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Thread ID: 75098 2006-12-16 07:34:00 Two Windows 98se setups in one computer? worl (8599) Press F1
Post ID Timestamp Content User
507115 2006-12-16 07:34:00 In one computer, can I run two different Windows 98se setups, each one on it's own hdd, and switch between them using bios? worl (8599)
507116 2006-12-16 07:46:00 seen it done. installed on seperate partitions and switchable useing a boot loader, saves mucking around in bios. tweak'e (69)
507117 2006-12-16 07:58:00 Worl........Just out of curiosity, why do you want to??? PJ Poppa John (284)
507118 2006-12-16 08:08:00 I have several small Hdds and one of them is my 'good copy' of Win 98se and others are used to 'play with'. It would be nice to have two of them installed at the same time so that I do not have to do 'hardware work' when switching from one to the other. worl (8599)
507119 2006-12-16 08:53:00 Worl.....Ok, Thanks . That makes sense. PJ Poppa John (284)
507120 2006-12-16 08:58:00 A faster way of doing this is to use a removable hard drive caddy which fits into a spare 5.25" bay (same as CD bays). The hard drives are put into a tray which slides in and locks into the caddy holder. You just slide in which ever hard drive you wish to use and it only takes a second to change them around. Each drive is set to master still seeing as you only use one at a time. Nice and simple. :)

Here is an example of the caddy and tray you could use: 3.5" Removable Rack & Tray (www.dse.co.nz).
Jen (38)
507121 2006-12-16 19:46:00 Thanks for that idea Jen. I may look at that.

In the meantime I have taken out my cdrom and now only have two hdd's on the two 40 pin ide cables, one on primary drive 0 and one on secondary drive 0. I can switch between them with bios and they both run win98se ok.

Now, can I safely put my cdrom back as slave on secondary drive 1 and still do the bios switching of the hdds? I seem to recall reading somewhere that this is ok but that there may be some loss of performance?

I have a Dell Optiplex GX110 733mhz and 196mb.
worl (8599)
507122 2006-12-16 19:59:00 I would put both hdds on Primary Master and slave .

And put the cd by itself on secondary master . And you're right its not a good idea to put cds or dvds on the same IDE connection as a hdd .
Speedy Gonzales (78)
507123 2006-12-16 20:07:00 Hi Speedy. You describe my original setup where I could not switch hdds in bios.


And you're right its not a good idea to put cds or dvds on the same IDE connection as a hdd.

Is this your own experience? What would be the result?
worl (8599)
507124 2006-12-16 20:13:00 Hi Speedy. You describe my original setup where I could not switch hdds in bios.



Is this your own experience? What would be the result?

No its a known fact. As you said it can slow things down due to the different speed/s of the hdd's and cd's/dvd's. if they're on the same IDE connection.
Speedy Gonzales (78)
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