Multidisk and multiboot

tweetiepooh — Sat Sep 29, 2012 3:38 pm

Author: tweetiepooh

Posted: Sat Sep 29, 2012 3:38 pm

Here is how I set up my PC with 2 hard disks.

Disk1 = software and O/S
Disk2 = data

1)Set BIOS to boot from disk 1 and install Windows. Leave room for Linux.
2)Create partitions on disk 2 for data. I use NTFS for some so I can share easily with Linux
3)Set BIOS to boot from disk 2
4)Install Linux to partitions on disk 1 but install boot loader to MBR on disk 2 (with OpenSuse this is the default)
5)Mount shared data areas in Linux. I create groups for say music and photos, group own the data areas and make group writeable. (e.g. members of photo group can write to the /Photos mount)

Now on booting the system will boot from disk 2 and I get multiboot menu booting to Linux or Windows. If something should go wrong I can switch BIOS to boot from disk 1 and go straight to Windows. I do this if I need to apply patches to Windows with lots of reboots.

Linux Format forums

Multidisk and multiboot