Boot with 2 different hard drives

[MoodDisorder]

Is it possible to boot into a linux drive from windows or visa versa without having to restart the hardware/turning off the pc all the way.

 

IE you're on linux and you want to get to windows without restarting the entire computer to get to the other drive. And visa versa.

 

Would this be considered dual booting if it's possible?

[Bitter]

You could run an OS in VM, but the OS that's running has direct low level hardware access that can't just be 'swapped' without a power cycle to re-set who's in control. It's like driving a car, you can't change the driver WHILE driving, you have to pull over, get out, switch, then continue driving. Make sense?

[MoodDisorder]

2 minutes ago, Bitter said:

You could run an OS in VM, but the OS that's running has direct low level hardware access that can't just be 'swapped' without a power cycle to re-set who's in control. It's like driving a car, you can't change the driver WHILE driving, you have to pull over, get out, switch, then continue driving. Make sense?

Alright, thought it'd be possible, just wasn't sure. And it does make sense.

[Bitter]

You could also have two computers and a KVM switch to share one keyboard, monitor, and mouse. But I assume you want to share files and what not between the two? That can be tricky, I haven't played with VM in a bit but I had some issues with sharing clipboard and files between VM and Host. I was using Virtual Box I believe, it's free and so is Ubuntu so if you have at least 10GB free space, more than 4GB RAM, and at least a 4 core CPU you'll be all set to give it a try with decent fluidity.