Solved Keeping the Original HDD after Migrating to an SSD

JJG

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In the next few weeks I plan to migrate from my Win8 HDD to an SSD. I know how to do that so that is not the question. I would like to know if I can keep the old HDD installed and boot to the SSD without confusing things. If I do that will having two Win8 installations offer any problems even though the one on the SSD will be drive C:? Can I just assign another or no drive letter to the HDD Win8?

Thanks for any suggestion?
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Dell XPS 8500
    CPU
    3.1g Intel Core i5-3350P
    Motherboard
    Dell 0nW73C A000
    Graphics Card(s)
    AMD RADEON HD 7570
    Sound Card
    AMD high definition audio device
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Samsung AMB23301
    Screen Resolution
    1920 x 1080
    Hard Drives
    1TB Manufacturer not known
    Internet Speed
    Cox High Speen
    Browser
    Firefox
I have that set up on my Win 7 when I installed an SSD (2 OS on different drives but SSD is the primary boot drive C). It should work on Win 8 too by simply changing the drive letter of the HDD. So if something goes terribly wrong with the SSD, I could probably just switch back to HDD without reinstalling the OS. The HDD is just a storage for all other files and I just have the OS and primary programs on the SSD.

But of course a still have my recovery discs as backup.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Win 8 (64) : Win 7 (64) : Vista (64) : Android JB 4.2 : iOS 6
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Acer AX Series & HP i-5 2400s
    Screen Resolution
    Main PC - 2x Sony PS3 3D LED Displays + 1x 22" Philips; HTPC - 47" HDTV w/ 17" LCD secondary display
    Hard Drives
    Internal- 1TB on each system; 1x120GB SSD on main PC
    External (network attached)- 1x2TB Seagate backup; 1x1TB ext. storage; 1x500GB,
    Other Info
    http://tinyurl.com/br4uxrk

    http://tinyurl.com/cwj93pj
Thank you very much. I was kinda hoping that would be the case.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Dell XPS 8500
    CPU
    3.1g Intel Core i5-3350P
    Motherboard
    Dell 0nW73C A000
    Graphics Card(s)
    AMD RADEON HD 7570
    Sound Card
    AMD high definition audio device
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Samsung AMB23301
    Screen Resolution
    1920 x 1080
    Hard Drives
    1TB Manufacturer not known
    Internet Speed
    Cox High Speen
    Browser
    Firefox
In the next few weeks I plan to migrate from my Win8 HDD to an SSD. I know how to do that so that is not the question. I would like to know if I can keep the old HDD installed and boot to the SSD without confusing things. If I do that will having two Win8 installations offer any problems even though the one on the SSD will be drive C:? Can I just assign another or no drive letter to the HDD Win8?

Thanks for any suggestion?
Per EULA you can't have more than one bootable installation of the "same" (i.e., same product key) Win8 at the same time.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Win7 Ult on DIY; Win8 Pro on MBP/Parallels; Win7 Ult on MBP/Boot Camp; Win7 Ult/Win8 Pro on HP
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    DIY Rig; MacBook Pro (MBP)/Parallels/Boot Camp; HP Pavilion dv6500t Laptop
    CPU
    Intel i7-2600K (sometimes OC'd to 4.8 GHz)
    Motherboard
    ASUS P8P67 Deluxe Rev B3
    Memory
    16 GB Corsair Vengeance
    Graphics Card(s)
    EVGA 570 SC
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Gateway
    Hard Drives
    Dual Boot:
    Win7 Ult RAID 0 on OCZ Revo x2 and
    Win7 Ult RAID 0 on Caviar Black SATA 3's
    PSU
    Cooler Master Silent Pro 1000W
    Case
    Cooler Master 932 HAF
    Cooling
    Zalman CNPS9900MAX-B CPU Fan
    Keyboard
    Logitech Cordless Desktop MX 5500
    Mouse
    Logitech Cordless Desktop MX 5500
    Internet Speed
    20 Mbps Download/2+ Mbps Upload
    Other Info
    Pioneer Blu-ray Burner/DVD Burner
In the next few weeks I plan to migrate from my Win8 HDD to an SSD. I know how to do that so that is not the question. I would like to know if I can keep the old HDD installed and boot to the SSD without confusing things. If I do that will having two Win8 installations offer any problems even though the one on the SSD will be drive C:? Can I just assign another or no drive letter to the HDD Win8?

Thanks for any suggestion?

