How to make a dual-boot IDE cable

Posted on Saturday, April 28 2007 @ 5:35 CEST by Thomas De Maesschalck

Ages ago a Ghetto HDD selector howto was published on DV Hardware. This week I got contacted by Stefan Vorkoetter who created an improved version:

After much discussion, it was decided that we still needed the ability to test MotoCalc on Windows 98 and 2000, but that other than that, we really only needed one of the two machines, and that it could be in a low-power standby mode most of the time. That's when I came upon the idea of installing the primary hard disks from both boxes into one of them, with a front panel switch to choose which operating system (OS) to load.

You can check out his guide over here.

About the Author

Thomas De Maesschalck

Thomas has been messing with computer since early childhood and firmly believes the Internet is the best thing since sliced bread. Enjoys playing with new tech, is fascinated by science, and passionate about financial markets. When not behind a computer, he can be found with running shoes on or lifting heavy weights in the weight room.

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Re: How to make a dual-boot IDE cable
by Anonymous on Monday, December 01 2008 @ 6:57 CET

i think it would be better (power consumption was the issue wasnt it?) to make a switch for the popwer supply to each of the hdd, but thats just my opinion i did this for my pc so i could run linux and xp

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