Windows 10: how make win7 or xp use only 1 of many ssd drives in my PC

My Win10 PC has swappable drive bays. Win 10 runs on one of the swappable drives. there are 4 additional fixed data drives that win 10 uses. I want to add an XP or Win7 OS on a swappable drive to run only games and flight simulators. Is there any way to keep the game/simulator OS from accessing any other drive on the PC other than itself? I have had corruption issues when allowing different OS's access the same data drive and I am trying to prevent that from happening again.

Any feedback will be most appreciated.

:)

 

Cloning to SSD then swapping drive letters


@SamHobbs
What you want done is very simple and can be done in short period of time. Here's my suggestion:
There's 2 modes that Windows can be installed: UEFI and the old legacy MBR. Open Disk Management, look at the disk where your C drive is, if there's a

1. EFI System Partition, your Windows was installed using UEFI.
2. System Reserved partition, your Windows was installed using MBR

Next, Connect your SSD to an available Sata port (no need to format or do anything). Download: Macrium Reflect Free . Install and run. Follow the steps below:

1. From Macrium, click on image this disk under your C drive and save it to either an Internal or External Drive. This will create a single backup image of the whole disk containing your C drive.
2. Again, from Macrium, click on Restore tab and select the image created from step 1, Select your SSD as the destination drive, click Next->Finish
3. Exit Macrium. If your Windows was installed using MBR, Open disk management and make sure the SSD is marked "Active" else go to next step.
4. Shutdown your PC. Disconnect the HD containing Windows C drive then connect your SSD to it.
5. Reboot. Your PC should boot and the Windows should have C as the drive letter.

NOTE: The procedure above is to backup your Windows to an image file then copy it back to the SSD. This ensures proper cluster size aligment for the SSD. In addition, Macrium also perform Trimming for the SSD. This is more preferable than cloning.

 

PC Build Steps

1.1 - Ideally put optical in SATA 0, and SSD in SATA 1, this will cause the optical drive to be the default 1st boot option. You can change it manually if not, but I like it this way
2.infinity - yes, that's fine. if it's above 70 +/- 5 degrees, then it may just need a repaste/remount

 

Windows 10 & XP dual boot. Best way?


Sorry I've read that a couple of times, but I can't quite follow the logic. To recap (is this what you are saying?):

1. Unplug all drives apart from the SSD. Upgrade the Win7 to Win10
2. Unplug all drives apart from one HDD., which will have the XP O/S. Install XP to that drive
3. Plug the SSD, with Win10, back in, leaving the HDD with WinXP connected
4. Do the clean install of Win10
5. Reconnect any other HDDs

The confusion is you say at the start, "The first step will be unplugging the drives leaving only the SSD plugged in for the upgrade over 7!" but later "The idea is to first see the older Windows go on first to the intended drive" ..

So are the above 5 steps how it should be?

Won't I need EasyBCD to get a boot menu?