multiple isolated os'es / same pc

[jumpinghermit]

ok, so ... here goes - I'd like to have multiple operating systems installed on the same pc but i'd like them to be completely isolated from each other. I have 4 hdd's  so I plan on having each OS on its own hdd. 

now ... ideally I would have just used bios to disable/enable the hdd's and simply change them based on what OS I wanted to boot on. unfortunately ... my stupid msi bios doesn't give me the option to simply disable a sata port so i have to find another option. 

so ... any suggestions ? 

as i said ... i'd like them to be completely isolated from each other. don't think i can get that since i can't disable hdd's from bios so they will probably have to share the bootloader. so ... any advice ?

i could potentially use a physical solution such as a hdd rack but i'd like to avoid that.

[TheProfessionalAmateurs]

Some motherboard's have a built in boot manager, or you can download one off of the internet. A "physical solution" would be to unplug the drives when you don't want to use them.

[YedZed]

Does it allow you to change the boot order? Do that.

Or, you can put all the OSs on one HDD and designate storage between the 4 spaces.

[SpaceGhostC2C]

1 minute ago, jumpinghermit said:

i could potentially use a physical solution such as a hdd rack but i'd like to avoid that.

There was a case some years ago with a drive switch (so the switch would take one cable from PSU and one SATA from the motherboard and alternatively assign it to either of the drives), but don't remember which. Also independent power switches for each HDD (there are some front panels, a custom switch is relatively easy to make) could let you control this easily as well.

 

But those are all physical options  I think software wise the problem is the MBR, although if you were willing to enter BIOS and disable SATAs each time had it been possible, you could also enter BIOS and change boot order each time, to read from a different MBR 

[jumpinghermit]

2 minutes ago, SpaceGhostC2C said:

There was a case some years ago with a drive switch (so the switch would take one cable from PSU and one SATA from the motherboard and alternatively assign it to either of the drives), but don't remember which. Also independent power switches for each HDD (there are some front panels, a custom switch is relatively easy to make) could let you control this easily as well.

 

But those are all physical options  I think software wise the problem is the MBR, although if you were willing to enter BIOS and disable SATAs each time had it been possible, you could also enter BIOS and change boot order each time, to read from a different MBR 

changing boot order wouldn't be a problem for me but can i be certain that the os'es would be completely separated ? eg: say i boot from drive 1 ... since i can't disable the other 3 drives from bios then i would have to disable them from inside the operating system, say i have windows. is that a safe enough approach ? from what i can remember - the other drives, even if disabled from within windows, will still spin up upon os initialization and will just remain dormant. 

yes, ideally the drive switch or independent power switches would be best in the sense that i'd also save some life on the hdds since i completely stop power going to them but unfortunately i'm not very good with electronics to build my own and i haven't been able to find one to buy ( they don't deliver to romania for some reason ).

[zMeul]

unplugging the power from the HDDs is the best option - I'm in the same situation

by not having the drives powered, you spare them wearing out and you'll also have less power draw

[jumpinghermit]

2 minutes ago, zMeul said:

unplugging the power from the HDDs is the best option - I'm in the same situation

by not having the drives powered, you spare them wearing out and you'll also have less power draw

yes, definitely. 

but the problem is i can't buy a hdd power switch cause i can't find one and i can't make one for myself. i guess a rugged solution would be to simply buy a few sata power extension cords and figure out a way to have the connections outside the case, label them, and simply plug and unplug them based on which drive i want to have power. that way i avoid wear and tear on the drives/psu cables and the only thing that is subjected to that is the extension cord which is fairly cheap to exchange once every x months cause i doubt it will last longer than half a year considering i will plug/unplug it fairly often - once/twice a day. 

[zMeul]

4 minutes ago, jumpinghermit said:

but the problem is i can't buy a hdd power switch cause i can't find one and i can't make one for myself

https://www.amazon.com/Kingwin-Switch-Switches-5-25-Inch-HDD-PS6/dp/B00TZR3E70 - 30$

[jumpinghermit]

15 minutes ago, zMeul said:

https://www.amazon.com/Kingwin-Switch-Switches-5-25-Inch-HDD-PS6/dp/B00TZR3E70 - 30$

oh ... that's weird. i looked at that one on amazon ... a few months ago but it didn't ship to romania. apparently it does now. 

[Alec M]

1 hour ago, jumpinghermit said:

ok, so ... here goes - I'd like to have multiple operating systems installed on the same pc but i'd like them to be completely isolated from each other. I have 4 hdd's  so I plan on having each OS on its own hdd. 

now ... ideally I would have just used bios to disable/enable the hdd's and simply change them based on what OS I wanted to boot on. unfortunately ... my stupid msi bios doesn't give me the option to simply disable a sata port so i have to find another option. 

so ... any suggestions ? 

as i said ... i'd like them to be completely isolated from each other. don't think i can get that since i can't disable hdd's from bios so they will probably have to share the bootloader. so ... any advice ?

i could potentially use a physical solution such as a hdd rack but i'd like to avoid that.

You can just burn a CD or a USB drive using win32disk imager with this:

https://sourceforge.net/p/boot-repair-cd/home/Home/

And install it on your first boot drive, then it will show all the other drives for boot. (basically it just installs this: https://www.gnu.org/software/grub/)

Llinux installation tools usually put this on your hard drive, but this tool will find all of your drives and edit the necessary files to properly boot them all.