Connecting the multiple multiple hdds to multiple pcs

Toggle sidebar Toggle sidebar
C

castlechef

Honorable
Apr 20, 2013
8
0
10,510
Hi,

I have a few computers and thus a few hard drives. In an ideal world I would have all of the hard dives externally stored (each with a different OS on them) and connect the to some kind of switch box, then be able to switch which computer is running which OS. I don't want/need to switch whilst active but I would like it so that I could run an OS needed for a reason such as internet use, or gaming or messing around with Linux running on the fastest pc, while on a different running pc I could play music or search the web. Also, could I install the drivers for all of the computers even though it is not using all of the hardware at any one time? (Mainly for a windows hard drive). Can I buy some kind of switch box to make that possible? Would I need to buy two and reverse them (one for computers the other for hard drives)? The would all be running with a 64 bit processor but would there be compatibility problems?

Sorry this is quite long
Any help would be greatly appreciated :)
 
Solution
J
There are 2 big problems. An OS installs and set its self up to work with all the hardware on the PC it is on. Installing multiple device drivers for different hardware causes so many issues we just don't even suggest you go there.

Second, and this is the BIG problem, an OS license agreement states that it can only be installed on 1 PC at a time, so every time you moved it to another PC, it will require reactivation (after you spend a considerable amount of time reconfiguring and reinstalling device drivers). After a few times doing this, Microsoft is not going to keep you giving you new activation numbers.

In short, if you have 5 PCs, you need 5 installs and 5 license activations, even if you set up a server and a network, you still...
Sort by date Sort by votes
C

castlechef

Honorable
Apr 20, 2013
8
0
10,510
Would it be possible to externally store, say three sata hard drives, and for instance have xp, w8 and ubuntu installed on them and before boot (using a large extension cable) connect to the computer to the hard drive with the OS I want to run?
If that does work, what is stopping me having a long extension cable from two other computers and connect them to the a different hard drive? I am quite new experimenting with things in computers but are you saying that when you install an OS onto a hard drive, is looks at the hardware and only works for that? Is it worth messing around with a spare hard drive, installing an os and seeing if it boot with another pc?
Thanks for the help :)
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
C

castlechef

Honorable
Apr 20, 2013
8
0
10,510
Say I had three computers with the same processors and motherboard but with different graphics cards, would it work? Or if I had the same motherboard but with a different version of the processor, e.g. sandy i3 on one and sandy i5 on the other? Or different amounts of ram. Which component have to stay the same? Could it just be the motherboard and ram, because then I could work around that... say I want to upgrade my processor, would I really have to re-install all my operating systems? Would it work if the CPU architecture is the same, or they are different versions of the intel celeron? Sorry I am asking sooo many questions but I am only 15 and have just gotten into the wonders of computers and because you said that I now need to put back together three computers which are in varied stages of dis-assembly on my bed...one more question, is it just windows which would have a problem with that, would linux be okay, and what if I installed the drivers for the components for the other computer before I tried to boot on it, so I had two sets of drivers installed? Thank you :)
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
J

jitpublisher

Splendid
May 16, 2006
8,747
2
31,960
There are 2 big problems. An OS installs and set its self up to work with all the hardware on the PC it is on. Installing multiple device drivers for different hardware causes so many issues we just don't even suggest you go there.

Second, and this is the BIG problem, an OS license agreement states that it can only be installed on 1 PC at a time, so every time you moved it to another PC, it will require reactivation (after you spend a considerable amount of time reconfiguring and reinstalling device drivers). After a few times doing this, Microsoft is not going to keep you giving you new activation numbers.

In short, if you have 5 PCs, you need 5 installs and 5 license activations, even if you set up a server and a network, you still must do the same thing.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Solution
C

castlechef

Honorable
Apr 20, 2013
8
0
10,510
What about open source operating systems such as ubuntu, linux mint or android? I have 4 copies of windows xp, is there any way to work around the it? What if I use a modded version of xp which does not need activation (technically illegal but if I have the copies of it, I personally see nothing wrong with it as long as I don't use the other versions). I would only use a complete maximum of 3 computers even if I did get this working. Does the os go into as much depth as looking at product numbers when finding drivers, would 2 computers which were liberally identical in all components work even without a modded version of xp? In which case would something not work if you had one computer with a slightly faster processor model based around the same system. Sorry if I look stupid....
I have upgraded components and it has made no difference other than things like swapping round ram slots, upgrading a pc does not require re-activation does it?
Thanks all :)
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
You must log in or register to reply here.

TRENDING THREADS

Latest posts

Moderators online

Share this page

COMPANY
RESOURCES
FOLLOW
Top Bottom