2 hard drives and 3 operating systems

[DCFC79]

Im not sure if this is the right board so feel free to move it if necessary, ive got a sata and an ide hard drive. If i were to install xp on 1 hard drive and say ubuntu and linux mint on the other hard drive and if I did would A: there be any problems with it, or B:has anyone tried it, did it work ok.

 

[rockbyter]

install xp first. Ubuntu will give you a boot menu.

the more reasonable option i see is to install :
1. Linux and vmware, to run windows in a VM
2. Windows and vmware, to run linux in a VM.
Use the 2nd drive to store the VM, and it'll have maximum performance if you have a cpu that supports VT.

depends on your system, and your needs, but that opens the door to do both without a reboot.

 

[Freeduck]

I tried that with 2 SATA disks. It worked better with Ubuntu than with Mint.
I have Windows XP on one disk. Disconnected that disk and installed Ubuntu on a second disk. Then reconnected the first disk. During startup I can select which disk to boot from. Later I tried the same thing with Linux Mint (not the latest version). Linux Mint didn't want to start after reconnecting the Windows disk. Ubuntu 8.10 often freezes on my PC, something with graphics dirvers I guess.

 

[DCFC79]

Ok thanks for the replies,

 

[Ijack]

Do what rockybyter says and you should have no problems. I've got a couple of computers with 3 OSes on one and 4 on the other. The vmware option is good for experimenting, but not so good performance-wise. Don't run XP in a VM if you want to play games!

 

[Zenthar]

If you use linux mainly for dev and testing some stuff (like I do) the VM would be a good simple solution. If you want to dual-boot, your could always partition your SATA drive (depending on size), there would be no performance loss as you will never use 2 OS at once.

 

[DCFC79]

Do what rockybyter says and you should have no problems. I've got a couple of computers with 3 OSes on one and 4 on the other. The vmware option is good for experimenting, but not so good performance-wise. Don't run XP in a VM if you want to play games!

I dont play games well maybe solataire but no high performance games,

 

[DCFC79]

If you use linux mainly for dev and testing some stuff (like I do) the VM would be a good simple solution. If you want to dual-boot, your could always partition your SATA drive (depending on size), there would be no performance loss as you will never use 2 OS at once.

I dont do any dev work, im just wanting to try other open source OS out, ive tried a few so far and ive got it narrowed down to linux mint, ubuntu, open suse and maybe kubuntu and xubuntu

 

[Zenthar]

If you only want to "try them out", then the more reason to use VM, you can just discard them at your leisure.

 

[Ijack]

Agreed - VMware, or one of the other virtualization solutions, sounds ideal for your needs.

 

[DCFC79]

Agreed - VMware, or one of the other virtualization solutions, sounds ideal for your needs.

Ok then VMware it is,

 

[daskrabbe]

The newest Ubuntu actually has a much better solution to this problem. You can install Ubuntu as a program in Windows. You'll still only be able to run one OS at the time, but no need for partitions and very easy to remove. Performance is close to a normal Ubuntu install.

http://wubi-installer.org/

 

[DCFC79]

The newest Ubuntu actually has a much better solution to this problem. You can install Ubuntu as a program in Windows. You'll still only be able to run one OS at the time, but no need for partitions and very easy to remove. Performance is close to a normal Ubuntu install.

http://wubi-installer.org/

yes ive tried that but id like to use ubuntu more often than a one off