Using 2 HD's to run pc, to boot

**muldrick** · 01-11-2005, 04:41 PM

I have 1 desktop pc, I want to use 2 harddrives, each with WinXP on them. (1 for me and 1 for my kid)
Can I set up the BIOS to ask me which HD to boot from?
I want my stuff to be completely seperate, kind of like having 2 pc's. Is this possible? How?

**old_lou** · 01-11-2005, 05:12 PM

on some new M.boards you can choose the booting device in the boot screen. If your worried about your child trashing the pc why not put a removable caddy in then only one disk at a time is in the machine? and he/she can't even get to your drive

**kiltjim** · 01-11-2005, 05:18 PM

I know that in my extremely limited playing with Linux, with certain distros you can boot into Windows or Linux, and a loader makes you make the decision before you boot. I don't know if its possible to do it on an entirely Windows system though. And for the life of me, I can't remember the name of the loader that is used.

**old_lou** · 01-11-2005, 05:27 PM

The loader is called lilo and you can proberly use it for just windows if you originally load a small linux partition so it replaces the MBR with the bootloader then edit lilo to load the two versions of windows but it will take a bit of fiddling. How about VM Ware? will that do it

**alti** · 01-11-2005, 05:36 PM

If you install two copies of XP one on each drive windows will automoatically bring up its own boot loader right after post and ask which OS you want to boot with. Files under user profiles will not be avilible to the other OS's users unless you go through alot of effor t to set it up that way.

**jcdillin** · 01-11-2005, 07:00 PM

actually if you install windows XP onto the first drive then install it again on the 2nd drive it should put both entries into the boot.ini so then when you start the computer it will give you a screen asking you which install you want to boot to. then you could just name them you and your kid. so then you would have two seperate copies of windows. Or you could just go with something like Bootmagic which does the same thing as lilo. just no linux involved.

**muldrick** · 01-11-2005, 08:11 PM

Originally Posted by jcdillin

actually if you install windows XP onto the first drive then install it again on the 2nd drive it should put both entries into the boot.ini so then when you start the computer it will give you a screen asking you which install you want to boot to. then you could just name them you and your kid. so then you would have two seperate copies of windows. Or you could just go with something like Bootmagic which does the same thing as lilo. just no linux involved.

I like this answer the best

I'm now using the 1st drive. So I could: open the pc, disconnect this current drive, hook up the other drive, install XP. Then hook up both drives, then when it boots it'll ask me what drive to use?

**frodobaggins** · 01-11-2005, 08:16 PM

Originally Posted by muldrick

I like this answer the best

I'm now using the 1st drive. So I could: open the pc, disconnect this current drive, hook up the other drive, install XP. Then hook up both drives, then when it boots it'll ask me what drive to use?

Not exactly.

Install XP on drive one. Then install it on drive two.
Leave them both connected.

**jcdillin** · 01-11-2005, 08:21 PM

yeah frodo is correct, you could try taking the current drive that has windows installed on it and install it as a secondary drive then install the 2nd blank drive as primary then just install windows on the blank drive and see if it gives you both options in boot.ini

**Scouse Monkey** · 01-11-2005, 09:01 PM

You clould jsut have both in the PC but put a key switch on that switches power between the two drives. that way when your kid uses it your drive is not even turned on so can't come to any harm and to use your drive you just put the key in and switch power to the drives. could do it with 2 caddies and turn one off but they are ugly.