Many many thanks for the information :) It was humourous and informative..
Andy Andrew Oakley wrote: > Andy Watts wrote: > >> Chris Rowson wrote: >> >>>>>> l have 2 hard drives in my machine, 1 with windows 2k and the other with >>>>>> Ubuntu on it. l've tried having them both connected to the same ribbon >>>>>> and rebooting with either of the 2 hard drives powered. Sadly it doesn't >>>>>> seem to work so l wonder whether there's a solution..Both drives are set >>>>>> as masters.. l don't want to have both OSs on the same hard drive >>>>>> > > Okay, that tells us what you DON'T want to do. ;-) > > What is it that you DO want to do? > > * Dual boot using separate hard drives? > > * Have removable drives? > > * Something else? What? > > Also... are you using IDE/ATA drives (wide flat ribbon) or SATA (thin > cable)? > > >>> I'm assuming you've got a boot loader (Windows - NT loader I think? - >>> or GRUB for Linux) installed on one of the hard drives. You'll need >>> this on the bootable drive so that your PC knows where the operating >>> system resides. >>> > > I think Andy might be trying to switch off (electrically) one or other > IDE hard drives... if so, a boot loader on only one of those drives > won't help. > > I suspect Andy is fundamentally misunderstanding the relationship > between master/slave and boot options. I suspect Andy thinks a drive has > to be master to be bootable (which is incorrect). > > >> l did try setting both to masters, installing a switch on the -ve rail >> of the 2 molexes. Sadly it didn't work :( >> > > Yeah, that really won't. > > Why have you set them both as masters on the same cable? > > * You want removable drives (because you're clever, and you might want > to move the drive to another PC one day), or you want to be able to > entirely switch off a drive (because you're trying to run on the > absolute minimum current draw, perhaps because your machine is running > from 12V DC battery such as a car or van, or because you're just REALLY > stingy with the electricity bill) > > In this case, buy a removable drive caddy or a USB external drive > enclosure. Removable caddies are about ten quid and fit into a 5.25" > CD/DVD slot. > > (Note that the environmental cost of manufacturing the caddy will vastly > exceed the environmental cost of leaving the second drive switched on, > in case you think this is some kind of "green" option; unused drives > will switch into low-power mode anyway) > > * You want to dual boot in the traditional manner > > Set one as master and put your boot loader on it, such as GRUB. > Configure this one boot loader to offer the option to boot off either > drive. See the GRUB documentation or ask here for more help configuring > GRUB across two drives (clue: HD0, HD1). > > Set the other as slave. You won't need a boot loader on the slave, since > the boot loader on the master drive will be able to boot off either > drive (and indeed off any other connected bootable device). > > * You want to dual boot through BIOS (because you hate configuring boot > loaders, and your BIOS offers a simple boot menu such as Dell's F12 > option, and you're just a bit awkward like that) > > Set one as master and the other as slave. The BIOS boot options will > allow you to boot off drive 0, drive 1 etc. > > Note that this still won't allow you to switch off the unused drive > whilst the PC is running. But it will allow you to remove/disconnect the > slave drive (but not the master) once the PC is switched off. > > * You don't want removable drives but you are determined to have two > bootable drives that are masters (because both of the hard drives have > had their master/slave jumpers permanently forced into the master > position in an unfortunate but surprisingly selective accident with a > soldering iron / tube of superglue / welding rod, OR, your hard drives > are set to master by default and you've lost the jumpers) > > Install the drives on separate cables. Change the jumpers on your CD/DVD > drive to be a slave. > > (I have some spare hard drive jumpers if you want one? Send an SAE to A > Oakley, 7 Frampton Cottages, GL20 8NX) > > -- ubuntu-uk@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-uk https://wiki.kubuntu.org/UKTeam/
