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    G50V OS on Second HD?

    Discussion in 'Asus' started by mike1977, Nov 10, 2008.

  1. mike1977

    mike1977 Notebook Enthusiast

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    Can another OS be installed on the second hard drive and make it bootable?
    Has anyone tried this? I was wondering if the second hard drive is just for data, backup, and imaging, or can it be used for something more dramatic. If not possible has anyone tried a Vista - XP dual boot?
    Thanks
     
    mike1977, Nov 10, 2008
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  2. E.B.E.

    E.B.E. NBR Procrastinator

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    I don't see any reason why it can't be installed. You would need to properly configure the boot loader to choose between the OSes, or else switch manually between the HDDs whenever you wanted to switch OS.
     
    E.B.E., Nov 10, 2008
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  3. mike1977

    mike1977 Notebook Enthusiast

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    But I'm not clear if a bootloader is going to see the second hard drive in this machine.
     
    mike1977, Nov 10, 2008
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  4. E.B.E.

    E.B.E. NBR Procrastinator

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    Why not?______
     
    E.B.E., Nov 10, 2008
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  5. mike1977

    mike1977 Notebook Enthusiast

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    I don't know. I know that a bootloader will see active partitions, but I am not sure of two hard drives. For example, it certainly would not work on a desktop with two hard drives.
     
    mike1977, Nov 10, 2008
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  6. E.B.E.

    E.B.E. NBR Procrastinator

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    I think it would. See grub for instance, the root command.

    http://www.gnu.org/software/grub/manual/html_node/root.html#root

    It's been long since I've used grub; but, again, I don't see any reason for which a good bootloader will not support booting from multiple devices.

    Even if all else fails, all you have to do is press ESC at ASUS splashscreen to select the proper HDD for booting. No need to deal with any boot loaders then.
     
    E.B.E., Nov 10, 2008
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  7. stealthl

    stealthl Notebook Consultant

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    It's very possible. At the moment I have Vista 64 on hdd 1 partition 1, Data on 2nd partition of hdd 1, Vista Ultimate 32 on hdd 2 partition 1, XP Pro 32 on hdd 2 partition 2, Ubuntu 8.10 on hdd 2 partition 3, swap file for ubuntu 8.10 on hdd 2 partition 4, and free space on hdd 2 partition 5. Ubuntu was the latest OS I installed so it boots into grub and from there recognizes all the Windows installations so you can boot into any one.
     
    stealthl, Nov 10, 2008
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  8. Will1989

    Will1989 Notebook Geek

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    Er, yes it would. I had a Vista and XP dual boot configuration on my desktop with two separate hard drives since Vista's release (before dropping XP earlier this year).
     
    Will1989, Nov 10, 2008
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  9. mike1977

    mike1977 Notebook Enthusiast

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    I stand corrected. I would rather not deal with bootloaders if at all possible.
    I can do this then without using Grub?
     
    mike1977, Nov 11, 2008
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  10. E.B.E.

    E.B.E. NBR Procrastinator

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    Already said that a couple of times :rolleyes:

    See ASUS Info BoothFAQ for details.
     
    Last edited by a moderator: May 12, 2015
    E.B.E., Nov 11, 2008
    #10