Hardware select which drive to boot from

[garethsnaim]

I have a pc with one harddrive running a music OS (Roon) and another harddrive with windows running retroarch. The PC is used for either at any one time.

At the moment I am pulling the lid and swapping the power from one drive to the other then starting up this works fine. 

 

Yes I know I can do this via bios but its super annoying to have to do that.

 

I would like to just install a toggle that gets flicked to choose the drive. I figure I can probably cut the 12v power and direct through the toggle.

 

Has anyone done something like this?

[RAS_3885]

5 minutes ago, garethsnaim said:

I have a pc with one harddrive running a music OS (Roon) and another harddrive with windows running retroarch. The PC is used for either at any one time.

At the moment I am pulling the lid and swapping the power from one drive to the other then starting up this works fine. 

 

Yes I know I can do this via bios but its super annoying to have to do that.

 

I would like to just install a toggle that gets flicked to choose the drive. I figure I can probably cut the 12v power and direct through the toggle.

 

Has anyone done something like this?

I think something like this would accomplish what you want, right?

 

https://www.amazon.com/Switch-protection-Selector，Controls-Intelligent-Control/dp/B07MJ8YTXV/ref=sr_1_5?dchild=1&keywords=sata+switch&qid=1630079922&sr=8-5

 

I'm vouching for that in particular, just the SATA switch concept.

[LIGISTX]

43 minutes ago, garethsnaim said:

I have a pc with one harddrive running a music OS (Roon) and another harddrive with windows running retroarch. The PC is used for either at any one time.

At the moment I am pulling the lid and swapping the power from one drive to the other then starting up this works fine. 

 

Yes I know I can do this via bios but its super annoying to have to do that.

 

I would like to just install a toggle that gets flicked to choose the drive. I figure I can probably cut the 12v power and direct through the toggle.

 

Has anyone done something like this?

Why can’t you just hit usually f12 for boot manager and select the other drive? Or in BIOS it’s usually as simple as clicking the drive you want to boot from. I wouldn’t add any weird and likely sketchy electronics to do this; I am sure one exists, but it’s not a normal need so it’s likely not going to be a quality part.

 

This really should take about 5 seconds via boot manager or boot override. 

[garethsnaim]

Because I want the pc to act pretty much as a console, no keyboard and mouse

 

Ras thanks for the link I had no idea these existed and seem perfect.