how to boot from two different hard drives

Don’t panic, as the most likely explanation is that your BIOS has a separate menu for the hard disk boot order. Hello! Thomas Joseph Thomas Joseph. Best Samsung phone 2021: Which Galaxy is best for you? You may notice that a USB flash drive doesn’t appear as an option, and it’s possible that your computer’s second hard disk (if it has one) also isn’t listed. Your computer should now boot from the flash drive or USB based external hard drive. You should just create different windows profiles(if you have xp, vista, or 7). Know someone who can answer? By partitioning the drive into several different partitions, you can have one partition for one operating system and another partition for another operating system, splitting the drive between them. Chris Hoffman is Editor-in-Chief of How-To Geek. I am building a new system and will that will have 2 separte SATA hard drives. NOTE: I basically need to have the option of choosing at start up between my Sata 1 drive with Windows XP and my Sata 2 drive with Windows Vista. He's written about technology for over a decade and was a PCWorld columnist for two years. This is desirable when you have applications that only works with Windows 8 but not with Windows 10. The boot order is a BIOS setting, so it's operating-system independent. Windows also has its own boot loader, which can be used to select between different versions of Windows if you have more than one installed. Your computer’s operating system is generally installed on its internal hard drive. Google and Microsoft ended Intel’s plans for dual-boot Windows and Android PCs, but you can install Windows 8.1 alongside Windows 7, have both Linux and Windows on the same computer, or install Windows or Linux alongside Mac OS X. When you boot your computer, the BIOS loads the boot loader from the hard drive and the boot loader boots the installed operating system. The USB boot process usually starts immediately. In some cases you might run into a problem that your laptop still wants to boot from your hard drive with the older OS. I don't use this very often, but I will occasionally need to boot up from this hard drive and run this machine in its current state. I have tried EasyBCD but it wont work - does anyone know how I can do this? I need to be able to chose which os to run but currently I can only do so by pressing F12. Anyway, the information they need to identify the user is in the motherboard itself, no in the hard drive. 32-bit versions work in 32-bit and 64-bit computer (with BIOS, but not with UEFI, unless you use the … Having more than one operating system installed allows you to quickly switch between two and have the best tool for the job. J8son, Jun 6, … Go into this menu and change the top entry so that it’s the USB drive or hard disk that you want to boot from. It’s possible that this is hidden by a logo, so look out for a message telling you to hit the Tab key. The Linux boot loader will be installed in the EFI Boot Partition of the hard drive it’s installed on, not that of the Windows 10 hard drive. In other words, it doesn't matter if you have Windows 10, Windows 8, or another Windows version, Linux, or any other PC OS on your hard drive or another bootable device; these boot … How-To Geek is where you turn when you want experts to explain technology. Join 350,000 subscribers and get a daily digest of news, geek trivia, and our feature articles. It is possible when you have a 2nd HDD or SSD installed in your laptop (by using HDD Caddy) that you will have two different OS on two different phyiscal drives. For example, if you want to dual-boot Windows 7 and 10, install Windows 7 and then install Windows 10 … Normally I would boot it and run an unformatting program, but it also doesn't boot. It also makes it easier to dabble and experiment with different operating systems. If each operating system is installed to a separate drive, you could actually switch between both by selecting a different drive as your boot device every time you boot. Chris has written for The New York Times, been interviewed as a technology expert on TV stations like Miami's NBC 6, and had his work covered by news outlets like the BBC. Having two operating systems installed — and choosing between them at boot time — is known as “dual-booting.”