If you do, you'll end up with a dual boot. Whenever I am migrating from an old drive to a new, I always remove the old drive from the system so that won't happen. You can always add it back in later, after you have gotten the new drive booting.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8 Pro with Media Center/Windows 7
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Asus M2N-MX SE Plus § DualCore AMD Athlon 64 X2, 2300 MHz (11.5 x 200) 4400+ § Corsair Value Select
    CPU
    AMD 4400+/4200+
    Motherboard
    Asus M2N-MX SE Plus/Asus A8M2N-LA (NodusM)
    Memory
    2 GB/3GB
    Graphics Card(s)
    GeForce 8400 GS/GeForce 210
    Sound Card
    nVIDIA GT218 - High Definition Audio Controller
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Hitachi 40" LCD HDTV
    Screen Resolution
    "1842 x 1036"
    Hard Drives
    WDC WD50 00AAKS-007AA SCSI Disk Device
    ST1000DL 002-9TT153 SCSI Disk Device
    WDC WD3200AAJB-00J3A0 ATA Device
    WDC WD32 WD-WCAPZ2942630 USB Device
    WD My Book 1140 USB Device
    PSU
    Works 550w
    Case
    MSI "M-Box"
    Cooling
    Water Cooled
    Keyboard
    Dell Keyboard
    Mouse
    Microsoft Intellimouse
    Internet Speed
    Cable Medium Speed
    Browser
    Chrome/IE 10
    Antivirus
    Eset NOD32 6.x/Win Defend
    Other Info
    Recently lost my Windows 8 on my main PC, had to go back to Windows 7.
If the SSD is set as the C drive and the first bootable drive, there will be no problem. I had that setup for quite a long time. I know it's not necessary but I have nothing to lose if I keep the original OS installation in a secondary drive (1TB). There will be no licensing issue as you have both drives in one and the same PC with only one in use which is the cloned OS. MS is very much aware that a lot of people are migrating to SSD this way.

winos2.jpg
 
Last edited:

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Win 8 (64) : Win 7 (64) : Vista (64) : Android JB 4.2 : iOS 6
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Acer AX Series & HP i-5 2400s
    Screen Resolution
    Main PC - 2x Sony PS3 3D LED Displays + 1x 22" Philips; HTPC - 47" HDTV w/ 17" LCD secondary display
    Hard Drives
    Internal- 1TB on each system; 1x120GB SSD on main PC
    External (network attached)- 1x2TB Seagate backup; 1x1TB ext. storage; 1x500GB,
    Other Info
    http://tinyurl.com/br4uxrk

    http://tinyurl.com/cwj93pj
In the next few weeks I plan to migrate from my Win8 HDD to an SSD. I know how to do that so that is not the question. I would like to know if I can keep the old HDD installed and boot to the SSD without confusing things. If I do that will having two Win8 installations offer any problems even though the one on the SSD will be drive C:? Can I just assign another or no drive letter to the HDD Win8?

Thanks for any suggestion?
Per EULA you can't have more than one bootable installation of the "same" (i.e., same product key) Win8 at the same time.

The poster is going to make a bootable cloned copy of his existing OS drive. He is not going to do a second INSTALLATION.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Win 8 (64) : Win 7 (64) : Vista (64) : Android JB 4.2 : iOS 6
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Acer AX Series & HP i-5 2400s
    Screen Resolution
    Main PC - 2x Sony PS3 3D LED Displays + 1x 22" Philips; HTPC - 47" HDTV w/ 17" LCD secondary display
    Hard Drives
    Internal- 1TB on each system; 1x120GB SSD on main PC
    External (network attached)- 1x2TB Seagate backup; 1x1TB ext. storage; 1x500GB,
    Other Info
    http://tinyurl.com/br4uxrk

    http://tinyurl.com/cwj93pj
In the next few weeks I plan to migrate from my Win8 HDD to an SSD. I know how to do that so that is not the question. I would like to know if I can keep the old HDD installed and boot to the SSD without confusing things. If I do that will having two Win8 installations offer any problems even though the one on the SSD will be drive C:? Can I just assign another or no drive letter to the HDD Win8?

Thanks for any suggestion?
Per EULA you can't have more than one bootable installation of the "same" (i.e., same product key) Win8 at the same time.

Hi there
The EULA doesn't say that at all -- what it DOES say is that you can only use ONE license of Windows on a specific machine which is NOT the same thing at all.

You could have 96 HDD's all with your copy of Windows on it -- but you could only boot ONE of them at the same time.

Where this starts getting "dubious" is if you are running W8 as a Virtual Machine. Since Virtual machines can be "Cloned" (so they have identical "Virtual" hardware) it's theoretically possible to say boot up 10 identical VM's. Now this IS against the EULA. For licensing purposes a VM is considered identical to a Real computer.

