Make A Dual Hard Drive Selector Switch.

[imhdd]

I've known several people who, for various reasons, wanted to use two hard drives on one desktop computer, each drive having a different operating system and neither drive needing to communicate with the other.

For instance, I have Ununtu 6.06 LTS on one drive and Win98SE on the other drive. I don't need to dual boot these systems and I want to keep them seperate. (I do dual boot on another computer).

For this computer, which is used by various visitors, I've built a switch that lets me boot drive 1 or drive 2. I have Ubuntu 6.06 LTS on one drive and Win98SE on the other and the two operating systems never know the other exists.

If you have an interest in assembling such a switch, you may find the directions on my Web site:

http://www.imhdd.ms11.net/

A link to the Hard Drive Selector Switch is located near the top of my page.

Note: This may not be in the appropriate forum but rather than taking a chance on violating some rule I placed it in Cafe.

[~LoKe]

Looks pretty neat, I like the idea. Not terribly useful over dual boot, but can be nice if you don't feel like screwing with the bootloader.

[ssam]

thats cool. you should submit it to hackaday (http://www.hackaday.com/) and makezine (http://www.makezine.com/).

how do you make sure nobody flicks the switch while the computer is on?

[Stew2]

Cool website imhdd! I like your testing jig setup... fantastic idea! :)

Regards,
Stew2

[imhdd]

thats cool. you should submit it to hackaday (http://www.hackaday.com/) and makezine (http://www.makezine.com/).

how do you make sure nobody flicks the switch while the computer is on?

Well, I guess you have to hide the swtch. I've thought about someone flipping the switch and I thought about making a way to prevent it but I've never had a problem with anyone pushing the main 'power off' button while using one of my computers so I hope no one flips my drive selector switch. I don't think it would do any harm to the hardware and from the few 'power off' drastic shutdowns I've had to do with Ubuntu I don't think it would do any harm there - but it could cause some confusion to the 'Other Operating System" as drastic 'power off' shutdowns are sometimes (often, on mine) needed, but Scandisk or Norton gets it going again.

Thanks for the good comments. It didn't take long to make the switch but it took hours to prepare the Web page materials. Visitors to the site will agree that I'm not much of an artist, ha.

[Aetherius]

your site has gone AWOL my friend

[ryantmer]

No it hasn't...?

Cool idea, though. Nice to always see alternatives, although with the people around me, I can't be too sure about them not flipping the switch while it's on...

[Aetherius]

server not found for me ......odd

[imhdd]

server not found for me ......odd

Wow. Sorry you're getting the dreaded message. Here is the address again:

http://www.imhdd.ms11.net/

From what I've read about the release of the "Latest Version of the Leading Operating System," I think a lot more people will soon look for an alternative and certainly Ubuntu is a great choice. That will lead to a lot more dual booting IF the Other System will allow it to
coexist - and there seems to be some doubt that the Other Op System will allow coexistence of two Op Sys's on one computer. That information came from a beta tester who posted his results on the Tech Republic site. I suppose we'll have to wait to see if that info is true.

If 'It' won't allow dual booting, using two hard drives with a switch such as I've described will give you two independent hard drives which is two computers in one, so far as the Op Sys is concerned.