2 HDDs and 2 OS's

[Machin3]

I have 2 hard drives and on one hdd I have Windows XP and on the other I have Windows 7. How can I choose which OS I want to boot when I start up the computer. My HDDs are SATA by the way.

 

[lovely?]

since they are on seperate hard drives, i believe A: the HD with boot priority will load first, or B: it will stop on boot-up for 30 sec and give you an option between os's. (it personally does B for me, loading vista and windows 7 on different hard drives.)

 

[Machin3]

yeah but its like B) i dont get an option and A) I have my 2nd hard drive unplugged because if its plugged in it will boot first and im trying to figure out how to get an option to choose what i want.

 

[lovely?]

go into your bios and choose your hard drive boot order.

 

[Stildawn]

Theres tones of dual boot programs out there, try one.

 

[Machin3]

I've been looking around and all the dual boot programs consist of you installing to OS's on one HDD. I'm looking for dual boot between 2 HDDs.

 

[porterjw]

I've been looking around and all the dual boot programs consist of you installing to OS's on one HDD. I'm looking for dual boot between 2 HDDs.

I've three OS's spread over two HDDs and have zero issues with bootloaders. When in doubt, there's GRUB.

 

[Machin3]

It's weird though because I switched my boot order and XP starts first for me and when I go to choose operating system, XP only shows up and Windows 7 does not.

 

[zombine210]

you won't be able to choose everytime you boot which os you want to load unless you use a secondary boot loader. i think you have a setup similar to mine. the way i did it was:
install winxp into harddrive 1, which was set in bios to boot first. then go back in bios and select hdd 2 to boot first and install windows 7 on it. i use win7 most, and having it this way, i don't have to mess with boot loaders; and when i want to use winXP (for work), i just go into bios and select that hdd. works nice

 

[Machin3]

Ok, ill have to check that out. Thanks

 

[Macky]

I have done installing 2 OS at the same computer. this only works on installing the Vista OS first. fixing the bootlaoder is the tricky part try the step by step instruction here. this surely helps. http://apcmag.com/how_to_dual_boot_...talled_first__the_stepbystep_guide.htm?page=6