the new C: drive folders