Dual Boot Win 8.1 & Win 10 with 2 Hard Drives in Laptop

Wynona

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Location
Texas
I've been in and out of this HP dv7-1245dx Entertainment laptop (Legacy BIOS) a number of times in the past two or three weeks and just now discovered that it has two hard drive bays! Go figure . . .

So, I have Windows 8.1.1 on the drive that came with the laptop and Windows 10 Build 9860 on an SSD drive. When installing Windows 10 I removed the Windows 8.1.1 hard drive and installed the SSD drive. I have returned the Windows 8.1.1 drive to the computer and the Windows 10 drive has been removed.

Am I correct in thinking I can just add the SSD drive and Windows will automatically dual boot? I know this was possible in prior (Win 7 and before) OSes, but don't know if it's possible in Windows 8/10.

Thanks in advance . . .
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    HP Pavilion 500-056
    CPU
    AMD Elite Quad-Core A8-6500
    Memory
    8 GB
    Graphics Card(s)
    AMD Radeon HD 8570D
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Acer 23"
    Screen Resolution
    1920 X 1080
    Hard Drives
    1 TB
    Keyboard
    Logitech Wave K350
    Mouse
    Logitech M510
    Internet Speed
    Fast
    Browser
    Firefox
    Antivirus
    Windows Defender
To make sure it works you can use EasyBCD and make it do that.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1 Pro
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Home made
    CPU
    AMD Ryzen7 2700x
    Motherboard
    Asus Prime x470 Pro
    Memory
    16GB Kingston 3600
    Graphics Card(s)
    Asus strix 570 OC 4gb
    Hard Drives
    Samsung 960 evo 250GB
    Silicon Power V70 240GB SSD
    WD 1 TB Blue
    WD 2 TB Blue
    Bunch of backup HDDs.
    PSU
    Sharkoon, Silent Storm 660W
    Case
    Raidmax
    Cooling
    CCM Nepton 140xl
    Internet Speed
    40/2 Mbps
    Browser
    Firefox
    Antivirus
    WD
To make sure it works you can use EasyBCD and make it do that.

Thanks, Count!

Is there a tutorial on what I want to do, using EasyBCD? I know it's been around for a long time, but I've never had to contend with boot problems.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    HP Pavilion 500-056
    CPU
    AMD Elite Quad-Core A8-6500
    Memory
    8 GB
    Graphics Card(s)
    AMD Radeon HD 8570D
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Acer 23"
    Screen Resolution
    1920 X 1080
    Hard Drives
    1 TB
    Keyboard
    Logitech Wave K350
    Mouse
    Logitech M510
    Internet Speed
    Fast
    Browser
    Firefox
    Antivirus
    Windows Defender
To make sure it works you can use EasyBCD and make it do that.

Thanks, Count!

Is there a tutorial on what I want to do, using EasyBCD? I know it's been around for a long time, but I've never had to contend with boot problems.
It has pretty good help but it's on internet. It's pretty straightforward ad New entry and tel it on which drive it is. You can also do it on both drives so you can choose any of them for BIOS to boot from.
Can choose which OS/disk is default and what timing you want for boot menu to wait for input.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1 Pro
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Home made
    CPU
    AMD Ryzen7 2700x
    Motherboard
    Asus Prime x470 Pro
    Memory
    16GB Kingston 3600
    Graphics Card(s)
    Asus strix 570 OC 4gb
    Hard Drives
    Samsung 960 evo 250GB
    Silicon Power V70 240GB SSD
    WD 1 TB Blue
    WD 2 TB Blue
    Bunch of backup HDDs.
    PSU
    Sharkoon, Silent Storm 660W
    Case
    Raidmax
    Cooling
    CCM Nepton 140xl
    Internet Speed
    40/2 Mbps
    Browser
    Firefox
    Antivirus
    WD
To make sure it works you can use EasyBCD and make it do that.

Thanks, Count!

Is there a tutorial on what I want to do, using EasyBCD? I know it's been around for a long time, but I've never had to contend with boot problems.
It has pretty good help but it's on internet. It's pretty straightforward ad New entry and tel it on which drive it is. You can also do it on both drives so you can choose any of them for BIOS to boot from.
Can choose which OS/disk is default and what timing you want for boot menu to wait for input.

OK, I'll start to working on it. Thanks again.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    HP Pavilion 500-056
    CPU
    AMD Elite Quad-Core A8-6500
    Memory
    8 GB
    Graphics Card(s)
    AMD Radeon HD 8570D
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Acer 23"
    Screen Resolution
    1920 X 1080
    Hard Drives
    1 TB
    Keyboard
    Logitech Wave K350
    Mouse
    Logitech M510
    Internet Speed
    Fast
    Browser
    Firefox
    Antivirus
    Windows Defender
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