Hardware dual boot

[Ciccioo]

i have my computer running windows 8.1, and i want to dual boot it with some linux distro

i will install it on a seperate, dedicated drive

now, my problem is that i like windows' fast boot, and i like fast boot in general, so i would like to avoid the grub's OS selection menu

so i was wondering, is there any way to quickly and easily phisically swap between two drives? does it exist something like a switch that selects which one of my 2 boot drives will be connected to the pc?

[RML Futuristics]

Hi Ciccioo,

 

As far as my understanding of this goes, much less than physically unplugging the drive for the OS you don't want to use, the only way you will be able to do it would be to simply go through the OS selection menu at the price of a bit of speed. 

 

Yours,

 

Sir DrowHunter

[3VIL_G3NIUS]

Run linux as a VM off the dedicated drive?

[Ciccioo]

Hi Ciccioo,

 

As far as my understanding of this goes, much less than physically unplugging the drive for the OS you don't want to use, the only way you will be able to do it would be to simply go through the OS selection menu at the price of a bit of speed. 

 

Yours,

 

Sir DrowHunter

 

my beloved sir,

 

yes, that is what i want to do, and let it be clare it's more to get a "cool factor"

 

if i dual boot with grub, i will have 2 disks, and on one disk there will be grub that will kinda know what's going on on the other one

i would also have to see if there is some problem with the UEFI

 

if i phisically dual boot, i will have 2 completely independant drives, one with windows and one with linux, which seems way more cool to me

 

so yes, what i'm looking for is a device that "swaps" the drives, just in a more elegant way that opening my case and unplug cables

i want something like a switch in front of my case which selects "linux mode" vs "windows mode"

 

 

Run linux as a VM off the dedicated drive?

just no

i want a real linux installation

[xXxYOLOxSWAGxXx_420BlazeIt]

Hi Ciccioo,

 

As far as my understanding of this goes, much less than physically unplugging the drive for the OS you don't want to use, the only way you will be able to do it would be to simply go through the OS selection menu at the price of a bit of speed. 

 

Yours,

 

Sir DrowHunter

 

 

i have my computer running windows 8.1, and i want to dual boot it with some linux distro

i will install it on a seperate, dedicated drive

now, my problem is that i like windows' fast boot, and i like fast boot in general, so i would like to avoid the grub's OS selection menu

so i was wondering, is there any way to quickly and easily phisically swap between two drives? does it exist something like a switch that selects which one of my 2 boot drives will be connected to the pc?

 

 

my beloved sir,

 

yes, that is what i want to do, and let it be clare it's more to get a "cool factor"

 

if i dual boot with grub, i will have 2 disks, and on one disk there will be grub that will kinda know what's going on on the other one

i would also have to see if there is some problem with the UEFI

 

if i phisically dual boot, i will have 2 completely independant drives, one with windows and one with linux, which seems way more cool to me

 

so yes, what i'm looking for is a device that "swaps" the drives, just in a more elegant way that opening my case and unplug cables

i want something like a switch in front of my case which selects "linux mode" vs "windows mode"

 

 

just no

i want a real linux installation

 

 

Unplug your windows drive, install linux on your secondary drive and then (after plugging your windows disk back in) set your BIOS to boot from whichever one you want. You can then press F12 or F8 (depending what your boot menu shortcut key is for your motherboard) to select which disk to boot from.

[3VIL_G3NIUS]

just no

i want a real linux installation

If you want it realer you could install ESXi and run them both at once.

Depending on what you want to use it for I don't see why a VM is not a good solution

 

 

Otherwise buy/make a sata switch

[Ciccioo]

If you want it realer you could install ESXi and run them both at once.

