Advice Please: Changing Boot Drive By Disconnecting Power ..

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" <quaoar.DeleteThis@tenthplanet.net> wrote in message
news:5rKdnZ__k9sAkHHcRVn-2w@comcast.com...
 > Searcher7.DeleteThis@mail.con2.com 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
 >
 ><!-- ~MESSAGE_AFTER~ -->
 >> Stay informed about: Advice Please: Changing Boot Drive By Disconnecting Power .. 

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" <quaoar.TakeThisOut@tenthplanet.net> wrote in message
 > news:5rKdnZ__k9sAkHHcRVn-2w@comcast.com...
 >
  >>Searcher7@mail.con2.com 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: .<!-- ~MESSAGE_AFTER~ -->
 >> Stay informed about: Advice Please: Changing Boot Drive By Disconnecting Power .. 

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" <quaoar.TakeThisOut@tenthplanet.net> wrote in message
  >> news:5rKdnZ__k9sAkHHcRVn-2w@comcast.com...
  >>
   >>> Searcher7.TakeThisOut@mail.con2.com 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.<!-- ~MESSAGE_AFTER~ -->
 >> Stay informed about: Advice Please: Changing Boot Drive By Disconnecting Power .. 

<Searcher7.TakeThisOut@mail.con2.com> 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?

I looked at this strategy last year, but eventually decided on a different
approach. Instead of switching the power off of one drive (and losing
accesibility), I built a switch (located on one of the empty floppy covers)
that was connected to each drives' Master/Slave jumper. By flipping the
switch, I can choose which drive is the boot drive, while at the same time
keeping the other drive hooked up so I can access the data - basically, the
switch takes the place of manually switching the Master/Slave jumpers on the
drives, which gets old real fast.

Here is a commercial site with a similar idea, just a different switch
configuration:
<a style='text-decoration: underline;' href="http://www.g4techtv.com/screensavers/features/43190/Build_a_HardDrive_Switcher.html" target="_blank">http://www.g4techtv.com/screensavers/features/43190/Build_a_HardDrive_...tcher.h</a>

Here's yet another approach, this one is a product that you buy:
<a style='text-decoration: underline;' href="http://www.dansdata.com/nicklock.htm" target="_blank">http://www.dansdata.com/nicklock.htm</a>

Jon<!-- ~MESSAGE_AFTER~ -->
 >> Stay informed about: Advice Please: Changing Boot Drive By Disconnecting Power .. 

Thanks everyone.

Perhaps I'm getting closer to a solution.

My hardware is as follows: ASUS CUV4X motherboard, Adaptec AHA-2940U2W
SCSI controller, 18.21g Seagate(ST118202LC), 36.4g Fujitsu(MAF3364LC),
and 73.4G
Seagate(ST173404LCV).

I guess what I'm looking for comes down to a scenario that involves
isolating my largest drive whenever I'm connected to the internet, by
making sure it is "off" when I boot from the second drive. Hence the
idea of disconnecting the power cable. Dual booting would actually be
another issue.(But I'd like that option also).

I believe thesse are hot-swappable drives, but I was also wondering if
it were possible to rig a switch to their jumpers to turn off the
"write to" function of any of the drives instead. I have no idea if
this is possible/plausible, and if so, whether or not turning off write
function can be done while the PC is on.

Thanks.

Darren Harris
Staten Island, New York.
**************************************************************************************
Jon Danniken wrote:
 > <Searcher7 DeleteThis @mail.con2.com> 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?
 >
 > I looked at this strategy last year, but eventually decided on a
different
 > approach. Instead of switching the power off of one drive (and
losing
 > accesibility), I built a switch (located on one of the empty floppy
covers)
 > that was connected to each drives' Master/Slave jumper. By flipping
the
 > switch, I can choose which drive is the boot drive, while at the same
time
 > keeping the other drive hooked up so I can access the data -
basically, the
 > switch takes the place of manually switching the Master/Slave jumpers
on the
 > drives, which gets old real fast.
 >
 > Here is a commercial site with a similar idea, just a different
switch
 > configuration:
 >
<a style='text-decoration: underline;' href="http://www.g4techtv.com/screensavers/features/43190/Build_a_HardDrive_Switcher.html" target="_blank">http://www.g4techtv.com/screensavers/features/43190/Build_a_HardDrive_...tcher.h</a>
 >
 > Here's yet another approach, this one is a product that you buy:
<font color=purple> > <a style='text-decoration: underline;' href="http://www.dansdata.com/nicklock.htm</font" target="_blank">http://www.dansdata.com/nicklock.htm</font</a>>
 >
 > Jon<!-- ~MESSAGE_AFTER~ -->
 >> Stay informed about: Advice Please: Changing Boot Drive By Disconnecting Power .. 

Searcher7.RemoveThis@mail.con2.com 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....RemoveThis@prodigy.net.<!-- ~MESSAGE_AFTER~ -->
 >> Stay informed about: Advice Please: Changing Boot Drive By Disconnecting Power .. 

