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    ThinkPad W700 dual HDD slots and a secondary drive with an OS from another laptop on it

    Discussion in 'Windows OS and Software' started by thinkpad knows best, May 21, 2010.

  1. thinkpad knows best

    thinkpad knows best Notebook Deity

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    I was wondering, i have the 160GB HDD from my old T61p, and the new W700 i ordered has a 320GB, the T61p HDD is fine and has Windows 7 Ultimate installed on it along with some files and programs. What i wanted to know was, can i simply use the drive in the W700 without any boot manager trouble? Would it be seen as a secondary storage drive, without it actually trying to boot from the Windows 7 installation that is on it? Will the boot manager's get confused? Would both boot .inf files be used or recognized and would this cause a problem? The W700 is brand new and pre-loaded with Windows 7 Pro, although i'll probably install Windows 7 Ultimate to rid of all the crap i don't want.
     
    thinkpad knows best, May 21, 2010
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  2. ortegaluis

    ortegaluis Notebook Consultant

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    I don't quite understand what your intentions are...

    Is the 160GB hard drive for storage...
    or
    Do you want to boot the Windows 7 Ultimate install also?

    If you want to do the former, you will have to install the hard drive, boot into the Win7Pro install and then mark the Win7Ultimate partition as inactive through diskpart.
     
    ortegaluis, May 21, 2010
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  3. f4ding

    f4ding Laptop Owner

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    It depends on what you set in the BIOS. If you set your 320GB as the first drive the laptop looks for during bootup, then you should be alright. The laptop will boot the 320GB drive and Windows will treat your 160GB drive as just another drive.

    If you set it to the second drive, then it will search for the MBR on the second drive, and it will try to boot from that drive (and will fail since the drivers are for your T61p).
     
    f4ding, May 21, 2010
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