Switching between two hard drives

[fenixreaver]

I have two drives (one SSD and one HDD) both with Windows 7 Professional installed on them. I'm obviously using the SSD as my primary startup drive, but I would like to more easily navigate my HDD as there are programs and games on there I want to keep but not migrate over to my SSD. My question is if there is an easier method to switch between the primary hard drive without restarting and changing the BIOS boot up settings. I've also thought about virtualizing the HDD, but I don't know much about Virtualization and how that would effect any performance issues.

 

[nukemaster]

You can just ADD the hard drive to the boot loader on the SSD with easyBCD.

I use this to switch from Win7 SSD to Win8 SSD without having to enter the bios.

I actually put both OS's on each drives boot loader so if one takes a crap(just the boot loader), I can always attempt to boot from the other.

http://www.softpedia.com/get/System/OS-Enhancements/EasyBCD.shtml

This software is honestly VERY easy.

Just use "Add New Entry"

Give it a name and select the right drive(you use its current drive letter. so if your HDD windows shows up as G: select G.

On the next boot you will be able to select Windows 7 OR Windows 7 HDD

You can also, install some of the games overtop of the old location on the HDD(to recreate any needed registry entries.) and still launch them from the SSD load of Windows or go as far as to move programs from the SSD to the hard drive.

Steam also now allows you to make a Steam library on a second drive.

If you have room on the SSD, you can install software(to recreate any needed registry entries again), then copy the old one over and in most cases this will restore settings and for games will avoid having to repatch games.

You may be interested in looking at this if you want to MOVE things from the SSD to the hard drive.
http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/294557-32-guide-move-software-games-drive-reinstalling

 

[fenixreaver]

Thanks for the quick response. I'll keep that in mind if my SSD gets full.

At least I'll avoid BIOS using EasyBCD, but I'm assuming there is no way to fully avoid restarting the computer? I can always get what I need through Windows Explorer, but since it has already has Windows installed on it, I was hoping there was a way to quickly launch it and navigate that way.

 

[TidusJames]

Honestly, I would add both drives to the same installation. Run the os on the SSD and games or anything else on the HDD. Ive got 8 drives in my PC. I even use a program called Steam-mover to creat junction points that basically move a folder and makes a pointer right to where you mvoed it to. So i can have steam on a 2TB but put certain games on my SSD with about a minutes transfer, then play them with the performance of a SSD.

 

[photonboy]

Honestly, I would add both drives to the same installation. Run the os on the SSD and games or anything else on the HDD. Ive got 8 drives in my PC. I even use a program called Steam-mover to creat junction points that basically move a folder and makes a pointer right to where you mvoed it to. So i can have steam on a 2TB but put certain games on my SSD with about a minutes transfer, then play them with the performance of a SSD.

Agreed.
It makes little sense to have two different drives with the same OS on them.

Keep the SSD as the Windows drive and migrate like this:
1) Install "Program X" on the SSD
2) Transfer (copy/import) any relevant data from Program X
3) Repeat for all programs
4) Import any other relevant data ("Documents" folder etc)
5) DELETE all Windows data on the hard drive (just delete the folder on the HDD while in the SSD version of Windows).

*If you use STEAM there's a simple way to re-install Steam from within the SSD version of Windows while keeping all the games on the Hard Drive (Don't forget to copy all relevant Save Game data to the SSD "Documents" folder.)

Summary:
Long story short, use one copy only of Windows on the SSD. If space is an issue, Games and larger files should all be on the Hard Drive.

 

[fenixreaver]

It's not about having different OS on them both. It's about using them for different purposes. My HDD has about 2 years worth of data on it, and my SSD is brand new and smaller in size than my HDD so I can't migrate over everything. I want to keep my SSD fairly clean with just the OS and limited applications/games on it. And everything else will be on the HDD.

 

[TidusJames]

I can run my entire computer on my single SSD, but i choose not to because the benefits of having extra HDDs are to numerous. you can keep everything you want on the Hdd and just put the OS on the SSD. If you act like you are installing windows on the old drive, you can tell it to put everything in a folder called Windows.old and from there you can pull out what you want, then just delete the entire folder. you now have everything you wanted to keep, PLUS the OS on your SSD, and a TON of extra space on your HDD
Your choice really, thats just what most people do. Im sorry, but i am not aware of a method to easily switch which HD you are running off of without restarting the computer because bios/drivers are run and stored as active reference when you first boot your computer and from there, trying to switch to anything else you are only going to cause stability issues. Sorry