windows 7 and linux fedora dual boot with dual drives


  1. Posts : 4
    Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit
       #1

    windows 7 and linux fedora dual boot with dual drives


    hello,
    i have some questions regarding dual booting windows 7 home premium x64 with linux fedora 14 on dual independantly dedicated drives. i am a college student with moderate computer (windows) knowledge but am doing software development and would like to play around with some linux for a class. i have no prior experience with linux and have minimal knowledge of operation. i am currently running windows 7 and would like to keep it as my primary os. i do not wish to share media files across drives or os's, windows does that just fine as is and i dont want to get into a third drive. my current drive is a 1tb wd black caviar hdd. it is also currently 2/3rds full and the desktop is about 6 months old so i would rather not partition the drive for a dual boot. i would think that there are some other advantages for the os's operating independantly off their own drives other than if one hdd dies i should still have the other with its os still ok. i have read some topics about RAID configs with dual boot setups with dual drives like this but am not very familiar with RAID. is there a RAID config that would be beneficial in this situation? i currently do not have a RAID card. my tower internals are not very accessible and i dont like the idea of disconnecting drives depending on which os i want to operate. so what would be the best way of going about this? this is a near future project so i am looking for someone with some experience in this area hopefully.
    thanks - garrett
    Last edited by garrettchatt; 04 Feb 2011 at 04:48.
      My Computer


  2. Posts : 9,582
    Windows 8.1 Pro RTM x64
       #2

    Hi garrettchatt and welcome to Windows 7 Forums

    Are you trying to ask something? There's nothing there.
      My Computer


  3. Posts : 9,582
    Windows 8.1 Pro RTM x64
       #3

    That's much better, I can see your query now. As a matter of fact, I'm planning on doing something similar and installing Ubuntu on a separate drive to my RAID array containing my current OSes (see My System Specs). I will also be using a separate drive for Windows 8 when it comes out in Beta for testing purposes.

    With my system, there is an option during booting to select an alternative boot medium for that particular boot. On mine, it is the F11 key and the prompt appears when you power up the machine. I typically use it when reinstalling my OSes, as I have them on USB sticks for ease of keeping them updated. Do you have a similar prompt when you power up?
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  4. Posts : 4
    Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit
    Thread Starter
       #4

    it does not prompt me to select any alternate boot medium however when i enter my bios i can set boot device priority, theres not much else in my bios boot configuration settings for anything that resembled dual booting to me. i wouldnt mind if every time i wanted to run linux i had to enter bios and select respective drive.
      My Computer


  5. Posts : 4
    Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit
    Thread Starter
       #5

    one other side question... would linux be able to utilize transfer speeds of SATA III (6.0), would it be worth the cost to make the second drive a ssd? i mean im sure i wont be doing anything in linux to really notice a difference in performance but i wouldnt mind playing around with a ssd. i think ive seen some 50gb ssd for like $100, which is how much i'd be paying for an identical 1tb wd black caviar drive. however ive also read some reviews about ssd controllers being unreliable and responsible for poor write performance in earlier generation ssds, would it just be better to stick to rotating hd media for this situation?
      My Computer


  6. Posts : 4
    Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit
    Thread Starter
       #6

    sorry but i keep having ideas and questions pop into my head.. would it be a better idea altogether to purchase another identical hdd, back up my windows 7 and media, wipe my initial drive clean, and put the two drives in RAID 0 config, reinstall windows 7, then patrition the drives for the fedora os to boot from, or would that even be possible?
    Last edited by garrettchatt; 04 Feb 2011 at 08:38.
      My Computer


 

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