Can I dual boot two diff os with an ultrabay?

[bass1175]

If I purchase an ultrabay caddy and add a second HDD, if this Hdd and the main HDD both have two different os on each of them, will I get the option at bootup to choose which HDD I want to run? is this possible? Thank you for your advise.

[twistero]

Press F12 each time it boots to bring up the boot device menu, then choose the hard drive you want to boot from.
If you would rather have a nice boot menu appear automatically, you'll have to set up a bootloader on one of your hard drives, e.g. add additional entries in the Windows bootloader, or install GRUB, etc.

[bass1175]

Thanks for the reply, I was familiar with the f12 but yea I wanted to know if its possible to have a menu. I will search further since it is possible and see the proper way in editing the bootloader. Thanks

[twistero]

What operating systems do you plan to install?

[rssb]

Yes you can via windows boot loader or GRUB , have to specify the disk and partition to boot off from.

[bass1175]

Twist they both will have windows 7 just for different purposes, I will get grub now and mess with it. Thanks guys.

[twistero]

If they're both going to be Windows 7, it's probably easiest and safest to just add another entry into your existing Windows bootloader, so you don't have to worry about accidentally wiping your MBR and such when installing GRUB.
EasyBCD should make it a breeze.

[bass1175]

Thank you again, will this work even if I have xp and win7 or a linux and win7? I also found gag. I destroyed my system badly years ago messing with this and would hate to go thru this again. So Iam very cautious at this point, considering even using f12 and letting things be. So easybcd can work even if theyre both not win7? And how you feel about GAG? Thanks again

[twistero]

In short: yes.

If your primary OS is Windows 7, then everything can be done within EasyBCD. The Windows 7 boot loader should be able to boot XP natively, and EasyBCD will help you add the entry easily. For Linux, EasyBCD comes with "NeoGRUB", which is a rebranded version of Grub4DOS, chainloaded from windows bootloader (so no installing into MBR). Being GRUB, it is very flexible and can boot pretty much all flavors of Linux. (EasyBCD can also add a Linux entry directly into Windows boot loader by copying the boot sector of your Linux partition. I don't use that option.)
If your primary OS is Linux, the same thing can be done in GRUB. You'll have to chainload windows boot loader in order to boot Windows partitions.
Either way, there should be no need to install any new boot loader into the MBR.

I have no experience with GAG boot manager.

[bass1175]

Good enough Twist and appreciate your time you took explaining everything. Will go with easyBCD and see how that works out. Thanks again for the lengthy explanation.