Windows OS On 2 Separately Booting HDDs

fallenangle · 28 May 2014 at 14:06

With my current build my idea is to have Win7 64bit as the main OS on one HDD and WinXP 32bit on a second one but NOT use dual boot.

As I understand that will mean they'll share files and other stuff with maybe driver and other conflicts. So I read about what sounds like a great idea having the two OSs separately booting simply by installing one OS whilst the other HDD is disconnected and then repeating for the second OS.

I realise this means I'll have to select which HDD to boot from each time and install drivers and programs for both systems. But that is the point; I want to keep them clean and as separate as possible. I was thinking later I could even add another HDD for Linux too.

So is it as 'easy' setting things up like this as it sounds? If not please explain.

Also I was wondering if a boot manager like PLOP or another tool I've just found out about: EasyBCD, can be used to select the boot device in a set up like this?

http://www.plop.at/en/bootmanager/index.html

http://www.softpedia.com/get/System/OS-Enhancements/EasyBCD.shtml

Would either have any advantage over using the the BIOS menu boot order options with the Gigabyte MB I'll be using? It sounds like that is no more hassle but I've not had much experience of such matters so I'd appreciate some advice.

Si105 · 28 May 2014 at 14:40

Dual booting would do exactly what you are looking for?

The OS are installed on separate partitions so they wouldn't interact with each other. You can even set each install not to mount the partition for the other OS.

Steveocee · 28 May 2014 at 14:54

What you have described OP is dual booting but using separate HDD's.
Will work fine and you use the BIOS boot option to choose which HDD to use

fallenangle · 29 May 2014 at 02:11

Surely a normal dual or multiboot boot set up creates a single MBR which includes the second OS whether it is on a separate partition or separate HDD. Wouldn't this mean they'd be sharing all sorts of other stuff too?

The idea as I understood it and why it sounded like an interesting alternative to normal dual booting is to be able to boot each OS totally isolated from one another. If one HDD was infected, the OS or even its MBR corrupted or whatever you could boot the other OS and possibly repair or disinfect it.

If they were sharing the same MBR on the main OS HDD then you might not be able to boot either, at least not without using a boot manager.

Steveocee · 29 May 2014 at 08:04

The best way of doing it is only having 1 HDD connected at a time when you install the separate OS's. That way both are technically primary so whichever the BIOS comes to first it will boot from.

fallenangle · 29 May 2014 at 14:08

That is exactly how I explained I wanted to do it. So if there's no good reason for not doing it this way I think I'll give it a try.

Thanks for the advice/information all.

bledd · 29 May 2014 at 17:46

Steveocee said:
The best way of doing it is only having 1 HDD connected at a time when you install the separate OS's. That way both are technically primary so whichever the BIOS comes to first it will boot from.

This is what I would do.

A. Connect only the drive you're installing Windows on when installing it. Then shutdown, swap the drives over.
B. Use your bios boot selection Hotkey to pick which drive you boot from. Set your preferred drive as the default.
C. When you've got them both up and running, go into Disk Management in Windows and remove the Drive Letter assignment for the other Windows install. This will prevent anything else from touching the drives.

fallenangle · 30 May 2014 at 02:44

That sounds like particularly good advice about the drive letter as I've seen others recommending the same at a few other places too and it made sense to keep each OS blind of each other.

I was wondering if rather than 'blind' the whole HDD I was thinking about partitioning a chunk of the much larger HDD I intend to use for the prime Win7 OS and designated that with a drive letter. Could I use this as extra or even common data storage volume for either/both OS without compromising their separateness?

anything I don't mind · 30 May 2014 at 10:58

The benefit to installing windows on to two different drives or partitions without taking the drives out one by one is that windows automatically created a multiboot menu when you have multiple windows installation in place. This way you don't have to change the boot order in the bios.

If you want multiboot i would recommend just installing windows with the first os on another drive and allow the windows boot menu to list both installations.

If one fails you just need to run fixboot and fixmbr from the windows recovery disk to access the drive with no mbr on it.

Vimes · 30 May 2014 at 11:23

anything I don't mind said:
The benefit to installing windows on to two different drives or partitions without taking the drives out one by one is that windows automatically created a multiboot menu when you have multiple windows installation in place. This way you don't have to change the boot order in the bios.

