Possible? Hardware switch to control dual boot

[em31]

I am tech support for my in-laws computer and here is the problem. My special needs son and my in laws use the same machine and space and budget are both tight. My son tends to click on links and install things and that leads to predictably bad outcomes.

I generally restore the machine to a backup image after a problem but this leaves the rest of the users having lost any updates since the last incremental image backup. I was thinking about setting up a dual boot system where my son would use one OS install and the in-laws would use a different one. This way if my son gets into any problems then I can simply restore that disk (or partition) without impacting other users.

My question is this. Is it possible to install some kind of a hardware (A/B) switch to control the boot manager and not have the choice be a software choice? Such a setup would be the ideal solutions here. I understand that two machines and a KVM switch would achieve the same result, and in theory VM technology would be another possiblity but as I said space and budget are considerations here.

Has anyone tried this?

Thanks in advance.

 

[paul878]

I think you are looking for a SATA switch.
http://www.cooldrives.com/4posaiisw3ba.html

 

[Motorheader]

Depending on the OS you can set him up as a non-power user - either a guest account or an account with limited capability.

 

[corkyg]

There are a couple of ways of doing this. The oldest, and one I have used for over a decade is the mobile rack. Each drive is switchable. The current crop is SATA. The switches are under the numbered pull tabs.

Another device I have used are button switches that are placed in the front panel, and interrupt the HDD power lines. The are button selectable at boot.

Like this: http://www.coolerguys.com/840556088547.html

This is one I use: http://www.okgear.com/en/product/product_detail.asp?id=479

 

[monkeydelmagico]

Yes with two seperate hard drives using above hardware.

If only one hard drive a partition may suffice especially if coupled with a utility called sandboxie that can force web browser to start in the protected enviroment.

 

[Harvey]

If the BIOS is set to auto-detect drives, all you would need is a DPDT (Double Pole, Double Throw) toggle switch that supplies 5 volts and 12 volts to one drive or the other. Depending on how accessible you want it to be to your son, you could drill a hole and mount it on either a blank 5.25" or 3.5" front panel or rear panel behind an empty PCI slot. You connect the same 5 volt contacts through a resistor to power either of two single color LED's or either color of a bi-color LED to let you know which drive was powered.

You may want to consider using a separate DPST (Double Pole, Single Throw) on-off switches for each drive. That would allow you power both drives so you run both drives when transferring data between drives.

In any case, be sure to choose a switch that will handle the drive's current requirements which could be several amps.

SATA drives are hot pluggable and many (but not all) machines allow you to power them when running so, even when you're already booted to one drive, you could bring the other drive online as necessary.

 

[em31]

Thanks everyone for the help. I really appreciate it and I have choices now.

Corky,

I think I will be adding a mobile rack to my own next build because the hot swap capability is a feature that would have saved me some effort at different points in the past. I do have a question about the HD power interrupt switches you linked to in your post. How are those mounted and what kind of equipment would typically be needed to mount them?

Harvey,

This sounds like an excellent solution but a little bit more electical work that I had in mind. I would probably go this route if there were not other out-of-the-box solutions that could be made to work for me.

Paul878,

The SATA switch looks like the most straight forward approach given my specific problem space and I think I am going to go with this one.

Once again thanks to everyone for being so helpful!

 

[THRiLL KiLL]

i have some removable hard drive trays (ide) that i would be willing to offer to you (no one else, so please dont pm) for free if you are interested.

I will also see if i can find you some hdd's

I have a special need child as well, and i know how expensive things are.
I have a chair that costs more then my car!!!