Booting to two different OS drives is definitely NOT something I'd recommend, due to the DRM keys that Windows stores in the PlayReady folder. As I assume you know, the keys for your DRM recordings are stored in C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Playready\mspr.hds. Although you can't image your drive due to some corruption (a good reason to NOT be using that anymore !!), you likely CAN copy that file.
My fear is that you may have two DIFFERENT sets of keys stored in the mspr.hds files on your two different OS partitions -- resulting in a different set of "playable" recordings depending on which disk you boot to. Is this the case? Or do you copy the mspr.hds file before switching to the other OS partition? (thus keeping things in sync).
What I would do in your case is (a) Add an SSD to the setup and put your OS on that. No content, just the OS. I would also get Windows 7 completely up-to-date SOON -- I'm not certain what state Microsoft will maintain Windows Update in after 14 Jan. My assumption is it will still work fine (as it still does, for example, for XP) … it just won't have any new updates. But there's no guarantee of that, so I'd try and get everything done before then. You don't need a large SSD, so it won't cost much => this would be an excellent choice: URL1
What you might want to do ASAP is
(a) pick a time when you have a few hours with no scheduled recordings
(b) add an SSD to the system and restore your most current OS image to that SSD -- disconnecting your other drives after you've got the image restored just as a paranoid safety precaution
(c) do ALL of the pending updates for Windows 7 and get it up-to-date. [I'll post more details on this in a minute]
(d) copy the most current mspr.hds to C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Playready on the new hard drive
You should now be able to shut down; reconnect your other two drives; and boot to the SSD and everything should work fine, although you'll likely have to check your media library settings.
Since you said you "... stopped updating years ago …" you may have to do a few things to get Windows 7 to update -- otherwise it may "hang" in a VERY long loop when you do a check for updates. Depending on just how many "years ago" it's been, some of this may not be necessary (notably the IE update), but here's the general way to get an older Windows 7 system up-to-date:
(a) If you don't already have Internet Explorer 11 installed, you'll need to do that first. You can download it here: URL2
(b) Install KB3020369 … you need to download the appropriate version for your system (32 or 64 bit): URL3
(c) Install the latest version of the Windows Update Agent -- again, get the appropriate version for your system:
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/hel ... st-version
(d) Install the "Convenience Rollup Update" (again, get the 32 or 64 bit version as needed):
https://www.catalog.update.microsoft.co ... =kb3125574
At this point, you could just run Windows Update and get the rest of the update you'll need (there will be a lot) -- but things will go a bit faster if you first install the following KB's (Google each of them in order; download the appropriate version from the update catalog; and then run the installer): KB3138612, KB3145739, KB3172605, KB3179573, KB3185278, and KB3185330
Then run Windows Update and do all of the updates it finds each time until there aren't anymore. I'd do ALL of them -- including the optional ones -- to be sure your system is completely up-to-date as of the final EOL on 14 Jan.
When you're all done, IMAGE the SSD and be sure to save a copy of that image in a safe place. I use Image for Windows:
https://www.terabyteunlimited.com/image ... d4b52bf51f … but whatever your favorite imaging utility is is fine, as long as you're comfortable with it.
NEVER boot to a 2nd OS drive => especially with the DRM issue. What I would do is setup an automated backup utility (I use Syncback) to copy the C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Playready\mspr.hds file every day to a backup location, so if you ever have to restore your image you'll have the current DRM keys you can copy to the newly restored image.
