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Have 2 drives/OS -- want only 1 to boot up automatically?

A

alphafly

Junior Member
Here's my question: I want to have 2 separate hard drives (probably both to have Windows 7). I want only one of them (call it Drive 1) to be detected and boot up automatically by default (i.e. I don't want to see a dual boot option to come up at the start.) Then to access Drive 2 -- can I just get into the setup menu (via F2, F9 key whatever) and change the boot sequence manually? (In other words, I want to keep Drive 2 private and not make its existence so apparent.)

Also, I'm assuming it's possible to have the same copy of Windows 7 on two separate hard drives? (Not sure if there's a MS copyright violation or something.)

I appreciate any help!
 
alphafly said:
Also, I'm assuming it's possible to have the same copy of Windows 7 on two separate hard drives? (Not sure if there's a MS copyright violation or something.)
Click to expand...

WGA primarily relies on your MAC address. And Windows is still installed on a single physical machine. So I would say, yes, you're safe with that kind of config.
 
SKORPI0 said:
Change boot drive in the BIOS.
Click to expand...

Cool, so I'll just boot the other drive manually from there. Thanks for confirming!

Now how do I configure so that only 1 drive is detected and booted up (while both are connected)?


Slugbait said:
WGA primarily relies on your MAC address. And Windows is still installed on a single physical machine. So I would say, yes, you're safe with that kind of config.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the info!
 
Put your "private" drive in a mobile rack so you can control it with the on/off key. You can even remove it quickly and lock it up if you want added security.
 
corkyg said:
Put your "private" drive in a mobile rack so you can control it with the on/off key. You can even remove it quickly and lock it up if you want added security.
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corkyg, thanks for your reply.

Sorry I'm not familiar with "a mobile rack with an on/off KEY". Are you referring to an external hard drive enclosure with an on/off button? I'd like to avoid showing a box outside of the main computer.
 
I'm in a similar situation, 3 OS in one system. 3 physical HDDs.

1000087k.jpg


HDD- P2 is Mac OSX 10.6.3
HDD- P0 is Windows 7 64-bit
IDE- WDC is Windows XP 32-bit

To boot the OS I want to use at the moment (OSX 10.6.3 in this case), I just select under Boot device priority, P2 as the 1st Boot Device.

Of course to switch to using Windows 7, I'll have to reboot and go to the BIOS and change the 1st Boot Device to P0.

1000088r.jpg


Don't forget to "Save and Exit" after changing the BIOS, then system should reboot. 1st Boot Device you selected will load the OS.
 
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SKORPI0 said:
I'm in a similar situation, 3 OS in one system. 3 physical HDDs.

...

Don't forget to "Save and Exit" after changing the BIOS, then system should reboot. 1st Boot Device you selected will load the OS.
Click to expand...

SKORPI0, thanks for the follow-up and the screen shots. Here's another question: when you boot-up, do the start-up screens (briefly) list all the hard drives you have connected? Mine currently does this (XP) and I'd like to hide this information as well. (Yes, I'm trying to be very covert about the fact that I have more than 1 drive installed.)
 
alphafly said:
SKORPI0, thanks for the follow-up and the screen shots. Here's another question: when you boot-up, do the start-up screens (briefly) list all the hard drives you have connected? Mine currently does this (XP) and I'd like to hide this information as well. (Yes, I'm trying to be very covert about the fact that I have more than 1 drive installed.)
Click to expand...

Pr0n OS? Identical setups except for keylogger? 😛

Anyway, most any BIOS is going to show all of the drives. You might be able to hide this by enabling the "full screen logo" (or similar) option. The user could still press Escape (or whatever) to get the full OS to show.
 
mfenn said:
Pr0n OS? Identical setups except for keylogger? 😛

Anyway, most any BIOS is going to show all of the drives. You might be able to hide this by enabling the "full screen logo" (or similar) option. The user could still press Escape (or whatever) to get the full OS to show.
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Was I being that obvious? LOL. Let's just say it's a drive I wouldn't want my GF to find out about on one of her visits. 😉 Don't have a keylogger installed on it though.

I was actually referring to the screen that briefly comes up as the computer's starting. Not sure if this is considered the "BIOS screen" (which I thought was only viewable if you quickly press one of the Function keys right after the computer's turned on).
 
alphafly said:
corkyg, thanks for your reply.

Sorry I'm not familiar with "a mobile rack with an on/off KEY". Are you referring to an external hard drive enclosure with an on/off button? I'd like to avoid showing a box outside of the main computer.
Click to expand...

No, I am referring to a mobile rack. Been using them for over 10 years, The racks have gotten pretty sophisticated with SATA. I have Win 7 installed on one and XP on the other. With spare inserts, you can have quick change drives to Linux, Vista, or whatever.

EZ-Swap3.jpg


There are many brands available - they turn on and off with a computer cylindrical key switch. They have built in cooling fans as well. I prefer Vantec EZ-Swaps.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...on=Mobile+Rack
 
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alphafly said:
Was I being that obvious? LOL. Let's just say it's a drive I wouldn't want my GF to find out about on one of her visits. 😉 Don't have a keylogger installed on it though.

I was actually referring to the screen that briefly comes up as the computer's starting. Not sure if this is considered the "BIOS screen" (which I thought was only viewable if you quickly press one of the Function keys right after the computer's turned on).
Click to expand...

There are two screen that could be called the "BIOS screen" I suppose.

One would be the POST screen (what I was referring to) which is the screen that shows when the computer first boots. The other would be BIOS setup screen, which is a (typically blue) menu where you can change a bunch of config options with the keyboard.
 
mfenn said:
There are two screen that could be called the "BIOS screen" I suppose.

One would be the POST screen (what I was referring to) which is the screen that shows when the computer first boots. The other would be BIOS setup screen, which is a (typically blue) menu where you can change a bunch of config options with the keyboard.
Click to expand...

mfenn, thank you for the clarification! Yeah, I was also thinking about the POST screen. So I guess I'll just have to enable the full screen logo to hide all the drive info.
 
alphafly said:
mfenn, thank you for the clarification! Yeah, I was also thinking about the POST screen. So I guess I'll just have to enable the full screen logo to hide all the drive info.
Click to expand...

No problem. 🙂

The full screen logo isn't foolproof though, as a savvy user would know to press escape to bypass it.
 
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