Author Topic: Why would I want to do this?  (Read 8198 times)

Offline Meclar

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Why would I want to do this?
« on: September 10, 2007, 06:47:24 PM »
I was wondering if I installed Windows XP on one hard drive and Windows 3.1 on another and swapped them out on the same system would that work?

Offline 420

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Why would I want to do this?
« Reply #1 on: September 10, 2007, 06:50:51 PM »
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I was wondering if I installed Windows XP on one hard drive and Windows 3.1 on another and swapped them out on the same system would that work?
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No reason it shouldn't. Though you should be able to pick which hard drive to boot off of without having to physically switch cables.

-420
« Last Edit: September 10, 2007, 06:51:34 PM by 420 »

Offline Meclar

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Why would I want to do this?
« Reply #2 on: September 10, 2007, 10:49:37 PM »
Well the idea is to have mobile hard drives.

Offline Soul Sojourner

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Why would I want to do this?
« Reply #3 on: September 12, 2007, 12:22:52 AM »
Yes it would work.

So, what you're trying to do is take an HDD with you to potentially place it in another comp to access the same information off of that HDD, just on another computer? Is that what I'm understanding?

A potential problem with that, is the work to do it every time, and having to set up drivers and whatnot on your HDD for each computer you put it in. (due to different hardware and whatnot.)
« Last Edit: September 12, 2007, 12:23:44 AM by HeLLMasteRHeLL »

Offline Meclar

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Why would I want to do this?
« Reply #4 on: September 12, 2007, 12:06:11 PM »
Hardware compatibility isn't the issue I can get duplicate hardware, it's the software and bios that's my concern.  The information on the 3.1 harddrive is confidential and therefore needs to be locked up.  Also the software that's running on the harddrive is more stable and secure on 3.1 than XP.

Offline Soul Sojourner

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Why would I want to do this?
« Reply #5 on: September 12, 2007, 05:13:06 PM »
I didn't say anything about hardware compatibility. I was talking about having to install new drivers every time you put it in a different computer...

Offline Meclar

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Why would I want to do this?
« Reply #6 on: September 12, 2007, 05:25:13 PM »
The drivers would be saved.  Like any other hardware drivers.  the OS is on the harddrive and the drivers for them.

Offline Soul Sojourner

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« Reply #7 on: September 12, 2007, 05:33:42 PM »
I know they would, what I'm saying is you'd have to install/set up drivers for the hardware on each computer you use. If it's only two computers or something, then that wouldn't be such a big deal.

Offline Meclar

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Why would I want to do this?
« Reply #8 on: September 12, 2007, 10:21:11 PM »
I see you think I'm going to swap them out to two different computers? Just one computer.

Offline Mo

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Why would I want to do this?
« Reply #9 on: September 12, 2007, 10:26:44 PM »
You can install and configure as many different OS's as you have available partitions or physical disks.  The BIOS just boots whatever it finds in the Master Boot record of the boot device you specify.

Offline Meclar

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« Reply #10 on: September 12, 2007, 10:41:08 PM »
How about the DOS based 3.1 and the NSTF (?) of XP

Offline Mo

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« Reply #11 on: September 12, 2007, 11:11:47 PM »
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How about the DOS based 3.1 and the NSTF (?) of XP
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Thats not a problem.  As I mentioned you just need to have them on separate partitions.  NTFS is just a file system and thats only partition wide.  So you'll have your FAT32 for 3.1 on partition 0 and NTFS on partition 1 for XP.  You don't even need more than one hard drive.

Offline Meclar

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« Reply #12 on: September 12, 2007, 11:57:38 PM »
I understand what you're saying about partitions and that would make things a lot easier however they have to be physically two different hard drives. I'm going to do this eventually

Offline Mo

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« Reply #13 on: September 13, 2007, 12:05:22 AM »
Actually different hard drives would make it easier as you wouldn't have to deal with configuring a boot loader to chose what partition to boot.  You just need to swap the hard drives or put them both in and chose which to boot in the CMOS.

Offline Soul Sojourner

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Why would I want to do this?
« Reply #14 on: September 13, 2007, 01:16:57 AM »
So all you want is multiple OS's by having them on different HDD's? Then why wouldn't what 420 said work? That's why I'm confused. I don't see why you'd need "mobile" hard drives, if those hard drives are only going to be in one system, and why you would have a problem with having both in the system at the same time, you can just boot whichever one you wish to use...
« Last Edit: September 13, 2007, 01:17:40 AM by HeLLMasteRHeLL »

Offline Tea-cup

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« Reply #15 on: September 13, 2007, 01:58:51 PM »
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Also the software that's running on the harddrive is more stable and secure on 3.1 than XP.
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What software you're talking about?

- Mel