Vista/XP Dual Boot Newbie Question for the experts

  • Thread starter Thread starter Jeff
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J

Jeff

For the experts:

Two removeable Hard disk trays one with XP, the other with Vista?

What software would I need to be able to keep BOTH removeable trays in the
PC and be able to choose either at boot?

Also what would the master/Salve settings be on each

And a real newbie question:

Can files be swapped between the two drives or is one totally invisible from
the other?

TIA

jeff
 
Jeff said:
For the experts:

Two removeable Hard disk trays one with XP, the other with Vista?

What software would I need to be able to keep BOTH removeable
trays in the PC and be able to choose either at boot?

Also what would the master/Salve settings be on each
Click to expand...


If you install XP first (before Vista) and the XP hard drive is
connected so that it is visible to the Vista installer, the Vista
installer will make the dual-boot menu for you. This does
affect the XP restore point function, though. Read up:
http://bertk.mvps.org/html/dualboot.html.

If you install Vista first (before XP), you will have to use a
3rd-party utility to set up the dual-boot for you. One such
utility is VistaBoot Pro: http://www.vistabootpro.org/

You could also use the BIOS's Hard Drive Boot Order
to set the priority of the hard drives so that the HD with
the desired OS gets highest boot priority. Just install each
OS with its HD as the only one connected during the
installation process, and the HD getting control at boot time
will boot its resident OS as a mono-boot. The *default*
HD Boot Order is:
Master, IDE ch. 0,
Slave, IDE ch. 0,
Master, IDE ch. 1,
Slave, IDE ch. 1.

This will determine which HD boots in the default case.
But by changing the HD Boot Order in the BIOS, *any*
HD in the system can be made to get control at boot time
and to load its resident OS.

And, of course, if the removable HDs are the only ones
in the system, if you remove one, the other HD will
automatically get control at boot time.

If you haven't yet chosen your removable HD "mobile racks",
check these out for IDE hard drives:
http://kingwin.com/product_pages/kf101ipf.asp
They come in beige (above) and black:
http://kingwin.com/product_pages/kf101ipfb.asp
with a fan in the bottom of the removable tray.
The set generally sells for $22 on the Web, plus shipping.
Extra trays sell for around $5 to $7 less.
I have such a mobile rack with a bottom fan, and the
bottom fan really keeps the hard drive cool. Kingwin
also makes racks with front and rear fans and racks
for SATA hard drives.
And a real newbie question:

Can files be swapped between the two drives or is one totally
invisible from the other?
Click to expand...


Files can be transferred by simple drag-n-drop between the
2 hard drives.

*TimDaniels*
 
THANK YOU!!!
Timothy Daniels said:
If you install XP first (before Vista) and the XP hard drive is
connected so that it is visible to the Vista installer, the Vista
installer will make the dual-boot menu for you. This does
affect the XP restore point function, though. Read up:
http://bertk.mvps.org/html/dualboot.html.

If you install Vista first (before XP), you will have to use a
3rd-party utility to set up the dual-boot for you. One such
utility is VistaBoot Pro: http://www.vistabootpro.org/

You could also use the BIOS's Hard Drive Boot Order
to set the priority of the hard drives so that the HD with
the desired OS gets highest boot priority. Just install each
OS with its HD as the only one connected during the
installation process, and the HD getting control at boot time
will boot its resident OS as a mono-boot. The *default*
HD Boot Order is:
Master, IDE ch. 0,
Slave, IDE ch. 0,
Master, IDE ch. 1,
Slave, IDE ch. 1.

This will determine which HD boots in the default case.
But by changing the HD Boot Order in the BIOS, *any*
HD in the system can be made to get control at boot time
and to load its resident OS.

And, of course, if the removable HDs are the only ones
in the system, if you remove one, the other HD will
automatically get control at boot time.

If you haven't yet chosen your removable HD "mobile racks",
check these out for IDE hard drives:
http://kingwin.com/product_pages/kf101ipf.asp
They come in beige (above) and black:
http://kingwin.com/product_pages/kf101ipfb.asp
with a fan in the bottom of the removable tray.
The set generally sells for $22 on the Web, plus shipping.
Extra trays sell for around $5 to $7 less.
I have such a mobile rack with a bottom fan, and the
bottom fan really keeps the hard drive cool. Kingwin
also makes racks with front and rear fans and racks
for SATA hard drives.



