Switch between SATA drives?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Terry Wilson
  • Start date Start date
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Terry Wilson

I have 2 SATA drives in my PC that I would like to alternately boot
from. I have XP / Ubuntu on one drive and would like to run Solaris
on the other.

I think all that's really needed is on/off switches
for the power cables, or maybe a some kind of DPDT switch.

Anyone know of any after market parts available, preferably with a front
panel switch?

Thanks
 
I have 2 SATA drives in my PC that I would like to alternately boot
from. I have XP / Ubuntu on one drive and would like to run Solaris
on the other.

I think all that's really needed is on/off switches
for the power cables, or maybe a some kind of DPDT switch.

Anyone know of any after market parts available, preferably with a front
panel switch?

Thanks

Romtec Trios Hard Disk Selector will do what you want with hardware.

http://www.systemcooling.com/romtec_trios2-01.html

If all you wish to do is boot multiple operating systems, Linux and XP
have the ability to setup multi-boot systems. There is a nice
shareware product called BootIT NG that offers that ability as well as
alot of other features. They offer a 30 day free trial, so you can try
it out to make sure it does what you need.

http://www.terabyteunlimited.com/bootitng.html
 
cphillips581 said:
Romtec Trios Hard Disk Selector will do what you want with hardware.

http://www.systemcooling.com/romtec_trios2-01.html

If all you wish to do is boot multiple operating systems, Linux and XP
have the ability to setup multi-boot systems. There is a nice
shareware product called BootIT NG that offers that ability as well as
alot of other features. They offer a 30 day free trial, so you can try
it out to make sure it does what you need.

http://www.terabyteunlimited.com/bootitng.html

Yes this is what I was hoping for, unfortunately this seems to be for IDE
only (not SATA),
unless I am missing something. So it seems I would have to fabricate what I
want myself.

Furthermore, my attempts at setting up a 2 OS (XP/Ubuntu) system on one
drive, and then switching to another
(by manually moving power cable) isn't working either. Grub is lost after
switching back,
and pops up with an error on the 2nd drive. Why it even shows up on the
other drive I've
no clue. Guess I need to mess around with it some more.

I'm surprised this type of thing isn't more common. Seems like a natural way
to
run a second system to test things on, do backups, 2 OS's, etc.

Thanks for responding. BootIT NG looks interesting.
 
Yes this is what I was hoping for, unfortunately this seems to be for IDE
only (not SATA),
unless I am missing something. So it seems I would have to fabricate what I
want myself.

Furthermore, my attempts at setting up a 2 OS (XP/Ubuntu) system on one
drive, and then switching to another
(by manually moving power cable) isn't working either. Grub is lost after
switching back,
and pops up with an error on the 2nd drive. Why it even shows up on the
other drive I've
no clue. Guess I need to mess around with it some more.

I'm surprised this type of thing isn't more common. Seems like a natural way
to
run a second system to test things on, do backups, 2 OS's, etc.

Thanks for responding. BootIT NG looks interesting.
If your major goal is to install multiple OS'es, BootIT NG will do it
for you. When/If the Linux installs overlay the Master Boot Record,
you just have to reinstall the BootIT NG software again and all is
well. I would write their tech support people or post in their news
server ahead of time explaining what you have and what you wish to
accomplish before doing it. I have found their tech support to be
second to none. The user manual isn't the greatest though. The product
also does repartitioning and some imaging as well.

This is a web page on accessing their newsgroups.

http://terabyteunlimited.com/webnews.html

This is a web page on installing Linux and BootIT NG

http://terabyteunlimited.com/kb/category.php?id=20

I am not associated with them other than being a customer.
 
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