Hard drive selector?

[Droppyale]

Ok, so i have an extra HD, and I would like to put Linux on it.


Is there a HD selector or something like that that would set whatever HD i choose to be the primary drive?

So that I can boot one or the other?




Thanks

[Droppyale]

Ok so i found this :

http://amos.catalogcity.com/cc.class...281210&ccsyn=1


seems pretty nice...

[duramax]

if your Bios will allow you to, you should be able to select boot from IDE 0 (primary HD) or IDE 1 (secondary HD).

Good luck with your venture!

[Droppyale]

Originally posted by duramax
if your Bios will allow you to, you should be able to select boot from IDE 0 (primary HD) or IDE 1 (secondary HD).

Good luck with your venture!

That's good to know thanks

[Xeroid]

Do you not want to install the Linux bootloader (Lilo or Grub)? This will allow you to select between either OS you want to load.

[Imperion1]

Here is a device for a 2 drive selector. Its called Nicklock.

[ragtop]

The Nicklock is good - the only problem is that it won't work if you use one WD drive and one non-WD drive in the system. I made up my own system with a small DPDT switch from Radio Shack and some connectors I cut out of an old case (the connectors for the power switch, reset switch, etc. will fit perfectly on the HDD jumper locations). Wire up the switch so in one position drive A is master and B is slave, and in the other position, B is master and A is slave. I then drilled a small hole & mounted it through the back of the case.

It's not as secure as the Nicklock, but it works on any combination of HDD brands, and its hidden well enough that the wife & kids don't mess with it.

[nukes]

I think, for dual booting, it would serve you much better to use grub or some other boot loader (grub is merely my recommendation), that way you will be able to access your windows files from Linux, and won't have to worry about spending money on something like this. For Linux, you're going to HAVE to install LILO or GRUB anyway, so why not just use one of them to make your choice at startup?

[deltaf508]

I used one of these for about a year when I was messing around with linux. Simple, Easy to setup, and gets the job done without any tweaking, works with any drive and you've got 3 switches to work with.

Trios Hard Drive Selector by Romtec

looks like you can pick one up on ebay for about $20 - $30, play with it for a while then resell it for slightly less (or keep it). I sold mine on ebay after I bought it new for $50 at office depot. I have since bought a drive bay to switch out my drives instead of having the switch in there.

Gary

[excuzzzeme]

I have found that installing windows on drive 1 and then installing linux on drive 2 works well. Once windows is installed, use f/disk to leave 2nd drive raw. (do not partition!). Boot up using your linux disk and load to apprpriate hdd. After linux has installed you will have a 12 sec display allowing you to choose between linux and dos (no matter which windows OS) each time you power up.