[ale] OT:Hard Drive Switcher

[Ryan Williams]

> Are you talking about something where you can turn a knob and switch 
> between
> OS's ???  If so, then it will never work, as stuff loaded in RAM for 
> one OS
> won't work with the other one.  The article seems to not mention that 
> you
> still have to log out, stop the box, flip the switch and then boot up 
> again
> to switch OS's

Actually, it does mention that somewhere I think. At least, I realized 
that was the case. You would shut down, flip the switch and reboot.

> - so what's different from dual booting and putting one OS on
> one drive and the other OS on the other drive ???  Dual booting these 
> days
> is incredibly simple - just remember to install Windows first then 
> Linux.

To be honest, I'm just a bit clueless when it comes to messing with PC 
bios (being primarily a MacOSX guy). I've used *nix remotely for years, 
but this is my first time doing my own install. So, this just seemed 
like the simpler option. It's also a logistical issue with software. 
I've been told time and time again to load XP first before adding 
linux. I'm putting the PC together this weekend and wanted to load SuSE 
on to play with, but the copy of XP I ordered won't arrive until next 
week. Impatience. :) This PC will primarily be used for linux -- only 
booting into win on the odd occasion I need it for music production 
apps. I'm irritated enough by the idea of having to use win for some 
things, so having to wait on it before I can do anything else is even 
more annoying.

But you bring up a good point. If you have two drives and install linux 
on one and win on the other, does it really matter that the linux 
install is existent before you install XP? Is either linux or win going 
to want to be on the master drive (I assumed both would, hence the 
switching question). Ultimately, it's not a big deal. I can always wipe 
the drives and reinstall everything once I get my XP disc. I can just 
do a test SuSE install this weekend to make sure everything works.

Sorry. Though I've been doing remote FreeBSD/Linux server admin for 
years, I'm pretty much a desktop linux newbie.

Ryan