What you are actually implying is that it's technically illegal to have say several backup copies of your OS stored on HDD's on your computer which quite plainly is totally absurd.

Cheers
jimbo
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Linux Centos 7, W8.1, W7, W2K3 Server W10
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    Monitor(s) Displays
    1 X LG 40 inch TV
    Hard Drives
    SSD's * 3 (Samsung 840 series) 250 GB
    2 X 3 TB sata
    5 X 1 TB sata
    Internet Speed
    0.12 GB/s (120Mb/s)
There will be no licensing issue as you have both drives in one and the same PC with only one in use which is the cloned OS. MS is very much aware that a lot of people are migrating to SSD this way.
What you say is true provided that both drives are not installed (i.e., bootable) at the same time on one or more machines.

In the next few weeks I plan to migrate from my Win8 HDD to an SSD. I know how to do that so that is not the question. I would like to know if I can keep the old HDD installed and boot to the SSD without confusing things. If I do that will having two Win8 installations offer any problems even though the one on the SSD will be drive C:? Can I just assign another or no drive letter to the HDD Win8?

Thanks for any suggestion?
Per EULA you can't have more than one bootable installation of the "same" (i.e., same product key) Win8 at the same time.

Hi there
The EULA doesn't say that at all -- what it DOES say is that you can only use ONE license of Windows on a specific machine which is NOT the same thing at all.

You could have 96 HDD's all with your copy of Windows on it -- but you could only boot ONE of them at the same time.

Where this starts getting "dubious" is if you are running W8 as a Virtual Machine. Since Virtual machines can be "Cloned" (so they have identical "Virtual" hardware) it's theoretically possible to say boot up 10 identical VM's. Now this IS against the EULA. For licensing purposes a VM is considered identical to a Real computer.

What you are actually implying is that it's technically illegal to have say several backup copies of your OS stored on HDD's on your computer which quite plainly is totally absurd.

Cheers
jimbo
I didn't say what I intended unambiguously. I meant to convey"per EULA, you can't have more than one (bootable) installation of the "same" Win8 (i.e., same product key) installed at the same time on one or multiple machines. In other words, you can't install (with boot capability) under the same product key on more than one machine at the same time, and you can't have multiple simultaneous installs (with boot capability) of Win8 on the same machine under the same product key.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Win7 Ult on DIY; Win8 Pro on MBP/Parallels; Win7 Ult on MBP/Boot Camp; Win7 Ult/Win8 Pro on HP
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    DIY Rig; MacBook Pro (MBP)/Parallels/Boot Camp; HP Pavilion dv6500t Laptop
    CPU
    Intel i7-2600K (sometimes OC'd to 4.8 GHz)
    Motherboard
    ASUS P8P67 Deluxe Rev B3
    Memory
    16 GB Corsair Vengeance
    Graphics Card(s)
    EVGA 570 SC
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Gateway
    Hard Drives
    Dual Boot:
    Win7 Ult RAID 0 on OCZ Revo x2 and
    Win7 Ult RAID 0 on Caviar Black SATA 3's
    PSU
    Cooler Master Silent Pro 1000W
    Case
    Cooler Master 932 HAF
    Cooling
    Zalman CNPS9900MAX-B CPU Fan
    Keyboard
    Logitech Cordless Desktop MX 5500
    Mouse
    Logitech Cordless Desktop MX 5500
    Internet Speed
    20 Mbps Download/2+ Mbps Upload
    Other Info
    Pioneer Blu-ray Burner/DVD Burner
You could have 96 HDD's all with your copy of Windows on it -- but you could only boot ONE of them at the same time.

Strictly, no - because this could lead to versioning of each copy - if games were installed on one, office software on another, or just a particular set of updates etc., you could have in effect, 96 differently purposed OS copies for the price of one.

More threatening to Microsoft is that a large number of contemporaneous OS clones, each with a minor modification, lead to a situation where the intricacies of the OS may be hacked - much harder to do on a large number of different licensed valid copies.

The EULA is pretty clear on this:

One copy of the software on one machine for use by one person at a time. A backup copy may be made.

The software is the bootable installed OS, with any personalizations for any users which may have accounts on the machine - you could potentially have 96 user accounts though, each with their own installed software. The backup copy could contain all the accounts and all the installed software.

The difference between "the software" and the installation media is the inclusion of the product key activation.