Files can be transferred by simple drag-n-drop between the
2 hard drives.

*TimDaniels*
Click to expand...
 
Jeff said:
THANK YOU!!!
Click to expand...


Go crazy!! If you want more fun, use a SATA drive
in an external eSATA box which lets you have external HDs
with internal HD speed. Kingwin makes eSATA boxes with
wall-wart power supplies and built-in cooling fans:
http://kingwin.com/product_pages/jt35ebk.asp
You'd need a motherboard with a SATA controller and an
eSATA connection adapter (or PCI-X eSATA card), though.

*TimDaniels*
 
Timothy Daniels said:
And, of course, if the removable HDs are the only ones
in the system, if you remove one, the other HD will
automatically get control at boot time.
Click to expand...


With this, you *might* run into a problem when just a single
HD is connected to an IDE cable at the center connector (i.e.
with no other device at the end connector). In some cases
with internal HDs, reflections coming back from the open circuit
at the end of the cable can cause data errors. Whether the signal
reflection timing in the mobile rack could also allow these errors
when the associated tray is removed, I don't know. If it did happen,
though, one solution would be to connect both HDs to the ends of
the two IDE cables. Such an arrangement works well for me in the
scenario of two internal HDs with DPST toggle switches in their
power cables, where cutting the power to one or the other HD
[BEFORE STARTUP!] accomplishes the "removal" of that HD
from the system. With mobile racks, there is also a power switch
(with a key) that allows you to do the same thing, and since I've never
read any cautions to connect a mobile rack only to the end connector
on an IDE cable, using the power switch is probably better than
physically removing a tray. So if you use the power switch to
"remove" a HD from the system, you probably don't have to worry
about which connector the mobile rack is on.

*TimDaniels*
 
Jeff said:
Two removeable Hard disk trays...
Click to expand...

With 2 "mobile racks" in the system, you *may* run into
a Cable Jungle problem inside the PC case. The cables may
be too long or too short or just not bend the right way. The
solution that I've found involves "round cables" - cables
that are circular in cross-section - instead of the standard
80-conductor ribbon cable in the ATA/IDE specs. A place
that has a good combination of selection and low prices for
such cables is Silicon Valley Compucycle:
http://www.svc.com/ide-floppy-cable.html . The cables come
in various lengths with one or two device connectors on them.
I like the ones with aluminum braid shielding just because they
look cool: http://www.svc.com/rc24hd2-sil.html .
For the 2-device cables, the ratio of the lengths from the
motherboard connector to the device connectors is the same
as that for standard ribbon cables.

All of SVC's IDE "round cables" have each of the 40 data
wires paired and twisted together with a ground wire to
accomplish the same isolation as the ground wires that separate
the data wires in an 80-conductor ribbon cable. As some would
point out in objection to "round cables", they are not included in
the ATA/IDE specs. But no one that I've read about has ever
presented evidence for data errors involving "round cables".

*TimDaniels*
 
If you install XP first (before Vista) and the XP hard drive
is connected so that it is visible to the Vista installer, the
Vista installer will make the dual-boot menu for you. This
does affect the XP restore point function, though. Read up:
http://bertk.mvps.org/html/dualboot.html.

If you install Vista first (before XP), you will have to use a
3rd-party utility to set up the dual-boot for you. One such
utility is VistaBoot Pro: http://www.vistabootpro.org/
Click to expand...


BootitNG (BING for short) is highly recommended and does a
hellavalot more:

http://www.terabyteunlimited.com/

Partition management (create, delete, slide, resize, all file
formats including Linux), Multibooting (any OS bar Mac), Imaging
(create, validate, restore). Excellent value for money. BUT...
learning curve is a bit steep at the beginnning.

Some videos to get you started:

http://www.terabyteunlimited.com/examples.html
http://www.heffy.com/image.htm
 
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