3 Hard drives, 2 Operating Systems, 1 Storage Drive

[jdl92990]

I was just thinking about this and I'm wondering if it is possible.

Could you have 2 hard drives that are running 2 different operating systems, lets say windows 7 and 10, and 1 hard drive that acts as a storage drive for both OS, such as documents, programs, etc. So whichever OS you decide to start, it will access the storage drive for all the program information etc.

So on the OS drives, it will only contain information to make the OS run. The storage drive will contain all the personal information and programs.

If anyone out there has attempted this, let me know how. I think it would be a cool thing to try. Thank you for the responses.

 

[SBMfromLA]

OF COURSE... I've done this many times and it's a great setup! In fact, it's better to do it this way than having different locations for your documents and media files. On my Setup, I also had a 4th Drive or Partition that I installed my games on which enabled me to play them from either O/S I booted up.

Another thing that people don't realize is... with this situp.. creating image backups is extremely quick since the drive would be so much smaller.

 

[USAFRet]

Yes.
Each OS will see itself as the C drive. The other OS drive will be something else.

In each OS, designate your Document drive as G or something down the alphabet.
Documents/music/video...that is fine.

Programs will almost certainly be problematic.
1. You'd have to install them twice, once for each OS.
2. The 2 Registry's will compete for what the application is supposed to do at any one time.

So...install the programs and applications on the OS drive, instead of trying to share them.
You could probably do it, but it would be a pain.

 

[Hellfire13]

as far as i can think of...dual booting from separate drives, will require u to set the boot device priority order, between the two drives, every time u want to change the OS...hence, always advisable to load both OS on one drive by creating partitions...more explained here...

http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/1029-73-dual-booting-windows-separate-hard-drives

but there is a work around, if u can get this from somewhere... http://neosmart.net/EasyBCD/

 

[USAFRet]

as far as i can think of...dual booting from separate drives, will require u to set the boot device priority order, between the two drives, every time u want to change the OS...hence, always advisable to load both OS on one drive by creating partitions...more explained here...

http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/1029-73-dual-booting-windows-separate-hard-drives

but there is a work around, if u can get this from somewhere... http://neosmart.net/EasyBCD/

Nonsense. 2 drives or 2 partitions...you do not necessarily have to go through the BIOS to choose.

How to?
Connect one drive
On that drive, install Win 7
Power off
Leave the Win 7 drive connected, and connect the other drive
Install Win 10.

You will get a Windows boot selection menu just as if it were on 2 partitions on the same physical drive.

 

[Hellfire13]

hmm...the last time i did this was on a xp machine...stuff has changed...

 

[USAFRet]

hmm...the last time i did this was on a xp machine...stuff has changed...

Yes, things have changed in 15 years.

Install the second OS with both drives connected, you get a pretty MS boot selection
Install each OS with only that drive connected, you have to choose in the BIOS.

But not necessarily change the boot order, just override the boot process and choose which drive.

 

[Hellfire13]

ok...got it...thanx for that...

 

[SBMfromLA]

You can change the preferred booting O/S at any time from System Properies/Startup & Recovery... but there is one thing I should warn you about. I'm not sure if this is still an issue.. but back when I was doing a dual boot with Windows 7 and Windows 10.. there was some kind of delay of 10+ seconds when I had a dual boot happening... it used to drive me crazy and there was no way of getting rid it of that I could figure out. Even changing the Time to List O/S to 2 or 3 seconds couldn't get rid of this other delay. It might still be present.. just so you know.

 

[JackNaylorPE]

Have done this on every build we have done since 1993. Back then we used a boot loader which hid the OS partitions from one another. This was very valuable even on home setups where kids use the machine. The boot loaded existed on its own mini partition. If you turned on the machine, you would have to enter a password to get on the "Mommy / Daddy" boot ... if you didn't within the set time limit, it booted to a different partition that had all the kiddie games on it ... and no matter what they did, they couldn't damage anything that was on mommy / daddy partition.

But you don't even need additional drives to do that... all could be done on 1 HD with partitions

Here's a suggested alternative

1. SSD with Win 10 on it

2. SSHD partitioned as follows:

C:\ 128 GB for OS
D:\ 64 GB for Page and Temp Files
E:\ Programs
F:\ Data

3. The way I do it is:

a) I connect the SSHD to 2nd lowest numbered SATA port and install Windows to new 128 GB partition. Ethernet cable not connected.

b) Turn off WU's ability to install hardware drivers

c) Install all hardware drivers from media or manufacturers web site

d) Run WU how many times it takes to finish

e) Create other partitions. Change all the drive letters to something else (say X:\) and then back again ... this will stop OS from loading in default order which will change when you add SSD. Label all the Partitons .. for example

C-Boot
D-Page-Temp
E-Programs
F-Data


f) Move temp and page files to D:\

g) Install programs to E:\

h) Copy data files to F:\

4. Then, shut down and disconnect SAT data cable\from SSHD and connect Data cable to SSD on lowest numbered SATA port

5. Repeat steps b, c, d and f

6. Repeat g making sure to install the programs in same folders as before ... this will set up all registry entries

7. Shut down and reconnect data cable to SSD.

8. Boot to BIOS and check boot order.... should be SSD 1st, SSHD 2nd ... if not, fix it.

9. Boot from SSD and open Disk Manager. Change the 1st partition (128 GB W/ Windows on it) to X:\. Label it something like X-SSHDBoot

10. Change the others to same letters as before ... if they are the same already, change to something else and then back again. Move the page and temp files to D:\ as before

Now you can simply boot to either OS by selecting the proper drive in BIOS.

- Programs are installed once using same space for both boots
- Page and temp files use same space for both boots
- All data accessible from either boot.

We do this even when only 1 OS involved where the OS on the SSHD is just a dupe of what is on the SSD. I case the SSD goes south, everything is still accessible w/ no downtime

Again, been doing this since 1993 on 100s of builds and never had a hint of an issue

Why you don't want to install Windows with both drives connected ? SSD dies, MBR gets fudged or anything else and you screwed.... the menu you need is not accessible. No fun being outta business or having no access to your stuff while the warranty process takes weeks to finish.