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    Do I really need to remove my 2nd drive when installing Windows?

    Discussion in 'Windows OS and Software' started by J-Lawrence, Jun 10, 2014.

  1. J-Lawrence

    J-Lawrence Notebook Consultant

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    Everywhere I read is that you should only have 1 drive connected when installing Windows in order for Windows to not put or copy the boot files onto the 2nd drive...

    fair enough.....

    now let's say I format both my drives, the 1st and 2nd...

    then create a partition only on the first drive, so basically, the 2nd drive is a large unpartitioned space, am I safe that way or is it still better to remove the 2nd drive?

    please help teh meh
     
    J-Lawrence, Jun 10, 2014
    #1
  2. vaio-tv

    vaio-tv Notebook Enthusiast

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    " then create a partition only on the first drive, so basically, the 2nd drive is a large unpartitioned space, am I safe that way or is it still better to remove the 2nd drive?"

    Windows will install where you will choose, one of my systems is a laptop with 2 HDD's, one used for the OS and the second is an extended partition which I use for storage purposes.

    Regards,
     
    vaio-tv, Jun 10, 2014
    #2
  3. Pirx

    Pirx Notebook Virtuoso

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    No. .
     
    Pirx, Jun 10, 2014
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  4. Rodster

    Rodster Merica

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    The problem you described is where a disk controller has flip flopped the Drive Port address. If you have disk number 1 in SATA port #1 it should be address (80h), drive #2 should be (81h). If on boot up the SATA controller assigns address 80h to your second drive, then yes the "system reserve" partition will be written on the 2nd drive. I've seen that happen in the past. At that point, you would need to unplug the 2nd temporarily until the install is complete.
     
    Rodster, Jun 10, 2014
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  5. J-Lawrence

    J-Lawrence Notebook Consultant

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    strange, but what if the 2nd drive isn't even partitioned, how can Windows even put the system reserved partition or extend the boot files on the 2nd drive even?

    Either ways, I guess I will simply disconnect the 2nd drive and get done with this headache
     
    J-Lawrence, Jun 10, 2014
    #5
  6. tijo

    tijo Sacred Blame

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    I've had this happen to me once, it's a pain the rear if you end up wanting to replace that drive. It will however, not affect Windows operation in any case. Normally, this doesn't happen, but since that incident, I've taken to unplugging non system drives when installing Windows.
     
    tijo, Jun 10, 2014
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  7. Rodster

    Rodster Merica

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    It doesn't matter because the OS is only concerned with active HDD Port Addresses. If it sees 80h and 81h and your 2nd physical drive has been assigned 80h it will write the system reserve partition to that drive.

    It's easy to tell when the drive size is different.
     
    Rodster, Jun 10, 2014
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  8. killkenny1

    killkenny1 Too weird to live, too rare to die.

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    This is the first time I heard something like this. Did an install/reinstall countless of time of the machines with two or more hard drives and never had any issues.
     
    killkenny1, Jun 10, 2014
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