Having OS's on different drives instead of dual booting?

pumaz · 10 Feb 2016 at 21:27

I'm currently running Windows 10 and for a time I was Dual booting Linux Mint and although I liked Linux I didn't like dual booting and removed Linux and Grub etc.

I want to now install Linux on its own drive and physically swap the drives over depending on what OS I want to use. My guess is I'll probably just swap them over once or twice a week. I'd like to make this procedure as painless as possible, I'm old school and use a standard bios boot instead of efi.

As anybody tried this and does Windows 10 cause any issues? Also is there some sort of 2.5" external stand alone bay available that as a Sata connection? All the ones I've seen are USB or PC mountable.

Any input appreciated

pumaz · 10 Feb 2016 at 21:58

I've tried that before and Windows 10 pick up the presence of another OS (Windows 7) and proceeded to do some funky dual boot thing!

pumaz · 11 Feb 2016 at 10:55

Thanks for the replies,

OK so if I for example install Linux, Windows 10 and 7 to 3 separate drives one plugged in at a time then after that I 'll be able to have them all connected and select which drive to boot from through bios / F11 and they won't interfare with each other so to speak?

pumaz · 13 Feb 2016 at 17:32

Thanks for the input guys, I've decided not to bother with Windows 7. I've been experimenting with mint and Ubuntu and I'm definitely sticking with mint. I've just ordered another 250GB evo 850 SSD for The Mint install as I've been using HDD to experiment with, Windows 10 is also on its own 850 Evo.

pumaz · 14 Feb 2016 at 00:26

Thanks bledd that's exactly how I figured it, I tested the theory out using Mint on a normal HDD and it works great and IMO a lot more elegant than grub. I can turn PC on and it will boot straight in to Windows 10 and the Mint drive is completely invisible. However if I want to boot in to Mint I just have to press F11 on powering on and select drive

Another thing I'd like to try when I get the new SSD is to encrypt the drive but I'm not sure how that works in Linux?

pumaz · 15 Feb 2016 at 20:23

Easier than I thought, the option to encrypt the drive is a simple tick box on Mint install, how I missed it I don't know!

Anyway all up and running now. Boots straight in to Windows unless I press F11 and select Mint