Poll

So, how many OS options do have on one system?

One
10 (33.3%)
Two
11 (36.7%)
Three
7 (23.3%)
Four
2 (6.7%)
I lost track a long time ago.
0 (0%)

Total Members Voted: 30

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Author Topic: Poll: Multi-Boot (2009)  (Read 1813 times)

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Offline Black Viper

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Poll: Multi-Boot (2009)
« on: March 20, 2009, 10:00:46 AM »
So, how many OS options do have on one system?
I was running four and it was an extreme pain.

1) XP 32-bit as it was my "OS of choice" for gaming reasons (not many DX10's out at the time)
2) XP 64-bit for my "get some work done" action. Stable. Supported > 4GB memory (for all of my virtual machine needs).
3) Vista 64-bit (for those few that supported DirectX 10 at the time of install... as in World in Conflict.
4) Flex OS, intended for Ubuntu 8.10 but ended up as Windows 7 upon beta release.

Currently, I am booting into only one (Vista x64) as it fits all of my current needs and it is like a dream. Serious. "Needing" to do something that I installed on another OS/partition is a bummer.

What do you boot to and why?

I have wanted to update my multi-boot guide for a long time and have not done so as I do not really know what the "greater need" for such is. I have multi-booted for a long time. Long before it was even a cool kid thing to do. Is multi-booting only a geek thing?
Discuss.

BV EDIT: Better formatting.
« Last Edit: April 21, 2009, 10:35:45 AM by Black Viper »
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Offline DJanda

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Re: Multi-Boot (2009)
« Reply #1 on: March 20, 2009, 12:01:47 PM »
Quote from: Black Viper on March 20, 2009, 10:00:46 AM
What do you boot to and why?
I use a Romtec Hard Drive Selector which gives me a pretty much bulletproof setup. It is an "always on" (if the computer is plugged into 120VAC, the selector is "on"). It is totally independent of the OS and allows me to select either (or both) of two drives. I boot to 2000 Pro, DOS 6.2 (to mess with old "Basic" games), and an old Red Hat Linux (which I use primarily to stay current in Unix environments).

Unfortunately, this piece of hardware seems to be no longer available (can't even find a "Romtec" company manufacturing electronic devices).

Fortunately, there are now "IDEX Hard Drive Switches" made by Indus Technologies Inc. they are made to work with ATA, IDE & SATA drives, fit in either 5.25" or 3.5" bays and can switch up to 4 drives. Appears to be even more bulletproof than the one that I have.

I don't have any other info, but doubt that these will work with RAID setups.

Quote from: Black Viper on March 20, 2009, 10:00:46 AM
Is multi-booting only a geek thing?
In my expeience ... Yup. :) To paraphrase" I have only 10 types of friends, those that understand binary and those that don't. Only those friends who understand binary multi-boot.
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Offline DJanda

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Re: Multi-Boot (2009)
« Reply #2 on: March 20, 2009, 12:12:33 PM »
Quote from: DJanda on March 20, 2009, 12:01:47 PM
I don't have any other info, but doubt that these will work with RAID setups.
On second thought, IDEX has "Master" switches that are used to control multiple "Hard Drive Switches" in, for instance, classroom evironments. This could probably be used to simultaneously switch multiple hard drives on a single computer.
Sorry 'bout not thinking of this until I had posted the above. Us old coots don't think as fast as we used to  :'(
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Offline Hal4511

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Re: Multi-Boot (2009)
« Reply #3 on: March 30, 2009, 11:41:14 AM »
Dual boot with Vista 32 bit and Mepis 64 bit

And two virtual boxes ...

So is that four or two ???
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Offline Black Viper

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Re: Multi-Boot (2009)
« Reply #4 on: March 30, 2009, 11:47:43 AM »
Quote from: Hal4511 on March 30, 2009, 11:41:14 AM
Dual boot with Vista 32 bit and Mepis 64 bit

And two virtual boxes ...

