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[Solved] How do i boot from two master harddrives

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Best answer from sub mesa.

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KeithMTX   10-05-2009 at 05:09:48 PM

i have two HD's which i wish to use as masters. how do i configure them and my bios so that i have a choice of which HD to boot from upon start up?

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Best answer from sub mesa
The boot order in your BIOS decides which drive to boot from.

Some BIOS have a "select boot device" button, like F10, to be pressed during POST.

And you can always use a boot manager like GAG. GAG can be freely downloaded and burned on CD, then booted from and installed on the first HDD. It will then allow you to boot from other partitions/disks/operating systems.

Windows' own boot manager should be able to do the same.
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sub mesa   10-05-2009 at 05:25:27 PM

By looking at the boot order sequence in the BIOS, every BIOS should have that. Basically it allows you to say, boot from 1) CDROM if its present, 2) Harddrive

Because you talk about master you probably are referring to older parallel ATA harddrives, which need jumpering. Once properly connected, the primary master HDD is usually booted first, but this can be changed in the BIOS. Generally, the C-drive or system drive should be the first detectable harddrive to avoid any problems with drive letters etc.

------------------------------ ...man will occasionally stumble over the truth, but usually manages to pick himself up, walk over or around it, and carry on.
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KeithMTX   10-15-2009 at 06:54:46 PM

i already know how to jumper the drives for master and slave etc...and i already know about the boot order in my bios. .......

maybe i asked the wrong question.....can i have a choice in DOS when i first turn on my pc as to which harddrive i wish to boot from? i was once on a PC that asked if i wanted to boot 'blue' or 'red' and only certain things were accessible from each boot. or was this a 'partition' thing on one harddrive?

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sub mesa   10-15-2009 at 07:27:31 PM
Best answer

The boot order in your BIOS decides which drive to boot from.

Some BIOS have a "select boot device" button, like F10, to be pressed during POST.

And you can always use a boot manager like GAG. GAG can be freely downloaded and burned on CD, then booted from and installed on the first HDD. It will then allow you to boot from other partitions/disks/operating systems.

Windows' own boot manager should be able to do the same.

------------------------------ ...man will occasionally stumble over the truth, but usually manages to pick himself up, walk over or around it, and carry on.
Reply to sub mesa
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