In article <1105986599.357291.202090.TakeThisOut@z14g2000cwz.googlegroups.com>,
Searcher7.TakeThisOut@mail.con2.com 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<!-- ~MESSAGE_AFTER~ -->
 >> Stay informed about: Advice Please: Changing Boot Drive By Disconnecting Power .. 

On 17 Jan 2005 11:06:43 -0800, Searcher7 RemoveThis @mail.con2.com
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.<!-- ~MESSAGE_AFTER~ -->
 >> Stay informed about: Advice Please: Changing Boot Drive By Disconnecting Power .. 

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" <abujlehc.TakeThisOut@prodigy.net> wrote in message
news:41EC1AC1.5020705@prodigy.net...
 > Searcher7.TakeThisOut@mail.con2.com 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....TakeThisOut@prodigy.net.<!-- ~MESSAGE_AFTER~ -->
 >> Stay informed about: Advice Please: Changing Boot Drive By Disconnecting Power .. 

"Conor" <conor.turton.TakeThisOut@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:MPG.1c562c98f649d5c4989d77@news.giganews.com...
 > In article <1105986599.357291.202090.TakeThisOut@z14g2000cwz.googlegroups.com>,
 > Searcher7.TakeThisOut@mail.con2.com 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.

It does mostly work and thats how the removable drive carriers 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.<!-- ~MESSAGE_AFTER~ -->
 >> Stay informed about: Advice Please: Changing Boot Drive By Disconnecting Power .. 

<Searcher7.DeleteThis@mail.con2.com> wrote in message
news:1105986599.357291.202090@z14g2000cwz.googlegroups.com...

 > 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.<!-- ~MESSAGE_AFTER~ -->
 >> Stay informed about: Advice Please: Changing Boot Drive By Disconnecting Power .. 

<Searcher7.TakeThisOut@mail.con2.com> wrote:
 > Thanks everyone.


The jumper switch is a copy of the Nicklock switch,
offered on a Swedish website until about a year of two
ago when it got bought out by an American company
that discontinued it. It only works with 2 HDs, though,
and making a connector yourself out of a jumper is really
tedious.

Regarding using a switch on your HD's power cable -
that is what I do. I have DPST switches (made from DPDT
toggle switches) that mount in 1/4" vent holes in the front of
the chassis under the plastic fascia. To switch off a HD,
with the PC unpowered(!), I reach in with a bent paperclip
and throw the switch ON or OFF. With the power OFF, the
HDs (Maxtor DiamondMax Plus 9s) are invisible to the BIOS
and the next HD in the boot sequence is given control at startup,
regardless of whether or not it's a Master or Slave. I also
use a removable HD in a "mobile tray" that has an OFF/ON
switch that has the same function as my DPST toggle switches.
Here are the details on the mobile tray:
<a style='text-decoration: underline;' href="http://kingwin.com/pdut_detail.asp?LineID=&CateID=35&ID=95" target="_blank">http://kingwin.com/pdut_detail.asp?LineID=&CateID=35&ID=95</a>

I use the power cut-off toggle switches to reduce stress on
the power supply and on the bearings and electronics of the
HD when the HD is un-needed. But the primary reason is
to isolate the cloned OS from its clone when the clone is
booted up for its first time. Opening the case and unplugging
cables or the entire HD got old real fast, and it was causing
wear on the connectors. Now I just power down and flip
a toggle switch, and backing up the entire system by making
archived bootable clones is quite simple.

Since I run multiple installations of Windows XP Pro, I
also use WinXP's built-in multi-boot manager which allows
loading any Windows OS from any partition on any of several
HD in the system. All it takes is an understanding of the
syntax of the boot.ini file.

As a backup to the boot.ini multi-boot manager, I also
sometimes manually adjust the BIOS's boot sequence to
select which HD boots (actually which HD's boot.ini file
is used).

Between all three of these methods, managing a system
consisting of 7 OSes installed on 3 HDs (as I have) becomes
quite simple, but for some reason, not much has been written
about it.

*TimDaniels*<!-- ~MESSAGE_AFTER~ -->
 >> Stay informed about: Advice Please: Changing Boot Drive By Disconnecting Power .. 

On 17 Jan 2005 11:06:43 -0800, Searcher7.RemoveThis@mail.con2.com 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?

If the IDE remains conencted, and the power is turned off, then the other drive
on that cable won't work.

FWIW, I used to have a system with two HDs, and I made a switch to toggle the
master/slave settings of them. It worked perfectly.

If you want to use a hardware solution, that might be an option for you.

--
Chris Pollard


CG Internet café, Tagum City, Philippines
<a style='text-decoration: underline;' href="http://www.cginternet.net" target="_blank">http://www.cginternet.net</a><!-- ~MESSAGE_AFTER~ -->
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