Anybody got two hard drives (OS) for the same laptop?

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bigtiger · #1 Post by **bigtiger** » Sat Dec 30, 2006 8:46 pm

Anybody got two hard drives for the same laptop?

Nothing special. Just wonder. I am in the process of ordering another hard drive to install linux on it. I am not a fan of duo-boot. I like clean-stall on a separate drive.

RUSH2112 · #2 Post by **RUSH2112** » Sat Dec 30, 2006 8:54 pm

I find it much easier to use a VMWare type of program so I can launch other OS'es from my main OS. Reasons being that I dont like having to reboot to switch OS'es, and Dual booting takes up too much hd space.

#3 Post by **jdhurst** » Sat Dec 30, 2006 9:01 pm

VMware here as well. This laptop of mine sports six complete machines in total on one drive, one partition, with one boot of the host machine, and disk to spare (for the time being). ... JD Hurst

bigtiger · #4 Post by **bigtiger** » Sat Dec 30, 2006 9:32 pm

Well, VMware still suffers from the stability of the host machine. Unless you are a technical support machine type of person, I do not see any merit out of it.

JDhurst, are you a tech support person? 6 sounds too many to me.

#5 Post by **jdhurst** » Sat Dec 30, 2006 9:58 pm

I have had a Windows XP Pro Desktop running for three years non-stop (reboots occasionally of course). Stability is not an issue with me. The desktop happens to have two drives, lots of space and has ten machines on it. I can only run a host and two guests simultaneously on desktop or laptop because of memory limitations.

I have been running VMware from V1 on Windows NT4 workstation up to V5.52 on XP Pro. I have never suffered from host instability, and VMware isolates the guest, so guest issues never affect the host.

The big merit of VMware is to be able to copy a machine, test a concept, throw it away and start fresh if need be. Multiple boot doesn't have that ability. I also like the ability to network machines internally to test ideas.

Looking to the future, I think there may be a need to run legacy systems (older versions of current software) on virtual machines because Vista may be too new. Already, I have clients using VMware to run legacy radio programming software.

... JD Hurst

#6 Post by **GomJabbar** » Sat Dec 30, 2006 10:34 pm

To answer the OP's question, I have done this. I had the original factory install XP Pro on my main hard drive, and Windows Vista RC1 on the 2nd hard drive in the Ultrabay slim 2nd hard drive adapter. If I do nothing on booting up my T42, it boots into XP. If I press the F12 key at the IBM splash screen, a boot menu option pops up and I can choose to boot the drive with Vista on it.

For installing Vista on a hard drive, I recommend not having the original hard drive in the notebook during the installation. Vista will install a boot menu on the original hard drive. If you decide to remove the Vista drive later, the boot menu will still be there and be an irritation. The boot menu always defaults to Vista.

You can remove the main hard drive and install the new hard drive in the main slot for installation purposes. Alternatively, you can remove the main hard drive and install the new hard drive in the Ultrabay slim slot via the adapter, and use an external USB optical drive to read the installation CD for installation purposes.

bigtiger · #7 Post by **bigtiger** » Sat Dec 30, 2006 10:44 pm

Thanks, JDhurst, it is a good idea to run legacy systems. I know quite a few softwares run on win98 only. For example, some cellphone softwares and some Legacy games can only run on win98.

I have not used VMware for about two years. To save some time, can you tell me which version are you running? I may try vmware on my X60S to test install Linux.

GomJabbar: thanks for your tip on Vista. I do not forsee a need to install vista yet. But I will keep that in mind.

NS · #8 Post by NS » Sun Dec 31, 2006 1:49 am

Mine is 1 OS on 1 HDD. Because after the stupid action done by me on my R52 the other day, i am just exercising precautions in case all my precious datas are gone again.

I have prepared 2 HDD for every single one of my thinkpads. 1 is for normal use and the other is for backing up all my stuffs exclude the songs and movies <--burnt on DVDs.

With respect,
Boon Hui (thinkpad abuser)

But i have changed my bad habits on venting my fustrations on my thinkpads. Now I vent my fustrations by splashing water at my neighbour/s dog and make it bark like crazy.

#9 Post by **jdhurst** » Sun Dec 31, 2006 9:09 am

bigtiger wrote:<snip>

I have not used VMware for about two years. To save some time, can you tell me which version are you running? I may try vmware on my X60S to test install Linux.

I am now using VMware 5.5.3 in production and have V6 beta on a test machine in the basement. I keep it up-to-date, so when V6 is final, I will upgrade to it. I have Red Hat Linux 7.3, 9, SuSe 9, Ubuntu 5 and Ubuntu 6 machines. Right now I still like Ubuntu 5 (on my Laptop), but 6 is improving and I have it running on my Desktop.
... JD Hurst

Puppy · #10 Post by **Puppy** » Sun Dec 31, 2006 9:56 am

I use Microsoft Virtual PC 2004 for such purpose.

#11 Post by **pkiff** » Sun Dec 31, 2006 11:22 am

Thinkpad 600X: Dual boot XP Pro SP2 and Win98SE, plus second hard drive with alternate XP install and a third hard drive planned for an eventual Linux install.

Thinkpad 770Z: Currently dual boot XP Pro SP2 and Win98SE, planning eventually to triple boot with Linux.

XPSP2 is my main OS. I run 98SE for all gaming and sometimes to improve performance of certain multimedia playback. I hope to begin to switch to Linux as a main OS but plan to begin using it as a secondary OS until I learn how to get it to do everything I want.

Every once in a while I think about upgrading my 600X (my primary computer), and one of the reasons I consider is that a more powerful computer would allow me to run multiple virtual machines with VMWare or something similar. I have the impression though that even with my upgraded 600X specs (PIII 850MHz 576MB 40GB 7200rpm) , I would end up being disappointed in the performance of my 600X's virtual machines due to the overhead in memory and processor required. Maybe someone can correct me on that...?

GomJabbar's F12 boot trick can also be used in the 600 and 770 series, and it effectively allows you to have as many different installations and OSes as you can provide disks for. If you install any OS with the drive installed in the main drive location, you can then move it over to the 2nd Hard Drive adapter. Then, add the 2nd Hard Drive to your boot sequence (after your primary drive), and enable the F12 Boot option function. During a normal boot the laptop will follow the boot sequence you've indicated and boot from your primary drive. Pressing F12 during bootup will list all the sources in your boot sequence and allow you to choose amongst them (selecting HDD-2 will boot from your secondary drive).

The one issue I run into with the F12 boot key configuration is that if I try to use the F12 during a boot when I am also changing my hardware profile, the F12 key does not work. I have to boot once in the new hardware profile using my default boot sequence and then on my next boot the F12 key will work again.

Phil.

techflavor · #12 Post by **techflavor** » Tue Jan 02, 2007 12:04 pm

There are some situations where VMWare is not useful.

For example, if you installed linux in a virtual machine and wanted audit your wireless network, you wouldn't be able to because the virtual linux machine wouldn't see the wireless mini-pci card, only the ethernet device created by VMWare that doesn't include wireless extensions.

The only way you can use wireless in a VMWare is using a support USB wireless card.

I love virtual machines. Like jdhurst said before, it's so great to setup a test environment or test LAN to implement or try out new things without messing up something in a production environment.

Anybody got two hard drives (OS) for the same laptop?

Current (or Planning) OS: Dual Boot or Two hard drives?

Anybody got two hard drives (OS) for the same laptop?

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