You can also keep your installation media, and a backup of that (i.e. a sysprepped unactivated image of the software).
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1 Pro with Media Center
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    HP COMPAQ Presario CQ57
    CPU
    AMD E- 300 APU with Radion HD Graphics 1.30GHz
    Motherboard
    inbuilt
    Memory
    4GB
    Graphics Card(s)
    ATI
    Sound Card
    High Definition Audio on-board
    Monitor(s) Displays
    notebook
    Screen Resolution
    1366x768
    Hard Drives
    Seagate ST9500325AS
    Google drive 15GB
    Skydrive 25GB
    BT Cloud
    PSU
    external 20v
    Case
    Laptop
    Cooling
    pretty good
    Keyboard
    inbuilt
    Mouse
    touchpad
    Internet Speed
    BT Infinity Unlimited - 80 up 20 down =70/16 really
    Browser
    Chrome Canary usually
    Antivirus
    Windows Defender and Malwarebytes
    Other Info
    no Start menu modifications
    Upgraded with no issues to 8.0 and to 8.1
You can remove one of the drives, install 8 on the other, and then remove the one you just installed on, place the other back in, and then install 8 to it. You will have 2 totally independent installs, each of which boots from its' own loader. This was the situation for me not too long ago, I was using TrueCrypt whole-drive encryption, and wanted to be able to encrypt both Win8 and WinServer2012. But a limitation of TC is that you cant have 2 encrypted Windows OSes on the same drive. So I did the above and it worked. I just had to use the Esc key to choose which drive to boot from. It probably could have also been accomplished by installing a custom loader like GRUB/GRUB2, putting entries for each Windows OS in there, and another entry for Linux. In my case I was using 2 HDDs instead of HDD/SSD combo, but it's still the same process regardless.

You can also have one Windows OS on one drive, another Windows OS on the other, and simply have them share a bootloader. I'm not sure how this would be done, but I think you can just designate the 2nd HDD/SSD for the 2nd Windows install, and it should still recognize the bootloader on the first drive and use that for booting. Just set the SSD as the first bootable drive in the BIOS and you will be able to choose between each after powering on.

A third option is to install each OS into its' own partition, without the System Reserved partition, which from what I've read isnt absolutely necessary to have unless you plan to use BitLocker. This will give you one partition per drive, one for each Windows OS. I've found this useful because I like to run Linux as a 3rd OS, but there is a limitation of 4 primary partitions for a drive. System Reserved counts as one primary partition. So I usually install without it. This can be accomplished by creating one partition on each drive BEFORE installing the OSes, formatting each as NTFS, and then using a command line util like DISKPART to set each partition as active and with the boot flag. This can also be done in a Linux util like Gparted, by booting into a live Linux USB distro and running Gparted from there to do the steps above. This forces the installer to place Windows into only the one partition without System Reserved. The boot files will be on the C drive itself. I've studied up on this and it has no noticeable negative effects, you can still use things like System Restore, Refresh, etc.

To boot to either the SSD or HDD just set one as primary in the BIOS, and then use whichever button your system uses to select the desired boot drive. Each OS will have a C drive no matter what and that generally cant be changed. But, from within each OS, you can still assign another drive letter to the other OS. Each OS will still see itself as the C drive no matter which one you boot into, no issues there. It has also been pointed out that each 8 OS cant be activated with the same Product Key, you will need a different key for each. You can have as many Windows OSes installed as you want on one machine, the only limitation being the available amount of space, and each must have its' own key. Microsoft will not give 2 sh*ts about this as long as each installation is duly licensed.

A question though, and this is a problem i've had in the past, is that if I try to install 8 without removing either drive then Windows will be installed to whatever drive I selected, but the installer places System Reserved on the other drive (not a partition on the same drive, but on the other physical drive). When I install with one of the drives removed this doesnt happen. It doesnt matter which drive I set to boot first in the BIOS, this always happens. Each drive is identical and the same gigs size. Why does it do this? Any way to install normally without removing drives?

Hope that helped!
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1 Pro x64, Windows Server 2012 R2 x64
    Computer type
    Laptop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Lenovo G700
    CPU
    Intel Core i7-3632QM, 2.20 GHz
    Motherboard
    Lenovo
    Memory
    6 GB DDR3
    Graphics Card(s)
    NVIDIA 720M, Intel HD 4000
    Monitor(s) Displays
    1 monitor
    Screen Resolution
    1600x900 (max)
    Hard Drives
    1 TB HDD (5400 RPM), 1.5 TB HDD (5400 RPM) installed in a 12.7mm disc drive caddy
    Case
    Lenovo
    Keyboard
    Lenovo
    Mouse
    Laptop/notebook keyboard/touchpad
    Internet Speed
    It varies, since I'm mobile most of the time
    Browser
    Chromium (the open-source browser which Google Chrome is derived from)
    Antivirus
    Kaspersky, Malwarebytes, Spybot, Privatefirewall
    Other Info
    I will add more information here later
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