T41: Boot from Ultrabay 2nd HD?

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texasbelliott · #1 Post by **texasbelliott** » Fri Jun 17, 2005 9:24 am

Greetings!

I was wondering if it was possible to install an Ultrabay HD with a bootable version of Windows XP and boot to it, as opposed to the internal HD?

I would like to keep my internal HD intact, and have the ability to boot from a second HD for testing and experimenting with different software loads.

Thanks much for any replies!
bE

cwestwater · #2 Post by **cwestwater** » Fri Jun 17, 2005 10:19 am

I think if you go into the BIOS on startup and select the 2nd HDD to startup from that will work.

Have you thought about VMWare?

texasbelliott · #3 Post by **texasbelliott** » Fri Jun 17, 2005 10:26 am

cwestwater,

Thank you for the reply. I know of VMware in a sever environment, but haven't ever tried it on a laptop. Do you have any idea what kind of overhead would there be in managing 2 instances?

Cheers,
bE

cwestwater · #4 Post by **cwestwater** » Fri Jun 17, 2005 11:35 am

I am running a NT4 server and a 2000 server (at the same time) on my T43 with 1GB of RAM no problem at all.

hydrostarr · #5 Post by **hydrostarr** » Sun Dec 11, 2005 6:04 pm

cwestwater wrote:I think if you go into the BIOS on startup and select the 2nd HDD to startup from that will work

Has anyone gotten this to work for themselves...or know of anyone who has? What model T4x, what flavor drive, and what BIOS setting differences (or any other settings) were needed to make it work?

Also, for what it's worth, I have lots of VMware experience...but I'm still looking for the option to boot natively off of the 2nd hard drive in a T4x ultray-slim configuration.

-Matt

leegaard · #6 Post by **leegaard** » Mon Dec 12, 2005 5:56 pm

Just press F12 during bootup and select the appropriate drive. But I think that installation should be made while its in the "belly" of your Thinkpad

hydrostarr · #7 Post by **hydrostarr** » Mon Dec 12, 2005 6:34 pm

leegaard wrote:Just press F12 during bootup and select the appropriate drive. But I think that installation should be made while its in the "belly" of your Thinkpad

Ok, good info, thanks.

Does this "belly" need to specifically be the "primary" hard disk slot...or can I load the OS on a drive in the ultrabay-slim slot and still have said drive work in either of the "primary" or "secondary" slots in my Thinkpad?

-Matt

#8 Post by **GomJabbar** » Tue Dec 13, 2005 8:36 am

mattengland wrote:Does this "belly" need to specifically be the "primary" hard disk slot...or can I load the OS on a drive in the ultrabay-slim slot and still have said drive work in either of the "primary" or "secondary" slots in my Thinkpad?

-Matt

All I know is, you need to be sure that you don't end up changing the drive letter of the OS. If you do, it won't work. For instance, if you install the OS in the primary hard disk slot, then it's drive letter will be 'C'. If you swap and put a different hard drive in the primary hard disk slot, and use the above hard drive in the ultrabay-slim slot, then it's drive letter would change to 'D' (assuming you have one primary partition on the drive in the primary hard drive slot).

It may be possible to take the hard drive you are talking about, create a primary partition on it, then install the OS. Then with any other hard drive you use, make sure there are no primary partitions on them - only an extended partition with a logical drive(s). That way you might be able to swap the drive between the primary hard disk slot and the ultrabay-slim slot. I haven't actually tried this scenario. Maybe someone else has.

leegaard · #9 Post by **leegaard** » Tue Dec 13, 2005 9:08 am

I my experience, bios changes the first disk in the bootseqence to be primary. Thats the reason why you have to install the drive in the machine and not in the bay.

After that and when you press F12 and ask your Thinkpad to boot from the drive in bay, the OS thinks thats it the primary disk thats booting now and putting the disk in the "belly" as secondary.

At least thats my experience with other similar machines

leegaard · #10 Post by **leegaard** » Tue Dec 13, 2005 9:14 am

For the sake of precaution you dont put any harddrives in the bay. I took it as granted as you needed the cd/DVD to boot from. You migth have an external or Dock, and that might end up being a multiboot XP which isnt the desired here.

If you install your disks separately in the "belly" it will always work when its put there. At least the only thing that might happen is that it wont boot while starting from the Ultrabay drive. I can check it though tonight, as I have a ghosted backup of my intial harddrive.

I am pretty certain that it will work though, but its nice to know for certain..

#11 Post by **GomJabbar** » Tue Dec 13, 2005 9:15 am

Makes sense what you say leegaard.

EDIT: I was replying to your 9:08 am post.

leegaard · #12 Post by **leegaard** » Tue Dec 13, 2005 9:18 am

I like to make sense ..

Otherwise life ends up being senseless ...

hydrostarr · #13 Post by **hydrostarr** » Tue Dec 13, 2005 10:00 am

For what it's worth, most if not all of my OS loads on all my disks will probably henceforth be Linux/BSD flavors. In such a case, do the above answers change per a Linux or BSD os?

-Matt

#14 Post by **GomJabbar** » Wed Dec 14, 2005 1:26 am

The above references should work just the same with Linux as Windows. These hot keys (F12) and settings are controlled by the BIOS, not the OS.

hydrostarr · #15 Post by **hydrostarr** » Wed Dec 14, 2005 10:18 am

GomJabbar wrote:The above references should work just the same with Linux as Windows. These hot keys (F12) and settings are controlled by the BIOS, not the OS.

Well, I'm hoping there exist fewer restrictions in a Linux/BSD environment because there exist no fixed partition names (eg, C:, D:, etc) assigned to each drive slot.

Therefore, I'm hoping that a Linux/BSD-based drive can boot in either slot (the primary/"belly" slot or the ultrabay-slim slot).

Any thoughts/comments?

-Matt

leegaard · #16 Post by **leegaard** » Wed Dec 14, 2005 5:06 pm

I am quite certain that both Linux and Windows can boot from both drives. As mentioned before the trick is to install while in the belly. Thereafter use F12 to pick disk to boot from. The OS think thats the first choosen drive in bootsequence is primary and thereby acting as its a normal drive.

Hope that brings clarity..

hydrostarr · #17 Post by **hydrostarr** » Wed Dec 14, 2005 5:17 pm

leegaard wrote:I am quite certain that both Linux and Windows can boot from both drives. As mentioned before the trick is to install while in the belly. Thereafter use F12 to pick disk to boot from. The OS think thats the first choosen drive in bootsequence is primary and thereby acting as its a normal drive.

Hope that brings clarity..

Yes, this does clear it up...and helps remind me of the comments to this effect earlier in the thread that I forgot (and my apologies).

-Matt

leegaard · #18 Post by **leegaard** » Wed Dec 14, 2005 5:24 pm

Well .. Writing and reading in a lot of threads can keep the most people busy, so no wonder that sometimes details slips out.

Its easier to remember experiences than writting stuff ... Thats the nature of human mind ..

6SPDSER2002 · #19 Post by **6SPDSER2002** » Sun Oct 11, 2009 5:36 pm

the default boot drive will be what ever is the permanant HD in the notebook....hit F12 startup and it will give you a boot order option for that start up only....

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