Windows 7 on msata and HDD

I'm looking to install an msata soon and would like to keep windows 7 on the HDD so that just in case the msata fails (with the main OS and apps) I can still boot into the other drive.

If I would like to use the HDD for storage as well, do I need to configure it specially? If I leave all my data (movies, music, files etc.) on the HDD C drive will it will still be recognized / accessible even though I will be booting into the msata OS?

Thanks

 

Are you familiar with dual boot and bcdedit?

 

If the main drive fails, you can still recover by installing/booting windows 7 from a usb flash drive. Why go to all this trouble?

 

I have some experience with bcdedit. I think I'm just going to format the drive since I do agree that it may be excessive to leave the os on it. Thanks again.

 

I don't think it's excessive to have two os installs, it's actually quite simple. I do that right now with my msata/hdd. You can access your HDD when booted into the msata just like you would an external hard drive. It's simple and does provide that extra piece of mind if the msata fails.

 

EasyBCD is another editor, one that's a lot friendlier to use than bcdedit.

When I installed mine, I created the 3 recovery DVDs. Then I removed the HD and installed the mSATA. I then booted the recovery DVD and reloaded to the mSATA drive. This worked perfectly. Then I shutdown and reinstalled the HD. I made sure the BIOS was set to boot from the SSD. I then used EasyBCD to scan for and add the HD instance of Win7 to the boot menu. I renamed the boot menu entries to read "Win7 SSD" and "Win7 HD".

The interesting thing is when booting from either drive it's seen as C:, but the other one comes up as D: or E:. As in, boot from HD, it's C: and the mSATA is E: (optical being D . Or boot from SSD and it's C:, optical D: and HD as E:. I rename my optical drives to O: for consistency's sake, and to get it 'out of the way' as other removable USB drives come and go.

I then just make the effort to install programs I know I won't use very often on the E: drive. Most installers allow selecting the destination drive. I just edit the install path to start with E: instead of C:. Works great.

 

I simply keep a copy or R&R on the HDD and a Windows shadow volume copy so should the SSD fail I can restore the factory state from the HDD and then update with the Windows shadow volume.

Granted, i've never had to use it so have no idea if it works, but at least it gives me (false) peace of mind

 

I've been wondering about achieving something similar, by having a 50GB partition on my HDD. I think I could set up a scheduled sync (probably with SyncBack Pro, or similar) of my Windows install from SSD to HDD, and setting up the bootloader accordingly. If something happens to the SSD, then I just choose the other boot option.