On Wed, Apr 22, 2009 at 2:15 PM, LarryT <l02tur...@comcast.net> wrote:
> Hi Ed - > I think I'd definately go the route of 2 physical hard drives if these > weren't a laptop. I already have several hard drives for laptops so if I > could do it this way using USB ext encl or HD docking station I would. > > Also - I saw some connectors o convert from ATA to SATA but assumed that > wouldn't help - probably isn't room in he laptop anyway. Would that work in > a desktop? I have a SATA HD I could > put in my desktop if it would. > Sure, they have SATA to PATA (Serial to Parallel) adapters so you can use a SATA HD in a PATA system. (PATA is IDE ATA) However you lose the speed advantages of SATA. The better solution is to pick up a cheap SATA controller and add that to the system instead of the converter. (The SATA adapter is basically a SATA controller that interfaces with PATA instead of PCI) Actually I attempted to install XP via a ext encl but the install program > didn't pick up that drive. I assumed it will not install thru a ext > location? > The XP install you were using may not have included the latest USB drivers. This is the problem with XP, it's getting long in the tooth. The original XP did not have drivers for things that are common now, like SATA drives, or USB 2.0 Hard Drives. Though I've never tried to boot XP from USB, so it might simply be unable to do it. The logical drive strategy certainly seem complex! > It can be, especially if you ever get to a point that you have to reinstall the OS on one of the logical partitions, because it's going to overwrite the MBR and then you'll have to use another piece of software to restore it. Linux is far more capable at dual booting in this regards. The Linux Boot Loader, GRUB or LILO is easily able to load any kernel you point it at and doesn't care about what's behind it because once the kernel bootstraps, the kernel takes over system start. BTW - I have software that sets up logical drives which are used for games > that req the disc to be in the machine to run the program. But didn't > consider it for this application. Would that work? > No, because that is creating logical drives in image files. Good for virtualization like VirtualPC or VMWare, but not for direct boot from a cold system. Thx - > LarryT > > EdB -- "I'm a Night Elf Mohawk!" - Mr. T. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: <http://okiebenz.com/pipermail/mercedes_okiebenz.com/attachments/20090422/1944cd58/attachment.html> _______________________________________ http://www.okiebenz.com For new and used parts go to www.okiebenz.com To search list archives http://www.okiebenz.com/archive/ To Unsubscribe or change delivery options go to: http://okiebenz.com/mailman/listinfo/mercedes_okiebenz.com