Question about 2 hard drives and 2 OS's

[Lord3n]

ive got a desktop i use for gaming only, and have been getting into programming lately. Id like to keep these two things separate so if i want to or have to wipe the gaming hard drive and reinstall windows, it wont affect the programming side.

can i pick up a new hard drive and another copy of windows, and simply decide to boot from the "gaming" drive or the "programming" drive without any issues? and if i had to wipe out one drive or the other, not have it affect the other one?

sorry if im confusing things, but would this work ok? and how exactly would pick which drive to boot from?

thx for any input or advice

 

[Dahak]

Yes you can do this.

The best way to set it up is unhook your current drive and install windows.
Once windows is install they you can use your motherboard boot menu(usually F8 or F11, have to check motherboard) to select which drive to boot from at start up

This way it keeps both windows separate and if you need to wipe one it will not affect the other

If the first drive is connected, you still can install a separate windows, but it will uses the windows boot manager and if you have to wipe on or the other it will make the non wiped one unbootable (with out fixing it first)

 

[Lord3n]

Yes you can do this.

The best way to set it up is unhook your current drive and install windows.
Once windows is install they you can use your motherboard boot menu(usually F8 or F11, have to check motherboard) to select which drive to boot from at start up

This way it keeps both windows separate and if you need to wipe one it will not affect the other

If the first drive is connected, you still can install a separate windows, but it will uses the windows boot manager and if you have to wipe on or the other it will make the non wiped one unbootable (with out fixing it first)

thanks for the info, thats how i thought it would have worked, but didn't know about having to disco the original drive before initially installing the second drive and second version of windows. so thanks for that info.

once ive setup the second drive and second windows i can leave both plugged in and the only thing ill have to do is use the F key to tell it which to boot from, right?

edit: also, the I'm sure during initial install of second drive and OS, with the original drive disconnected, it will call the second drive the C:, so once i get them both connected again, there shouldn't be any issue with the drive letters or any recognitions right? i don't think so, but i don't know as much as many others around here

thx again

 

[Dahak]

once ive setup the second drive and second windows i can leave both plugged in and the only thing ill have to do is use the F key to tell it which to boot from, right?

correct

edit: also, the I'm sure during initial install of second drive and OS, with the original drive disconnected, it will call the second drive the C:, so once i get them both connected again, there shouldn't be any issue with the drive letters or any recognitions right? i don't think so, but i don't know as much as many others around here

thx again

Correct, when you boot to the os it will be C: and the non booted os will be D :

 

[Lord3n]

correct



Correct, when you boot to the os it will be C: and the non booted os will be D :

awesome, thank you for your help

 

[jkauff]

In case you already have several data drives, when you're in each OS you can assign the unused drive a letter that's unlikely to ever be used (like X). That way you'll just be swapping C: and X: drives and you won't have to mess with your other drive letters when Windows reassigns them.