So is that four or two ???
Two. VM's do not count. :)
Mainly, I am concerned with boot options on one system, not Virtual options that run on top of a booted system.
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Offline Jair Crawford

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Re: Poll: Multi-Boot (2009)
« Reply #5 on: May 25, 2009, 09:31:31 PM »
Well right now I have just one, but I have plans for this entirely ludicrous multi-boot system I want to set up sometime in the unknown future, but if I go into details, the entire forum will be laughing at me... lol
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Offline VampireMuffinMan

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Re: Poll: Multi-Boot (2009)
« Reply #6 on: May 26, 2009, 04:53:36 AM »
Well, at one time I had XP Pro x86 SP3, XP Home x86 SP3, XP Pro x64, Vista Ultimate x64 SP1 and Ubuntuu (forget what version...I have the disk around here somewhere...) on a total of five hard drives (2x250 GB SATA II, 120 GB SATA I, 250 GB EIDE and 80 GB EIDE.  Right now, I just have the three SATA drives installed and XP Pro x86 SP3, Windows 7 beta x86 and Windows 7 RC x64.  I'm going to be dropping the 7 beta, though, so I will be back to dual-boot. 
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Offline Spawn

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Re: Poll: Multi-Boot (2009)
« Reply #7 on: May 29, 2009, 04:09:14 AM »
I had a multi-boot setup similar to yours BV, but I scraped all of that for a single-boot of Windows 7 64bit.  It's stable, fast, and it suits all my needs.

Spawn
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Offline Black Viper

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Re: Poll: Multi-Boot (2009)
« Reply #8 on: May 29, 2009, 07:20:35 AM »
Quote from: Spawn on May 29, 2009, 04:09:14 AM
It's stable, fast, and it suits all my needs.
Agree.
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Offline WildcatDan

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Re: Poll: Multi-Boot (2009)
« Reply #9 on: July 08, 2009, 11:45:18 AM »
We keep several dual boot systems around the shop that are booting both Windows Vista and Windows XP Pro.  This is primarily so we can better support both operating systems.  We'll see what happens when we officially put Windows 7 on one.  We've also played around with linux releases (we like Freespire the best). 
 
In general, I've found I only use my Windows Vista boot and seldom access the others.
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Offline Lody J.

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Re: Poll: Multi-Boot (2009)
« Reply #10 on: July 23, 2009, 07:23:33 AM »
I have a dual boot system.
One for my "normal"  and daily stuff running XP Pro on normal harddrives.
One for my Sonar Harddisk recording software and for Flightsimulator stuff running on a Western Digital Raptor, all this for speed.... also on XPPro.
Because of my software I can't run W7 and/or 64bit yet, but I surely would like to...

I have always had a dual boot where my most important stuff could be accessed from both systems.... a sort of safety... In case one harddisk crashed, I would still be able to run on the other system.

Lody J.
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Offline Runaway1956

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Re: Poll: Multi-Boot (2009)
« Reply #11 on: October 02, 2009, 10:46:26 PM »
One machine in my house is still multi-boot.  The wife has XP and Ubuntu on an old AMD 2400+

Personally, I gave multi-booting up.  Instead, I use virtual machines.  My hardware machine stays up 24/7, providing gateway services to the intranet, while I fool around with strange Linux distros, Win7, and WinXP inside the VM's. 

I just deleted three different Linux machines yesterday, I have two Win7 machines, and three WinXP machines.  I plan on consolidating data files on them soon, and deleting all but one Win7 machine.

Anyone who has more than 2 gig of memory, and a CPU faster than 2 Ghz should consider VM's.  If you have less than 2 gig of memory, it probably isn't worth messing with - thrashing hard disks will definitely ruin the experience!!
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Offline dipper

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Re: Poll: Multi-Boot (2009)
« Reply #12 on: November 09, 2009, 02:22:45 AM »
I use an IcyBox SATA hard drive caddy for my 3 OS's.

W7 x64 pro for my normal computing
W7 x64 pro for my Rail simulator and Rail Works
and
W7 x32 Home Premium for my Old Microsoft Train Simulater.

Each is on its own hard drive, the reason is to prevent any possible conflicts.

6 seconds is all it takes to swap drives, that does not include the PCs shut down and startup.
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Offline cuiq

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Re: Poll: Multi-Boot (2009)
« Reply #13 on: November 13, 2009, 08:56:43 AM »
I have two boxes one has just windows on it and the other has FreeBSD, Debian linux, and PC-BSD. This took some work because the BSD's are new to me (only been truly working with it for the past year). I have not been able to devote a lot of time to it because of all the computers i get for either repair or upgrades but i finally finished most of them and am ready to delve once again into BSD.......
............but............then
Then I got my copy of CoD Modern Warfare 2 next week is AC2 so I don't know how long it will be until I really fool with it.
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