Choosing which drive to boot

[craigwojo]

I put together a system and would like to have 3 different drives (each drive to have windows 7 - 1 drive would be for my studio (music) set up, another for my graphics while another drive just for other misc games and such. I don't want my system to get saturated with all the crap that would happen if I used all the programs on one os or drive.) I want a different drive for each set-up and be able to choose what drive I want to boot from when I turn on the system.

Ist this possible? Would you recommened vitual drives on one drive? Would a virtual machine work for my case?

Thank you,
Craig W. - still a novice with this sort of configuation.

Thank you and God bless.

 

[cutebeans]

Huh? What are you talking about? I seem to be confused but I know what you to do but do not understand the reason why.

It would be a worthless and pointless set up if you were ever to do that. You don't need to do that. What you need is more ram not more HDDs lol.

 

[clarkjd]

I put together a system and would like to have 3 different drives (each drive to have windows 7 - 1 drive would be for my studio (music) set up, another for my graphics while another drive just for other misc games and such. I don't want my system to get saturated with all the crap that would happen if I used all the programs on one os or drive.) I want a different drive for each set-up and be able to choose what drive I want to boot from when I turn on the system.

Ist this possible? Would you recommened vitual drives on one drive? Would a virtual machine work for my case?

Thank you,
Craig W. - still a novice with this sort of configuation.

Thank you and God bless.

You could do it that way, but it might be more trouble than it is worth. First, you would have to re-boot every time you wanted to switch between the applications, second, you would have to apply security updates to EACH instance of Windows(Boot, update, reboot if required to finish updates, reboot to 2nd instance, update it and so on.

 

[pjmelect]

I think that it would be better to have just one operating system for all of your applications. However I use virtual machines when I try out software and experiment with my computer and I have a clean virtual machine for when I do financial transactions on the web.

 

[craigwojo]

So would you recommened VM to set up individual setups for each theme?

 

[pjmelect]

No. Just use the virtual machine for experimentation trying out software etc.

 

[Katsushiro]

I have the same desire as the OP, two drives, each with an OS on them.

There are several third-party solutions that will allow you to do this. Some even have fancy graphics. I tried a couple, but I found support was highly focused on configuring the tools through Linux OS, which I don't want.

I eventually settled on the built in Windows Boot Manager. Search for a utility called "BCDEdit". It is a simple text interface that loads quickly and provides the functionality that you need. Follow the recommendations to backup your original file.

 

[pjmelect]

You don't need BCDEdit, you only "need" it if you want to edit the boot order or information. You can do it manually but BCDEdit is easier.

 

[craigwojo]

What is the easiest with graphics. Recommended. How is it installed since it opens up the selection before booting windows.
And also, can I have 3 drives or more to choose from?