Depending on what you want to use it for I don't see why a VM is not a good solution

the only reason why i'm thinking about this phisical boot switch is to make it as clean and cool looking as i can

VM is not clean, is not cool looking and not even practical, as if i want to use linux i need to boot both windows and linux

 

Otherwise buy/make a sata switch

this seems what i was looking for, but it costs more than what i expected and i'm not sure about sata3 compatibility

i think i will see if i can make a simple power switch, if i can do it i'll be quite satisfied

 

Unplug your windows drive, install linux on your secondary drive and then (after plugging your windows disk back in) set your BIOS to boot from whichever one you want. You can then press F12 or F8 (depending what your boot menu shortcut key is for your motherboard) to select which disk to boot from.

that is not what i was looking for, that is the fallback i wanted to avoid

[xXxYOLOxSWAGxXx_420BlazeIt]

the only reason why i'm thinking about this phisical boot switch is to make it as clean and cool looking as i can

VM is not clean, is not cool looking and not even practical, as if i want to use linux i need to boot both windows and linux

 

this seems what i was looking for, but it costs more than what i expected and i'm not sure about sata3 compatibility

i think i will see if i can make a simple power switch, if i can do it i'll be quite satisfied

 

that is not what i was looking for, that is the fallback i wanted to avoid

You said you wanted to avoid GRUB each time you boot up.

 

If you do what I said then you would only see the boot selection menu when you want to boot from the non-default disk.

[Ciccioo]

You said you wanted to avoid GRUB each time you boot up.

so i was wondering, is there any way to quickly and easily phisically swap between two drives? does it exist something like a switch that selects which one of my 2 boot drives will be connected to the pc?

[xXxYOLOxSWAGxXx_420BlazeIt]

 

You said you wanted to avoid GRUB each time you boot up.

so i was wondering, is there any way to quickly and easily phisically swap between two drives? does it exist something like a switch that selects which one of my 2 boot drives will be connected to the pc?

 

I dont see the point in doing it physically when it would be quicker and easier to do it through software.

 

You could get a hotswap bay, or wire a switch on the SATA data cables.

[Ciccioo]

I dont see the point in doing it physically when it would be quicker and easier to do it through software.

a physical switch is faster than a boot drive selection

and doing it phisically, one OS would never see the other one, adding more security/isolation to the thing

it just looks like a better thing to me

 

 

You could get a hotswap bay, or wire a switch on the SATA data cables.

i think i will see if i can make a simple power switch

yep, that's what i'll try, and i'll do that on the power instead of the sata cables to actually have the drive turned off when i don't use it

[3VIL_G3NIUS]

the only reason why i'm thinking about this phisical boot switch is to make it as clean and cool looking as i can

VM is not clean, is not cool looking and not even practical, as if i want to use linux i need to boot both windows and linux

 

this seems what i was looking for, but it costs more than what i expected and i'm not sure about sata3 compatibility

i think i will see if i can make a simple power switch, if i can do it i'll be quite satisfied

 

that is not what i was looking for, that is the fallback i wanted to avoid

 

I disagree, I think VMs are far more clean, dual booting is pain in the ass IMO. A linux VM run on windows wouldn't take long to boot up, you'd save time over having to switch OSes to do things. And the ESXi method is basically having 2 separate PCs, you could boot windows and linux at the same time, it'd be even faster. Except it's kinda overcomplicating things.

Each to their own though.

Yes that thing is ridiculously expensive.

If you are handy with a soldering iron and want to sacrifice a few sata cables you could make your own. Unfortunately I don't think they make 7 pole, double throw switches, so the next alternative I can think of would be a switch controlling a few 4 pole, double throw relays. Though idk how well this would work/if it would since the relays would only get power when the pc gets turned on.

Could probably figure something out with it though

[3VIL_G3NIUS]

a physical switch is faster than a boot drive selection

and doing it phisically, one OS would never see the other one, adding more security/isolation to the thing

it just looks like a better thing to me

 

 

yep, that's what i'll try, and i'll do that on the power instead of the sata cables to actually have the drive turned off when i don't use it

Same goes for using VMs properly, especially ESXi, then they are fully separate.

[Ciccioo]

-snip-

yes, switching between OSes would be slow, but it's ok

the idea is that windows will be for games and fuckaround browsing, and linux will be for when i actually need to work, as i find myself more comfortable doing that under linux

 

now, i'm not a master of focusing, so the harder it is to switch from work to game, the better

having linux in a VM with windows always booted in would break this (also) logical seperation that i'm trying to achieve

the switch would decide if i'm working or i'm fucking around

 

as for how to actually create the switch, i'll ask tomorrow a certain person and see if we can come up with something doable, thanks for the help anyway

 

(i don't really know what ESXi is, i rejected it as it's related to VMs, i'll check it out later but still i don't think that i'll end up using it)

[xXxYOLOxSWAGxXx_420BlazeIt]

Same goes for using VMs properly, especially ESXi, then they are fully separate.

