Dual Boot with 2 separate Hard Drives?

[jayt101]

Recently i've been curious about using Ubuntu but I did not want to wipe out my current operating system. I was wondering if its possible to add another hard drive with Ubuntu and just plug that into the adjacent SATA port on my MOBO? Could I then go into the BIOS and select which drive to boot from via boot menu? Thanks for all the help in advance!!

 

[discerning]

Yes, you can use the BIOS boot menu or install a boot manager, like EasyBCD.

 

[Wallywest]

or you could install Virtualbox and install Ubuntu as a guest OS or use Wubi. Both will let you try out Linux without changing anything on your OS boot parameters.

the advantages are:

1. you don't have to add another hard drive just for Linux.
2. you don't have to worry about partitioning and setting up dual-boot or worrying that you might overwrite something on your existing OS.
3. you don't have to purchase any new hardware.
4. Virtualbox (or VMWare) is free.
5. Should you decide that Linux is not for you, it would be a simple matter of uninstalling Wubi or deleting the guest OS from Virtualbox.

 

[corkyg]

Better yet, put them in mobile racks and key select the one you want.

 

[Motorheader]

Corky - that picture reminded me of the removable racks I used to use over 10 years ago. You could remove/switch/enable/disable your drives without messing with bios each boot.

 

[mindless1]

Some motherboard bios also support realtime boot menus meaning you don't have to wade through the bios menu screens to manually switch and save settings for which drive it boots, instead you just hit a keyboard key during the bios post/enumeration sequence and up pops a menu listing all bootable devices that were detected. The keyboard key needed may vary, it may be listed at the bottom of the BIOS screen or you might try F2, F8, F10, F11, or <ESC>.

If you don't hit the key or don't hit it in time, it just boots to the default boot device as it does now.