Desktop PC: Can I Have Same OS on 2 Different Drives?

At the moment my PC has only one OS installed, Vista 64 Home Premium on an HDD. I've never had or used a PC with a dual boot configuration. I'm adding an SSD soon and want to put a fresh install of the OS onto it and use it as the boot drive it instead of the current OS on the HDD. The reason I want 2 installs of the same OS on the PC is to make sure the SSD is stable and if not, I could revert back to booting from the HDD and not have to reinstall the OS onto the HDD. I have read horror stories on several forums where SSDs are installed and an OS put onto them and after a few days neither Windows nor bios will recognize the drive, for whatever reason. If that were to happen I could still use the PC by booting from the HDD. Will this configuration work? Can I have the same OS on the PC on 2 different drives and boot from them independently? I just want to make sure that the one OS won't conflict with the the same OS on another drive.

Thanks,
 
Last edited:

My Computer

System One

  • Manufacturer/Model
    Self Configured
    CPU
    Intel Q9650 4 x 3.00GHz
    Motherboard
    ASUS P5Q SE
    Memory
    OCZ DDR2 PC2-8500 Gold Edition, 1066MHz, 8GB
    Graphics Card(s)
    NVIDIA GeForce GTX 280 - 1GB DDR3 RAM
    Sound Card
    Realtek ALC1200
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Hanns G
    Screen Resolution
    1280 x 1084
    Hard Drives
    OCZ Vertex 60GB SSD;
    WD VelociRaptor 3000HLFS - 300GB 10,000RPM;
    Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 - 250GB 7200RPM
    PSU
    Be Quiet! Dark Power 750 Watt
    Case
    Black with silver trim & blue lights
    Cooling
    Huge case fan
    Keyboard
    Acer
    Mouse
    MS optical mouse
    Internet Speed
    DSL 2000
    Other Info
    Configured as a Gamer for Flight Simulators,
    Saitek X52 Flight Controler
Tha same OS on two drives won't conflict and you can boot from them independently, but I have no experience with installing an OS on an SSD drive.

Cheers
CyberZeus
 

My Computer

System One

  • CPU
    AMD Athlon 64 X2 6400+
    Motherboard
    Asus M2N-E SLI
    Memory
    4 GB
    Graphics Card(s)
    2 x NVidia 8600 GTS
    Sound Card
    Integrated CM-6501
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Benq 19" + LG 17"
    Screen Resolution
    1280x1024@32bit@75MHz
    Hard Drives
    1 x Seagate 120GB SATA (OS installation)
    1 x Seagate 200GB SATA
    2 x Seagate 320GB SATA (Hardware RAID 0)
    1 x Seagate 250GB IDE (in external USB box)
    1 x TrekStor 750GB USB
    PSU
    650W
    Keyboard
    Logitech Cordless Desktop EX 100
    Mouse
    Logitech Cordless Optical
    Internet Speed
    8192 kbps / 640 kbps
Thanks Cyber.
 

My Computer

System One

  • Manufacturer/Model
    Self Configured
    CPU
    Intel Q9650 4 x 3.00GHz
    Motherboard
    ASUS P5Q SE
    Memory
    OCZ DDR2 PC2-8500 Gold Edition, 1066MHz, 8GB
    Graphics Card(s)
    NVIDIA GeForce GTX 280 - 1GB DDR3 RAM
    Sound Card
    Realtek ALC1200
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Hanns G
    Screen Resolution
    1280 x 1084
    Hard Drives
    OCZ Vertex 60GB SSD;
    WD VelociRaptor 3000HLFS - 300GB 10,000RPM;
    Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 - 250GB 7200RPM
    PSU
    Be Quiet! Dark Power 750 Watt
    Case
    Black with silver trim & blue lights
    Cooling
    Huge case fan
    Keyboard
    Acer
    Mouse
    MS optical mouse
    Internet Speed
    DSL 2000
    Other Info
    Configured as a Gamer for Flight Simulators,
    Saitek X52 Flight Controler
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