. Copyright © Dennis Publishing Limited 2021. I have 2 different operating systems on separate drives and for some reason my bios doesnt give me the option of booting from each of the hard drives, just the master. All Rights Reserved. You could use virtual machine software instead of setting up a dual-boot system, but a dual-boot system lets you actually use both operating systems on your hardware at full, native speed. Another difference between these two solutions is that you can easily add more hard drives to your computer to extend a Spanned volume, something that is not supported on Striped volumes. dual-boot hard-drive windows ssd  Share. The … I have two hard drives with Linux loaded on one and Windows XP on the other, can i connect both of them (one as primary and two as secondary) and choose which hard drive to boot from everytime? But sometimes, having one operating system you like simply isn't enough. Next, look out for a message telling you which key to press to get the boot menu: F9, F10 or F12 are all common keys. It will now boot using the priority order that you’ve set. i have two different hard drive one is 150gb which had xp home edition and in newly attached hard drive i put xp proffesional. If you’ve chosen to boot from a USB flash drive to install an operating system, but your computer is not loading the installer, the solution is probably very simple. I would like to know how to DUAL BOOT using two different physical hard drives. AskUbuntu: Boot Ubuntu from external drive Booting USB drives with grub2 and iso files 'grub-n-iso' 64-bit versions work only in 64-bit computers. Any USB port will do, but if you’re having problems with the front ones not recognising your device, try using a port at the rear of your computer. Select your USB stick from the boot options. Check out our Code of Conduct. There is no way two persons would use that license any different that having the license in only one hard drive. Go into this menu and change the top entry so that it’s the USB drive or hard disk that you want to boot from. Yeah, you would have to change your BIOS every time you wanted to boot from a different hard drive. Go back to the original boot menu and you’ll see that your computer is now listing your chosen hard disk or flash drive as a boot option. You don’t have to deal with the overhead of a virtual machine, which is especially bad when it comes to 3D graphics. Is this possible? Whether your main boot drive is malfunctioning, you need to reformat your computer, or you want to start using a different operating system, being able to boot from an alternate drive - like a CD/DVD or flash drive - can be very useful. Best mid-range phone: Great, affordable smartphones. For example, you could have both Linux and Windows installed, using Linux for development work and booting into Windows when you need to use Windows-only software or play a PC game. Follow asked 42 secs ago. All rights reserved. Expert Reviews™ is a registered trade mark. Look out for a ‘Press any key to boot from USB’ message: unless you hit a key at that point, your computer will skip the USB drive and move on to the next boot device that you’ve configured. By submitting your email, you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. I then do F2 during boot and change the sequence again to use the clone disk as the first boot. All you have to do now is save your settings and your computer will restart. Thanks so much If you don’t, then your PC’s BIOS may not recognise the drive and won’t let you boot from it. There is a really easy solution to your problem though. Once you’ve hit the key you may have to wait for a bit, but a boot menu will pop up. Your external hard drive's cable should be connected firmly to both your computer and the external hard drive, and the external hard drive should be in a position where it doesn't create any tension on the cable. Look out for the Power On Self Test (POST) screen, which is the information screen you first get when you turn on your computer. To change an entry, just select it using cursor keys and hit Enter, then choose your preferred boot device. Quick video on how to run two operating systems.Commands:Sudo os-proberSudo pluma /etc/default/grubSudo update-grub I want to do s dual boot … Here's what you need to know, along with our top-rated Apple-friendly drives. As good as the standard order is, there are times where you may want to change the status quo. This tutorial will show you how to multi-boot between 2 different operating systems. I am attempting to use two hard drives to accomplish a dual boot system. For the most part, your computer is set up to boot from devices in the most sensible order, such as looking for a CD or DVD to boot from, before it loads an operating system from your hard disk. How To Dual Boot Ubuntu 20.04 Linux And Windows 10 On Separate Hard Drives UEFI / Legacy BIOSVideo taken from the channel: Intelligent Gaming Switch between your installed operating systems by rebooting your computer and selecting the installed operating system you want to use. The point is you’re devoting part of the drive to one operating system and part of the drive to another.). I have got two separate hard drives one running win7 one running xp. I set the boot sequence in BIOS to have drive D before drive C. Alas, the system ignores drive D and boots into drive C. (The only way I can boot into drive D is to physically disconnect drive C). The exact instructions differ from manufacturer to manufacturer, so you may need your computer