If one has multiple drives, in a single system, and the normal boot(C)
drive's power plug is disconnected, will the other(D) drive
automatically become the boot drive if it also has an operating system
installed?
Are there any short or long term negative effects to switching between
boot drives this way on a regular basis?
Thanks a lot.

Darren Harris
Staten Island, New York.

(E-Mail Removed) wrote:
> If one has multiple drives, in a single system, and the normal boot(C)
> drive's power plug is disconnected, will the other(D) drive
> automatically become the boot drive if it also has an operating system
> installed?
> Are there any short or long term negative effects to switching between
> boot drives this way on a regular basis?
> Thanks a lot.
>
> Darren Harris
> Staten Island, New York.

You are proposing a sledge hammer approach to an easy to solve problem.
Google: dual boot windows for many step-by-step instructions.

Q

I was thinking of some kind of bootloader. Even if you use the Linux Lilo
just to switch between two windows systems, it would be better.
"Quaoar" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:5rKdnZ__k9sAkHHcRVn-(E-Mail Removed)...
> (E-Mail Removed) wrote:
> > If one has multiple drives, in a single system, and the normal boot(C)
> > drive's power plug is disconnected, will the other(D) drive
> > automatically become the boot drive if it also has an operating system
> > installed?
> > Are there any short or long term negative effects to switching between
> > boot drives this way on a regular basis?
> > Thanks a lot.
> >
> > Darren Harris
> > Staten Island, New York.
>
> You are proposing a sledge hammer approach to an easy to solve problem.
> Google: dual boot windows for many step-by-step instructions.
>
> Q
>
>

Robbie McFerren wrote:
> I was thinking of some kind of bootloader. Even if you use the Linux Lilo
> just to switch between two windows systems, it would be better.
> "Quaoar" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
> news:5rKdnZ__k9sAkHHcRVn-(E-Mail Removed)...
>
>>(E-Mail Removed) wrote:
>>
>>>If one has multiple drives, in a single system, and the normal boot(C)
>>>drive's power plug is disconnected, will the other(D) drive
>>>automatically become the boot drive if it also has an operating system
>>>installed?
>>>Are there any short or long term negative effects to switching between
>>>boot drives this way on a regular basis?
>>>Thanks a lot.
>>>
>>>Darren Harris
>>>Staten Island, New York.
>>
>>You are proposing a sledge hammer approach to an easy to solve problem.
>>Google: dual boot windows for many step-by-step instructions.
>
My Abit motherboard has a BIOS setup selection to switch A: and B: .

William W. Plummer wrote:
> Robbie McFerren wrote:
>
>> I was thinking of some kind of bootloader. Even if you use the Linux
>> Lilo
>> just to switch between two windows systems, it would be better.
>> "Quaoar" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
>> news:5rKdnZ__k9sAkHHcRVn-(E-Mail Removed)...
>>
>>> (E-Mail Removed) wrote:
>>>
>>>> If one has multiple drives, in a single system, and the normal boot(C)
>>>> drive's power plug is disconnected, will the other(D) drive
>>>> automatically become the boot drive if it also has an operating system
>>>> installed?
>>>> Are there any short or long term negative effects to switching between
>>>> boot drives this way on a regular basis?
>>>> Thanks a lot.
>>>>
>>>> Darren Harris
>>>> Staten Island, New York.
>>>
>>>
>>> You are proposing a sledge hammer approach to an easy to solve problem.
>>> Google: dual boot windows for many step-by-step instructions.
>>
>>
> My Abit motherboard has a BIOS setup selection to switch A: and B: .

He's wanting to switch between hard drives C & D, not floppies A & B.

(E-Mail Removed) wrote:
> If one has multiple drives, in a single system, and the normal boot(C)
> drive's power plug is disconnected, will the other(D) drive
> automatically become the boot drive if it also has an operating system
> installed?
> Are there any short or long term negative effects to switching between
> boot drives this way on a regular basis?
> Thanks a lot.
>
> Darren Harris
> Staten Island, New York.
>
I think it's a bad idea electrically (especially with IDE drives).

--
The e-mail address in our reply-to line is reversed in an attempt to
minimize spam. Our true address is of the form che...@prodigy.net.

Not only is it a bad idea some hard drives and bioses will not support a
slave without a master or a boot from a secondary master. Use a bootloader.
"CJT" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed)...
> (E-Mail Removed) wrote:
> > If one has multiple drives, in a single system, and the normal boot(C)
> > drive's power plug is disconnected, will the other(D) drive
> > automatically become the boot drive if it also has an operating system
> > installed?
> > Are there any short or long term negative effects to switching between
> > boot drives this way on a regular basis?
> > Thanks a lot.
> >
> > Darren Harris
> > Staten Island, New York.
> >
> I think it's a bad idea electrically (especially with IDE drives).
>
> --
> The e-mail address in our reply-to line is reversed in an attempt to
> minimize spam. Our true address is of the form che...@prodigy.net.

In article <(E-Mail Removed)>,
(E-Mail Removed) says...
> If one has multiple drives, in a single system, and the normal boot(C)
> drive's power plug is disconnected, will the other(D) drive
> automatically become the boot drive if it also has an operating system
> installed?
> Are there any short or long term negative effects to switching between
> boot drives this way on a regular basis?
> Thanks a lot.
>
It is not likely to work. If you leave the ribbon cable connected, the
IDE controller can receive all kinds of crap. This can lead to problems
such as the drive being identified with a garbage ID string during
POST.

--
Conor

An imperfect plan executed violently is far superior to a perfect plan.
-- George Patton

On 17 Jan 2005 11:06:43 -0800, (E-Mail Removed)
wrote:

>If one has multiple drives, in a single system, and the normal boot(C)
>drive's power plug is disconnected, will the other(D) drive
>automatically become the boot drive if it also has an operating system
>installed?
>Are there any short or long term negative effects to switching between
>boot drives this way on a regular basis?
>Thanks a lot.
>
>Darren Harris
>Staten Island, New York.

Is it PATA or some other drive/interface type?
The answer is "Maybe" but no you can't generally assume it
will work because boards often look at a specific channel
and (for parallel, master/slave position) to attempt boot.
If your bios is set to try this device and it fails, it may
then stop without booting. It is also possible that the
bios "try other boot devices" setting will overcome this
instead of ignoring other (PATA?) drives but it is not
guaranteed.

In other words, you'll have to try it and see per your
board... easily enough done even if you dont' want to go to
the trouble of setting up windows on the 2nd drive, you
could still throw a FAT32 drive in with DOS on it.

The other issue is whether you're disconnecting a master or
slave if PATA. It would be better to use a drive with
single (master & single drive) jumper setting, being the
drive always connected, with the drive being unplugged being
the slave, such that the jumpering remains correct and you
always have a master device... of course it doesn't apply
for SATA.

<(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed)...

> If one has multiple drives, in a single system, and the
> normal boot(C) drive's power plug is disconnected,
> will the other(D) drive automatically become the boot
> drive if it also has an operating system installed?

Depends on the motherboard bios. Most modern bios will go thru
the specified sequence of devices to boot from until it finds one
thats bootable so the one with the power unplugged will be skipped.

It also varys a bit with the drives too. If you have them setup
as master and slave on the same ribbon cable and unplug the
power from the master, most drives will come up as slave
fine with no master, but not all drives will. There are a few
drives around still that have a different jumper setting for
master in a pair and single drive on a cable.

Not a problem if you are using cable select.

> Are there any short or long term negative effects to
> switching between boot drives this way on a regular basis?

Yes, some systems dont work reliably with an unpowered
drive on the ribbon cable. Doesnt damage anything but you
can get data errors in that config.