 

 

a physical switch is faster than a boot drive selection

and doing it phisically, one OS would never see the other one, adding more security/isolation to the thing

it just looks like a better thing to me

 

 

yep, that's what i'll try, and i'll do that on the power instead of the sata cables to actually have the drive turned off when i don't use it

This makes no sense at all. What exactly do you think you are protecting yourself from by turning off one drive?

[Ciccioo]

This makes no sense at all. What exactly do you think you are protecting yourself from by turning off one drive?

if one os has crap, it can't put crap on the other os

but security is not a big deal for me, it's just a consequence of having two well distinguished systems

if you don't appreciate order, good for you, but it doesn't mean that it doesn't make sense

[xXxYOLOxSWAGxXx_420BlazeIt]

if one os has crap, it can't put crap on the other os

but security is not a big deal for me, it's just a consequence of having two well distinguished systems

if you don't appreciate order, good for you, but it doesn't mean that it doesn't make sense

Windows wont be able to mount your Linux disks, and Linux wont mount your windows disks unless you tell it to.

 

If it made any sense at all, why isnt their a specific product to do what you want to do?

[Ciccioo]

Windows wont be able to mount your Linux disks, and Linux wont mount your windows disks unless you tell it to.

windows will be able to access my linux disks, it just doesn't have native support for ext4

so, linux can access windows too

 

 

If it made any sense at all, why isnt their a specific product to do what you want to do?

specific product that does what i want to do: http://serialstuff.shop.rakuten.com/p/4-port-sata-iii-ii-i-switch-with-keylock-and-led-6gbps-compatible/254668062.html?listingId=303002524&scid=pla_google_Cooldrives&adid=17902

it just costs too much and is old

and the fact that there aren't product for it wouldn't mean that it doesn't make sense, you know not everything has been invented yet

and this product clearly isn't anybody's necessity, not even mine, but i see its sense

 

 

Can you create profiles in your bios? you'd put linux in a different drive and change only boot order

it was already proposed earlier in the discussion

 

 

Also , what about hotswap bays ?

eh, i look for something that does the same thing, but without having to swap disks and move them around every time

[xXxYOLOxSWAGxXx_420BlazeIt]

windows will be able to access my linux disks, it just doesn't have native support for ext4

so, linux can access windows too

I know. that is what I wrote.

 

Windows will not mount your disks unless you tell it to.

Linux wont mount your disks unless you tell it do.

 

Windows wont read data from a disk, or write data to a disk unless it is mounted and you have given it permission to.

Linux wont read data from a disk, or write data to a disk unless it is mounted and you have given it permission to.

[3VIL_G3NIUS]

yes, switching between OSes would be slow, but it's ok

the idea is that windows will be for games and fuckaround browsing, and linux will be for when i actually need to work, as i find myself more comfortable doing that under linux

 

now, i'm not a master of focusing, so the harder it is to switch from work to game, the better

having linux in a VM with windows always booted in would break this (also) logical seperation that i'm trying to achieve

the switch would decide if i'm working or i'm fucking around

 

as for how to actually create the switch, i'll ask tomorrow a certain person and see if we can come up with something doable, thanks for the help anyway

 

(i don't really know what ESXi is, i rejected it as it's related to VMs, i'll check it out later but still i don't think that i'll end up using it)

That's a very good reason to dual boot. haha

Hopefully this person you know has some good ideas, it's not easy switching 7 connections simply, but it's certainly possible.

 

I don't think you'll use it since it won't fit what you are after, but it is really cool. It's a bare-metal hypervisor, so it turns your computer into a host machine for VMs where every OS runs separately to each other and ESXi manages the resources. And you can pass through PCI/PCIe devices to VMs and stuff. So if you had 2 graphics cards and a couple of drives, with enough RAM and a good CPU you could have 1 machine that 2 people could game off.

It's what datacenters and stuff use to host like 20 VMs off one machine