If you want multiboot i would recommend just installing windows with the first os on another drive and allow the windows boot menu to list both installations.

If one fails you just need to run fixboot and fixmbr from the windows recovery disk to access the drive with no mbr on it.

As I normally use Gigabyte motherboards I just press F12 during the power on phase and get a boot menu to select another drive, rather than the default, to boot to. That way I can leave the PC to boot up normally to 8.1 or press F12 and select another drive (or stick etc) to boot up Windows 7.

Going into the BIOS is therefore not needed, in my case. The OP might have that option as he noted the same brand board.

I'm not sure if other motherboard brands have that option....?

tnx · 30 May 2014 at 11:23

This is exactly how I tell folk to dual or multi boot.

Install each OS one at a time with only that HHD plugged in.

Plug in all the drives and set your preferred OS as the default first boot drive. Then as for my Asus to select a different OS I just press F8 at post to select a different OS.

Works flawlessly with any number of OS's. In fact at the mo I have Win 8.1 and OS X ML set up with this very method.

fallenangle · 30 May 2014 at 11:44

Thanks tnx for the info and affirmation that this sort of multi-boot system is actually a rather good way of setting it all up. From what some others had said here I was losing confidence.

anything I don't mind

What Windows Recovery disc? Do you mean the OEM system builders Windows OS install disc or a self made backup?

Perhaps I've misunderstood, forgive me but I've never installed an OS before. I thought recovery discs are rarely supplied even by off the shelf or custom PC makers now, more commonly it is a recovery partition. I've built this desktop, all I have is the Windows Install discs for the two OSs, yet to be used, and other than that nothing. The HDDs are of course completely blank.

I understand about conventional dual boot system and how to set them up I just thought the method described sound more interesting and safer. As for ease of use I've just started going through the BIOS prior to the OS installs. Really the onlly difference in what I'm considering doing is that you have to press F12 at start up and then select the device you want to boot from. It is that simple.

anything I don't mind · 30 May 2014 at 11:53

any windows disk comes with recovery mode built in. You just go to more options on the installer and then load the command line and run the commands fixboot. There is even an option on the list of options to fix the boot files.

But yea its just as easy to bring up your bios boot menu i guess and you won't have the problem of having to fix the mbr if one fails.

Vimes · 30 May 2014 at 11:55

fallenangle said:
What Windows Recovery disc? Do you mean the OEM system builders Windows OS install disc or a self made backup?

Perhaps I've misunderstood, forgive me but I've never installed an OS before. I thought recovery discs are rarely supplied even by off the shelf or custom PC makers now, more commonly it is a recovery partition. I've built this desktop, all I have is the Windows Install discs for the two OSs, yet to be used, and other than that nothing. The HDDs are of course completely blank.

I understand about conventional dual boot system and how to set them up I just thought the method described sound more interesting and safer. As for ease of use I've just started going through the BIOS prior to the OS installs. Really the onlly difference in what I'm considering doing is that you have to press F12 at start up and then select the device you want to boot from. It is that simple.

Only if the device you wish to boot from is not the default device (usually an internal HD) selected within the BIOS. If you wish, for example, to boot to W7 and that was selected as the default HD to boot to then you would do nothing.

I only ever need to use the F12 key if and when I would need to boot into a OS other than 8.1.

fallenangle · 30 May 2014 at 12:56

Thanks, yes, I did know that as I have read my MB instruction manual through several times.

Don't understand all of it mind you, particularly all the RAID stuff, but that I did ie. if you don't press F12 it will automatically boot from the designated prime (SATA header 1) HDD by default.

One thing that has always bothered me about using the "F" buttons at boot to get into the BIOS etc is why the window of opportunity to press the button is so small. On my old Dell laptop, which has certain well recorded issues in this respect, if you start holding the button down too early it'll continue to normal boot when you release it. You have to time it perfectly. Why is it made so difficult?

This desktop is more forgiving but what I don't understand is why there has to be this QTE game in the first place? It is not as though this apparently weird convention provides any sort of protection.

Why can't the computer simply have a start screen with a Normal Boot option and an Other Options button to get into the BIOS, Safe Boot menus etc or at least have an option to enable a start up screen like this.

Failing that why not a user set countdown timer to get to these other options. In either case the "F" buttons should be left so they work in the old way but you'd have a more user friendly access system available too.