HD Switch

  • Thread starter Thread starter Ray
  • Start date Start date
R

Ray

Is it possible to install 2 hd's, set them both to master, and put a
switch in the power line to each and boot individually? thanks
 
Is it possible to install 2 hd's, set them both to master, and put a
switch in the power line to each and boot individually? thanks
Click to expand...

Why bother?
You can have both as Masters on separate IDE ports?
what exactly do you want to do?
 
I assume if I do this I will have to change the bios to select which hd to
boot to each time, correct? I want 2 different os to boot to. Thought this
would be a simple way to select which one to boot to. thanks
 
Ray said:
I assume if I do this I will have to change the bios to select which hd to
boot to each time, correct? I want 2 different os to boot to. Thought this
would be a simple way to select which one to boot to. thanks
Click to expand...

If you search for "dual boot" or "multi boot" using google or in the
Microsoft tech pages you can find lots of information about how a small
file is started at boot and you have some period of time to select one
of the available partitions to boot from. Each partition can have a
different operating system if you like. (However, I have lurking
suspicion that booting to one Windows OS in partition D might still be
using things like the Recycle Bin in the other Windows OS in partition C.
But that is just paranoia on my part at the moment.)

OR, I think I've seen an "IDE switch" advertised somewhere. It wasn't
cheap but if I am remembering correctly it would let you switch between
two IDE devices on the cable. One of the two was connected at any time.

(I'd like someone to make a product that would combine something like
defrag with a bunch of dip switches and a BIG RED SWITCH. You would
close the BIG RED SWITCH, run the program, tell it which things you
wanted to be read only, it would shuffle all those to one end of the
drive, tell you how to set all the little dip switches to mark the
address of the end of the read-only section of the drive and then tell
you to open the BIG RED SWITCH. After that any attempt by a virus or
windows or a moron (me) to write on or delete anything on the wrong
side of that address set by those dip switches would fail. And no
virus or software could reach out and flip the BIG RED SWITCH into
the unprotected position.)

Hard Drive Sherrif (not to be confused with Red Sherrif) tries to do
something like this but it is all in software and we know that any
software solution will be screwed up by more software somehow later on.
You just can't argue with a hardware BIG RED SWITCH that just yanks
the write-error line on the drive when you try to write on the wrong
side of the fence.
 
Another option which i use on one of my machines is the Romtec hard
drive selector.

http://www.romtecusa.com/











==================================================

ASUS P4T533 mobo
Intel P4 2.8 @ 3.0 GHz
ASUS V8460 Ultra GeForce 4 Ti 4600
1024 Samsung 32-Bit RIMM 4200 1066MHz RAMBUS
RD1-8X Bios Savior
Enermax EG465P-VE FMA 430W PSU
Creative Labs Audigy 2
Sony DRU-500AX DVD+-RW
TDK VeloCD 48X16X48X CD-RW
TOSHIBA SD-M1612 DVD
Seagate 80GB 7200RPM
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WD 60GB 5400RPM
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Promise ULTRA 133 TX2 Controller
Dlink DFE530TX+ PCI nic
Motorola Surfboard SB3100 cable modem
Linksys BEFSR41 router
Windows XP Home SP1
Direct X 9.0
 
I assume if I do this I will have to change the bios to select which hd to
boot to each time, correct? I want 2 different os to boot to. Thought this
would be a simple way to select which one to boot to. thanks
Click to expand...

It isn't. It is a pretty stupid way of doing it as the BIOS will still
detect something although it'll be rubbish.

Usually when you install two different OSes such as Windows and Linux,
the non MS one comes with a bootmanager.
 
Whereas On Fri, 24 Oct 2003 22:07:54 -0400, Ray <[email protected]>
scribbled:
, I thus relpy:
Is it possible to install 2 hd's, set them both to master, and put a
switch in the power line to each and boot individually? thanks
Click to expand...

Do this, have a switch setup that switches one drive to master, the
other slave, or viceversa.
 
Is it possible to install 2 hd's, set them both to master, and put a
switch in the power line to each and boot individually? thanks
Click to expand...

It would be easier to dual boot or use hard drive caddys to swap out the
hard drives, [which is what I use].
 
"Gary Tait" replied:
Do this, have a switch setup that switches one drive to master, the
other slave, or viceversa.
Click to expand...


Romtec makes an electronic switch that fits into a 5 1/4" bay that
will switch between 3 hard drives. See http://www.romtecusa.com/ .

This, by NickLock, seems to do the same thing for 2 hard drives
using a manually-operated mechanical switch:
http://www.nicklock.com/ .

An alternative is to put each bootable hard drive on its own
IDE channel (each hard drive jumpered to Master), and select
which hard drive boots by setting the boot sequence in the BIOS.
(The HD appearing higher in the boot priority will be the boot HD.)
The only disadvantage is that all the HDs are powered up, but
the equipment cost is zero.


*TimDaniels*
 
Ray said:
Is it possible to install 2 hd's, set them both to master, and put a
switch in the power line to each and boot individually? thanks
Click to expand...


My neighbor has the family PC set up exactly that way (SPDT switch selects
which drive receives 12V). He went this way 'cuz daughter frequently d/l's
viruses that disable the machine for everybody.

They set the switch before powering up the machine. Drives are different
size so BIOS autodetects for proper setup. Kind of crude but it works.

Roby
 
Roby said:
Ray wrote:





My neighbor has the family PC set up exactly that way (SPDT switch selects
which drive receives 12V). He went this way 'cuz daughter frequently d/l's
viruses that disable the machine for everybody.

They set the switch before powering up the machine. Drives are different
size so BIOS autodetects for proper setup. Kind of crude but it works.

Roby
Click to expand...
Thanks Roby that is exactly what I wanted to know.
 
www.cyberguys.com has a switch set up to switch between drives.
Like if your kids are DLing files all the time, your work on another
drive won't be corrupted as it won't be seen or accessed.

Is it possible to install 2 hd's, set them both to master, and put a
switch in the power line to each and boot individually? thanks
Click to expand...
~~~~~~
Bait for spammers:
root@localhost
postmaster@localhost
admin@localhost
abuse@localhost
postmaster@[127.0.0.1]
(e-mail address removed)
~~~~~~
Remove "spamless" to email me.
 
Overlord said:
www.cyberguys.com has a switch set up to switch between drives.
Like if your kids are DLing files all the time, your work on another
drive won't be corrupted as it won't be seen or accessed.
Click to expand...


Care to post a link to the specific page?


*TimDaniels*
 
"Timothy Daniels" asked:
Care to post a link to the specific page?
Click to expand...


Never mind... it's a NickLock - seen when you do a search
on the site for "nicklock".


*TimDaniels*
 
Sorry dude, swapped cable modems and had hell.
I'd have posted the link earlier but had seen it in a catalog that I
no longer had.

"Timothy Daniels" asked:

Never mind... it's a NickLock - seen when you do a search
on the site for "nicklock".


*TimDaniels*
Click to expand...

~~~~~~
Bait for spammers:
root@localhost
postmaster@localhost
admin@localhost
abuse@localhost
postmaster@[127.0.0.1]
(e-mail address removed)
~~~~~~
Remove "spamless" to email me.
 
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