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Baryonic_Being

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Advice Needed on Multi-Boot Systems between two Hard Drives

I currently have two hard drives: a Master (80GB) and a Slave (120GB). The Master has both Mandrake Linux and Windows installed on it; I use LILO to select the OS I want to boot.

What I would like to achieve is a bootloader (LILO or otherwise) that will allow me to boot to these OSs as well as the Slave HDD. I would then like to be able to use the Slave to try out various other OSs for purposes of experimentation, but I need a solution with no risks whatsoever - I always want the Master drive to be kept safe, accessible and bootable.

I understand that some OSs overwrite the Master Boot Record when installed, so how do I keep the bootloader in place no matter what? And would I need to change the Slave drive to being a Secondary Master?

Thanks in advance.
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Gobi_Lux

check this http://www.boot-us.com/download.htm
it ia a really good boot-manager. You can install it, after installing any OS.

But you should be able to use your lilo aswell after you installed a new OS
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But I'd need to update the boot manager every time I install a new OS. Ideally what I'd like is a constant boot menu that allows me to select my stable Windows or Linux OSs on the one drive and then if I select to boot the second drive I'd really like it to come up with a second boot menu for OSs that are on the second drive. And that way I should only need to update the second boot menu, but not the first.

How could I achieve that?
I don't think that  to bootmanagers would be possible. But with boot-us you can manage both of the drives.
Can LILO do that too? Since I've already got LILO I would prefer to use that.
I think I know how to do it. Basically I need to set my Slave drive as Master and unplug the current Master before installing some other OSs, including a boot menu.

Then I'd need to replug-in the first drive and add an entry to my /etc/lilo.conf file so that it boots to the second drive's MBR. That way I can have a second boot menu.

But since I also have two CD drives, how would the computer react to having two hard drives and one CD drive that are all set as masters? That's the only problem I can see now.
Hmm, Some BIOS's will allow you to chose a boot order where D: comes before C:

therefore, you could have two hard drives, each with their own boot record, and going into the BIOS and changing the boot order will change which drive is active.

I believe there si also a product that will connect to the master and slave jumpers of both drives and allow you to swap master and slave that way, without opening the computer up. Speeds above UDMA 33 may cause problems however, because afaik, in UDMA66/100/133 the master drive must always be on the end of the cable with the slave in the middle.
Yes I have seen the feature in my BIOS that allows me to change the boot order, but I thought that only the master drives were bootable as far as the BIOS was concerned...?

If you could elaborate on the possible whereabouts of the master/slave switching device I would be most grateful.

Thank you.
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Timotheus1

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Thank you! They will do exactly what I want, but do you have any idea where I can get hold of one in the UK?