Hi All,

 

Just wondering if anyone knows of an easy way of switching between 2 hard drives. I'd like to be able to have 2 bootable hard drives that I can switch between. Not a problem if I have to reboot the system between them but I need to be be able to just flick a switch or something to change drives.

 

Thanks

 

Vijay

Vijay, Im sure you can get a cradle or caddy, which sits in one of the front bays, and you can unplug your drive, and insert another.

 

Have a look on http://www.scan.co.uk usually where I buy my bits and pieces from.

 

Barry

as Bazza says m8 the caddie is your easiest option

but you will need 2 , one for each hard drive,

then its just a case of switch off lift the handle on the caddie

pull out slot the other in and power back up:)

 

http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/ProductInfo.asp?WebProductID=5223

it's called hot swap.

 

You are looking for hot swap bays

 

http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/ProductInfo.asp?WebProductID=212704

What OS do you want to run mate? Most (Xp, linux etc) have a boot manager that will give a menu pointing to where the OS is. You can just install a second HD as normal inside the machine and install the second OS where ever you want it. No need to spend money on anything fancy then, unless you want to be able to remove the drive that is??

I run two OS's off of a couple of old small drives that I have in the computer. I then have a newer bigger drive with all my documents, music etc on. This can be seen and used from both OS's.

Dave

Once you've installed the 2 OSs on each Hdd, you can edit the boot.ini file so you know which is which e.g. :-

 

[boot loader]

timeout=30

default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS

[operating systems]

multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Family Windows" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect

multi(0)disk(1)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="My Porn Installation" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect

:D

Cheers guys. Both drives will be running XP. The operating system sounds perfect but can I easily swap between the 2?

 

Thanks

 

Vijay

Vijay, even simpler, many MBs allow you to choose the boot device dynamically on startup. The key to activate this feature is usually F12, but this depends on your MB/BIOS combo...

 

HTH

 

Steve :)

Hello Steve,

 

How do I set up the drives - master/slaves etc?

 

Vijay

Hello Steve,

 

How do I set up the drives - master/slaves etc?

 

Vijay

Will call you later bud...

 

Steve :)

Hi all,

 

Right, I've bought 2 of these caddys via Ebay and have a problem. When I install my HDD in the caddy and boot up, it gets as far as the windows start up screen, then I get a flash of blue screen (fatal error I think) and then it restarts. If I plug my HDD back in as normal, it works fine.

 

Any ideas?

 

Cheers

 

Vijay