Here is our problem. My business wants to have 2 hard drives in a
computer that can boot without depending on the other hard drive.
Right now, in my understanding, when you have 1 installation of XP and
you go to install a 2nd installation of XP on a second hard drive, XP
setup edits the boot.ini on the 1st installation and doesn't make all
of the boot files on the 2nd hard drive.. What I want to happen is,
instead of editing the boot.ini on the 1st installation, I want XP
setup to make a 2nd boot.ini on the 2nd harddive and create all the
boot files. Than I will be able to go into the bios and choose my
boot device. (this is possible with SATA drives as there is no
Slave/Master). Anyone know how to do this?
smdion:
Might you consider another approach - one that will meet your objective of
easily booting to one or another of your hard drive(s) and at the same time
afford you a additional degree of security that is not present when multiple
HDs are connected to your PC? And I note your reference that the system is
being used in a business environment so surely security is obviously
paramount in your thoughts.
First of all, I'm assuming we're dealing with a desktop computer and not a
laptop/notebook machine. If that's not the case, read no further.
Equip your PC with two removable HDs installed in their mobile racks. These
mobile rack devices of which I speak are two-piece affairs - the rack itself
and the inner tray or caddy (in which the hard drive resides) that slides
into the rack. They come in all-aluminum models or a combination of
aluminum-plastic ranging in price from about $15 to $50. Naturally, your
desktop computer case will need two 5¼" bays that are available to house the
mobile racks. Mobile racks come in various versions, depending upon whether
the hard drive to be housed is an IDE/ATA, SATA, or SCSI device. A Google
search for "removable hard drive mobile racks" will result in a wealth of
information on these products and their vendors.
The installation of these devices is simplicity itself - no more difficult
than installing a CD-ROM. After they're installed you just plop the hard
drive into the removable tray (caddy), make two simple connections (power &
data cable), and slide the tray into the mobile rack. Note that the
removable hard drive mobile racks we are discussing are
designed to be installed in desktop computers and not laptop or notebook
computers. The size, weight, and design considerations of laptops/notebooks
do not allow for this hardware configuration.
These mobile racks are nearly always equipped with a ON-OFF keylock, so a
simple turn of the key, in effect, activates the HD. For added security you
can push or pull the removable tray in or out using the tray's handle and
thus electrically/physically connect or disconnect the HD from the system.
No more difficult than opening or closing a small desk drawer.
Do you see the enormous advantages of this type of hardware configuration
for your desktop computer? You can boot to either HD without the need to
enter the BIOS. There is no need to modify the boot.ini files. Each drive is
effectively isolated from each other, but if for any reason you want both
drives connected during bootup, you can achieve that configuration as well.
It's an ideal system for computing with different operating systems or. as
your interest is, multiple XP operating systems.
Another significant advantage is that now you can have an *unlimited* number
of HDs at your disposal by simply using additional removable trays to house
the drives.
We've worked with these removable hard drive affairs for more than five
years now and we find this hardware arrangement a most desirable
configuration for many users. We've encountered no negative performance
issues using these devices in comparison with internally-installed HDs and
find the flexibility and peace of mind you gain from this configuration an
enormous advantage.
Do give it some thought.
Anna
