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Dual Boot TWO Vista OS's on TWO hard drives

  1. 11 May 2012 #1


    DavidJay2011

    Newbie
    Join Date : May 2012
    Posts : 1
    Vista Business 32bit
    Local Time: 11:12 AM

    Dual Boot TWO Vista OS's on TWO hard drives

    How can I dual boot TWO instances of Vista Business from TWO separate hard drives? - My wife's Dell Vostro 1710 has had to be been returned to Dell, I have installed her Vostro hard drive in my IDENTICAL Dell Vostro 1710, but I don't get a dual boot menu when I power up my Vostro 1710. (Both Vista Business OSs are licensed, separately).

    I would like to boot her hard drive so that it looks like 'her' desktop on 'her' computer.




    - My machine boots to MY OS if both hard drives are enabled.



    - BUT - if I disable MY hard drive and leave HERS enabled, I just get a black screen 'memory' error and an instruction to insert the Windows repair disk.

    Thanks for any advice.

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  2. 14 May 2012 #2


    patch41

    Senior Member
    Join Date : Jan 2009
    Posts : 319
    vista home premium 32bit.
    Local Time: 07:12 AM


     

    Re: Dual Boot TWO Vista OS's on TWO hard drives

    Hi Davidjay and welcome, here is a nice freeware app, and its very easy to understand give it a try, good luck.
    EasyBCD - Take control of your boot loader | NeoSmart Technologies#

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  3. 15 May 2012 #3
    Cytherian's Avatar
    Cytherian

    Senior Member

    Join Date : Nov 2010
    Hoboken, NJ
    Posts : 538
    Vista Ultimate x64
    Local Time: 07:12 AM
    usa us new jersey

     

    Re: Dual Boot TWO Vista OS's on TWO hard drives

    Just so you know, there is always one primary hard drive and one or more slave drives on a given computer. The primary HD has the master boot record referenced by the CMOS. If you switch drives like you're doing, it obviously doesn't work because the proper master boot record is not found.

    You definitely need to use a boot manager program of some kind, like the one patch41 suggested. There are many choices out there, so I would do some research first before jumping into this, as each program has it's own reliability track record and capabilities.

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Dual Boot TWO Vista OS's on TWO hard drives
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