OS's On Multiple HDD's

[Creedyou]

I finally got WinXP, Win200, and Linux. I also have 2 hard drives (8GB and 20GB). I want to use XP as my main OS on the 20GB, and have Linux and Win2000 on the 8GB for testing them out. Is this possible to do? Also I am not sure about which hard drive goes on which IDE cable...like can I have both hard drives on 1 cable or do I need to put the 20GB on the primary cable and have the 8GB on the secondary cable?

 

[daveshel]

Both hard drives on the same cable is best, since the 2 hard drives wil not be in use at the same time, the 20GB as master and the 8GB as slave. Install XP on the 20GB drive first, then install 2K on the 8GB (the installation of either will allow you to select the appropriate drive/partition). The boot files for 2K on the d: drive will actually kive on the c: drive, so you will not be able to start 2K should you remove the c: drive. Finally, install linux to another partition on the 8GB drive, it should incorporate the existing NT boot menu into the LILO.

 

[Creedyou]

Thanks you so much. I just got one more question. What if I did want to use the drives at the same time to transfer a file or somethin between the 2?

 

[h0vic]

You can still transfer files between the 2 drives, but since they are on the same IDE cable, it will just be a little slower because the IDE interface can't handle reads and writes at the same time. Windows and Linux uses different file systems (FAT, FAT32, NTFS vs Linux ext2, ...) so you would be able to transter files between the Linux partition and Windows partitions without the use of a special program. Linux, I think, does let you mount FAT/FAT32 drives but I'm no Linux expert. Ask someone in the software forum.

 

[corkyg]

Consider installing at least one HDD in a mobile rack. Then it can be turned on/off by a key switch. Ideally, two racks - then you can have two totally independent OS's or more simply by adding additional inner trays.

 

[slackware1995]

<< You can still transfer files between the 2 drives, but since they are on the same IDE cable, it will just be a little slower because the IDE interface can't handle reads and writes at the same time. Windows and Linux uses different file systems (FAT, FAT32, NTFS vs Linux ext2, ...) so you would be able to transter files between the Linux partition and Windows partitions without the use of a special program. Linux, I think, does let you mount FAT/FAT32 drives but I'm no Linux expert. Ask someone in the software forum. >>



Linux can natively read/write to FAT/FAT32. Last I looked NTFS was read only.

So from Linux you could transfer files between partitions. You'd also be able to say play MP3's stored on the 20gb from Linux too..

Hope that helps