Two hard drives assigned to c drive

[pevers31]

Have installed this hard drive via the cd drive caddy method but unable to use anything on this second drive, drive D,I can see the programs bbut when I try to access them get a series of blocking messages. Di I have to chang this via the bios, something I am not happy about doing or is there another way I had previously 2 hard drives which I alternated in use but I have I installed seperate operating systems one each one whilst each was installed and working in my laptop, each being registered and receiving updates, however I now want to install both drives together, the second drive being to replaced the optical drive BUT both have been given the C designation, will they both run together or will one or both. E corrupted, I have held off from doing this for now,

 

[k1114]

You can't have multiple drives with the same letter. Windows sets the boot drive as C so which one you boot to will be C. The other get re-lettered automatically.

 

[photonboy]

Hi,
You can only BOOT to one drive at a time.

Which drive boots depends on the BIOS setting. If you have two, bootable drives and the wrong one boots you need to go into the BIOS and select the correct one.

I'm not clear if you are aiming for a dual-boot or to use the 2nd drive for storage though.

If you want DUAL-BOOT then you need to find a guide, and it may require you to reinstall the 2nd OS.

If you just want SECONDARY STORAGE then just make sure the correct drive boots, and if the 2nd OS is not on C-drive then just delete the folders, or if you don't need anything on it I'd do a FULL FORMAT (NTFS).

If you then have free space on a 2nd drive I'd make a backup IMAGE of the Windows drive. (i.e. Acronis True Image)

back to DUAL BOOT:
The first boot drive should be C-drive, then the other drive is likely to be called E-drive or similar. The only way to boot into it to either:

a) change the BIOS boot order (too much hassle to keep changing that), or
b) setup as DUAL BOOT (which may require you to reinstall the OS)

I can't walk you through dual-boot setup unless I know which Windows versions you have. You can find guides on W7 + W10 for example.

There are also PROGRAMS that can add the 2nd OS drive to the bootup list without requiring you to reintall so you just get a choice when booting up.

 

[USAFRet]

I had previously 2 hard drives which I alternated in use but I have I installed seperate operating systems one each one whilst each was installed and working in my laptop, each being registered and receiving updates, however I now want to install both drives together, the second drive being to replaced the optical drive BUT both have been given the C designation, will they both run together or will one or both. E corrupted, I have held off from doing this for now,

Drive 1, OS 1.
Drive 2, OS 2.

If you boot into Drive 1, OS 1...that sees itself as the C drive. Any other drive (Drive 2) will be some other drive letter.
Reboot, and boot into Drive 2, OS 2...it sees itself as the C drive. Drive 1 would then be the D (or E) drive.

Windows will only recognize 1 C drive at a time.

 

[photonboy]

I had previously 2 hard drives which I alternated in use but I have I installed seperate operating systems one each one whilst each was installed and working in my laptop, each being registered and receiving updates, however I now want to install both drives together, the second drive being to replaced the optical drive BUT both have been given the C designation, will they both run together or will one or both. E corrupted, I have held off from doing this for now,

Drive 1, OS 1.
Drive 2, OS 2.

If you boot into Drive 1, OS 1...that sees itself as the C drive. Any other drive (Drive 2) will be some other drive letter.
Reboot, and boot into Drive 2, OS 2...it sees itself as the C drive. Drive 1 would then be the D (or E) drive.

Windows will only recognize 1 C drive at a time.

Probably true, though I've had strange issues in the past where the boot drive wasn't C-drive due to switching drives around.

 

[USAFRet]

I had previously 2 hard drives which I alternated in use but I have I installed seperate operating systems one each one whilst each was installed and working in my laptop, each being registered and receiving updates, however I now want to install both drives together, the second drive being to replaced the optical drive BUT both have been given the C designation, will they both run together or will one or both. E corrupted, I have held off from doing this for now,

Drive 1, OS 1.
Drive 2, OS 2.

If you boot into Drive 1, OS 1...that sees itself as the C drive. Any other drive (Drive 2) will be some other drive letter.
Reboot, and boot into Drive 2, OS 2...it sees itself as the C drive. Drive 1 would then be the D (or E) drive.

Windows will only recognize 1 C drive at a time.

Probably true, though I've had strange issues in the past where the boot drive wasn't C-drive due to switching drives around.

Oh yeah. It is possible to make your OS drive be D or something. Dumb (and don't do that), but possible.
But not 2 drives at the same time having the same letter in Windows, OS or other.