Mtnias

Right so as I'm sure you've noticed, this is only my second post, and, in a way, it reflects my ability/knowledge. Please bear that in mind
Anyway. What I wish to do is grab myself a sizeable amount of memory (4-6gb) as well as a new gfx card (thinking the sapphire vapor-x 4890) and a WD caviar black 1tb HDD. However, having that amount of RAM with my current 32bit OS is complete overkill. And this is where my question arises - is it possible to dedicate an OS to just one drive? That is, have vista allocated to the drive that currently resides in my machine and then have W7 on the WD caviar when it arrives?
What I really want to do is be able to boot up and be presented the option to choose my OS on startup. Don't know if this makes it any easier, but I actually don't want access to the opposing drives when one is in use (that is to say, when on the W7 WD caviar drive I wouldn't want access to my drive with vista on)
Not sure if I've made much sense there but yeah... what you guys think?? (:

edit: I'd like to avoid partitioning at all cost...

esocid

Yes, this is possible. I have my Win7 and Fedora on one drive, and Vista on another. Just make sure you install the newest Windows last, and the boot manager will pick up your Vista and display both in the menu.

As for the option of not accessing the other drive, not sure why you want to do that, but I don't know how you can either. Other than disabling the drive once you are within your OS.

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Mtnias

ah well basically my reasoning is quite simple...
As I'm sure we're all aware, Microsoft has a tendancy to release its products several years before they are complete >.< Due to a whole host of possible compatibility errors & general bugs that are bound to be hidden here and there, I'd have liked to be able to safeguard my old drive for the first few months of having W7 if for nothing else than peace of mind. Looks like I just have to be careful is all.
But thankyou, you've answered what is definitely the more important of the two questions; much appreciated!!

esocid

One thing you could try is setting the permissions to that drive to read only. When in your OS, just right click the other drive and go to security. Under the users listed, you can set the permissions for each, and set them to read only.

__________________
Phenom II x4 920 Deneb @ 3.64
EVGA 260 Core 216 Superclocked

We Are Gr33n Machine

Fedora 10 Post Installation Tips My-Guides Fedora 11 Installation Guide

Mtnias

such a simple fix - love it!!! cheers
and as for ska - I saw the Aggrolites live at Reading festival this summer - absolutely immense (slightly off topic I know, but yeah )