Dual boot on one system

[Prestonian]

Is it possible to have dual O/S on one rig?

Having two log-ins isn't what I mean; I am wanting the PC to have two C drives but on the same Windows license; one for my wife's business, and one for my hobbies. I understand for this to be possible, the system would have to be booted to the alternative C drives. I'm wondering if there's a way to toggle between them without going into the boot menu.
The idea is to have the two systems completely separate; so if one gets a virus, the other can't catch it type of thing.

Thanks

 

[joey1211]

You'll need two licences so no.

 

[Prestonian]

That's a shame, but not the end of the world, as I can deactivate my Windows 10 on my old rig and use that license. My W10 is actually an upgrade from my Win7, so unsure if I would need to install W7 then update, or just install Win10 then update to W11.
After some Googling I've learned it is possible but have to override the default boot drive when switching on by pressing F8.

Thanks

 

[Semple]

The idea is to have the two systems completely separate; so if one gets a virus, the other can't catch it type of thing.

What makes you think that's possible? Unless you're going down the route of disconnecting the alternative drive each time you boot it'll still be presented to the OS and thus still possible to be infected by a virus.

If your wife only needs it for basic ms office apps then I'd look at just running a hypervisor and deploy her a VM that she can use. That way it's completely isolated from the PC itself.

 

[Murphy]

The idea is to have the two systems completely separate; so if one gets a virus, the other can't catch it type of thing.

The only way to be sure a virus on one machine can't infect another is to have them air-gapped, two separate partitions, two separate drives, or even two separate computers connected to the same network can pretty easily infect each other.

After some Googling I've learned it is possible but have to override the default boot drive when switching on by pressing F8.

You can make it even easier than that by creating a shortcut with something like..

C:\Windows\System32\cmd.exe /c start bcdedit.exe /set {fwbootmgr} BOOTSEQUENCE {b48b9087-2377-11ed-9261-806e6f6e6963} && cmd /c start shutdown.exe /r /t 0

in the target box but you'd need to run the command 'Bcdedit /enum firmware' first to get whatever the bootloader has set the GUID of the other drive to.

 

[Prestonian]

What makes you think that's possible? Unless you're going down the route of disconnecting the alternative drive each time you boot it'll still be presented to the OS and thus still possible to be infected by a virus.

If your wife only needs it for basic ms office apps then I'd look at just running a hypervisor and deploy her a VM that she can use. That way it's completely isolated from the PC itself.

I don't know if it was or not; but if this hypervisor thing is a solution that will achieve isolation between my stuff and hers, then that'll do.

Thanks

 

[Mcnumpty2323]

not sure you actually do need 2 licences
windows still sees same motherboard and hardware
just a different hard drive isnt enough for it to be recognised as a different pc
my multiple windows installs all work off same license

i dont have to press f8 or f12 etc depending on motherboard maker
to pick a one time boot option
it sees all of my installs and asks which to boot from
with sata drives yeah you can disable them so theres only 1 visible
while youre installing windows
so that way would need to press f8 etc
but not easy to disable individual m2 drives to do it

vm is an option
but though sandboxed from the OS
if everythings one one c drive including the vm
if that c drive becomes unbootable you also lose your vm
as always whichever option you choose
you should have image backups and they should be stored in multiple places
software like macrium etc have an anti tamper function for the images too
for added security

 

[Prestonian]

not sure you actually do need 2 licences
windows still sees same motherboard and hardware
just a different hard drive isnt enough for it to be recognised as a different pc
my multiple windows installs all work off same license

i dont have to press f8 or f12 etc depending on motherboard maker
to pick a one time boot option
it sees all of my installs and asks which to boot from
with sata drives yeah you can disable them so theres only 1 visible
while youre installing windows
so that way would need to press f8 etc
but not easy to disable individual m2 drives to do it

vm is an option
but though sandboxed from the OS
if everythings one one c drive including the vm
if that c drive becomes unbootable you also lose your vm
as always whichever option you choose
you should have image backups and they should be stored in multiple places
software like macrium etc have an anti tamper function for the images too
for added security

That would be good if the boot disc option was offered at start-up.
My new PC is a few weeks away from delivery, so I'll have a look into what you mention and see which option suits us.

Thanks

 

[Mcnumpty2323]

That would be good if the boot disc option was offered at start-up.
My new PC is a few weeks away from delivery, so I'll have a look into what you mention and see which option suits us.

Thanks

mine offers windows 11 (drive number 1)
windows 11 (drive number 2)
macrium PE which means i can also boot into
macrium to save/load images without needing to use the
macrium bootable usb to do it if windows wont boot
it shows those options for 30 seconds as default to pick one
but i lowered it using msconfig to 3 seconds
as thats plenty time for me to choose one
likewise msconfig can set which is default if you make no choice
i prefer windows on more than 1 drive compared to
partitioning 1 drive or a vm on 1 drive
so theres multiple ways you can go about it really
not saying mine is the right way but it works for me