or motherboard’s manual to hand.Look for the Boot menu. If you’re using a Mac, you can have Windows installed alongside Mac OS X and boot into it when you need to run Windows-only software. I installed a second hard drive, Seagate 500 GB (Drive D) and cloned drive C to it, using the Seagate cloning software. what I did , I install acronis to the boot hard drive, clone the whole hard drive to a new SSD (wipe out everything on there in the process)...then unplug the harddrive and plug in the SSD. For starters, you may want to boot from a USB drive if you want to install Windows 10; then, you may want to switch which hard disk you boot from, so that you can run multiple operating systems all without having to worry about complicated boot menus. 1 will be named sda and the other sdb. Your computer’s operating system is generally installed on its internal hard drive. I was under the impression that dual booting can only work when dealing with different partitions on the same drive. They should allow that. Is there any software which will allow me to do this? This will show you the order that your computer will go through looking for a bootable device, going from top to bottom. If you’re booting from a USB flash drive, it’s important that you insert the drive before you turn on your computer. 1 2 2 bronze badges. When you get a computer you like, you also want to get an operating system you like. Since 2011, Chris has written over 2,000 articles that have been read nearly one billion times---and that's just here at How-To Geek. Can i put my old system drive into the caddy sata, go into the bios and change to boot from it? Only one computer. You could put a second hard drive into your computer and install an operating system to it, choosing which hard drive to boot in your BIOS or boot menu. How to boot from USB or a different drive. This option is useful if you’re installing an operating system, as you can select your flash drive, install Windows and then just boot from your regular hard disk.To get this option, you need to reset, reboot or start your computer from fresh. If you wanted to, you could have three or more operating systems installed on your computer — you could have Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux all on the same computer. This is also the best option if you want to make a permanent change, such as if you’ve added an SSD to your system and want to boot from that. You can have two (or more) versions of Windows installed side-by-side on the same PC and choose between them at boot time. Add a comment | Active Oldest Votes. during formatting it is easier to recognize the different hard disks. You may like two different operating systems so much that you can't choose between them. Thomas Joseph is a new contributor to this site. Press any key when prompted to boot from the installation disc. There’s no limit to the number of operating systems you he installed — you’re not just limited to a single one. ". Most computers ship with a single operating system, but you can have multiple operating systems installed on a single PC. I currently have a machine running XP Pro with a BUNCH of older apps and custom legacy apps for my company. Share a link to this question via … There should be no problem doing this if I make one a slave and one a master. Here’s a quick overview of what to expect: RELATED: How to Install Windows on a Mac With Boot Camp. Acer ConceptD 500 review: The best PC for content creators? Linksys Velop Dual-Band: A middling mesh Wi-Fi system, The best powerline adapters to buy from £30. RELATED: Beginner Geek: Hard Disk Partitions Explained, Even if you only have a single hard drive, you can have multiple operating systems on that hard drive. New contributor . If your computer doesn’t have a boot menu option, you’ll need to change the boot order by going into the BIOS (UEFI on newer computers). Most of the time, when trying to boot from a USB device, there is no key-press prompt. So at … (In reality, many operating systems use multiple partitions. When you install a Linux distribution, it typically installs the Grub boot loader. This lets you select a drive from a menu for a one-time boot: it doesn’t affect the regular boot order, so next time you restart your computer it will use its regular hard disk. Booting from an External Hard Drive on Windows 1 Make sure that your external hard drive is connected to your computer. This is inconvenient and you’ll probably have two operating systems installed on the same drive, so that’s where a boot manager comes in. You could also boot an operating system — like a live Linux system or a Windows To Go USB drive — from external storage media. I have a formatted HDD that I want unformatted. then can I place the new NMVe into the laptop body and clone to it from the eternal one??? Just use your cursor keys to select which device you want to boot from and hit Enter. Setting up a dual-boot system is fairly easy. How to boot on a new hard drive copied from a old drive?Helpful? Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering. What happens now depends on … I have been told to get an external hard drive carriage, take out the ded HDD, and hook it up to another PC, and unformat it from there. It is safer to use 2 hard disks. The Best External Hard Drives and SSDs for Mac in 2021. The question is, will I still be able to dual boot from two separate hard drives on two different Sata ports? Looking to add storage, or for a smart way to back up your Mac? The process is similar for PC and Mac computers, but this article will focus on performing this task for a PC. To achieve this, I'll physically disconnect the Windows 10 SSD from the system while installing Linux. Grub loads instead of the Windows boot loader at boot time if Windows was already installed, allowing you to choose the operating system you want to boot. Since we launched in 2006, our articles have been read more than 1 billion times. Reboot your computer and press key for one time boot menu (Dell is typically F12). The downside is you can only use one of your installed operating systems at a time. The above article may contain affiliate links, which help support How-To Geek. This order will stay the same until you change it again by following these steps. If you have multiple operating systems installed, you should see a menu when you start your computer. Dual Booting Explained: How You Can Have Multiple Operating Systems on Your Computer, choosing which hard drive to boot in your BIOS or boot menu, artitioning the drive into several different partitions, Read more about setting up a dual-boot Linux system, Read more about dual-booting two versions of Windows, set up a Windows dual-boot system on your Mac, How to Make Safari Always Open Your Previous Tabs on Mac, How to View a List of All the Links You’ve Clicked on Instagram, How to Download PS5 Games From Your Phone, How to Add an Expiration Date to Emails in Gmail, How to Use Bangs in DuckDuckGo (to Search Other Websites), © 2021 LifeSavvy Media. dual boot vista and xp two different hard drives by heteri Sep 13, 2007 3:52AM PDT. You aren’t limited to just two operating systems on a single computer. The easiest way to choose which device to boot from is to use your computer’s boot menu. For PC on the PC, a GameFAQs message board topic titled "can you boot from two different hard drives with different OS? Using BIOS I should be able choose which hard drive to boot from...But on my Dell 4300 the BIOS won't reconize any drive, but the master. everytime drive got unplug, the default boot sequence got reset.. All went well. is you will find the GPT boot manager under UEFI boot options and the MBR boot manager under the legacy boot options you would have to select the device - the same way you select a bootable USB device, through the boot menu How to watch Framing Britney Spears for free, HDMI vs DisplayPort vs DVI vs VGA vs USB-C, Best Android phone: The best budget, mid-range and high-end, The best mesh Wi-Fi routers to buy, from £73, The best budget smartphones: The best cheap phones in the UK, Samsung Galaxy A12: Killer battery, but a poor performer, The best wireless routers to buy right now, Best tablet: Top tablets from Apple, Amazon and Samsung, Razer BlackWidow Elite Review: A fantastic gaming keyboard, M1 Apple Mac mini (late 2020) review: Tiny but mighty, Apple 27in iMac (2020) review: More of the same but better. Boot drives can be hard drives, solid-state drives, optical drives (CD / DVD), removable storage media (flash drives, SD cards), or even floppies in the past. Just select your profile and you get your personal settings for everything. If you like Windows 7 but want to try out Windows 8.1, you could install Windows 8.1 alongside Windows 7 and choose between the two at boot time, knowing you’ll always be able to go back to Windows 7. The caddy bought only supports Sata. Different operating systems have different uses and advantages. When you This menu is typically set up when you install an additional operating system on your computer, so you won’t see if you just have Windows installed or just have Linux installed. RELATED: 5 Ways To Try Out and Install Ubuntu On Your Computer. If not then ill have to buy a new caddy that supports both versions as i intent to use the old m.2 as a portable device. Join 350,000 subscribers and get a daily digest of news, comics, trivia, reviews, and more. Once you step away from the boot order that’s programmed into your computer, things can get a little tricky, so here’s how to manage everything. You’re only restricted by the storage space available on your computer and the time you want to spend setting this up. Every time your computer boots up it will go to the log on screen. Typically, you should install the newer operating system last.

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