Installing Linux on a separate hard drive

[timmay3141]

I have a relatively small hard drive with Windows on it. I want to install Linux (dual boot - I need Windows for VS.NET and games) but I don't want to run out of space, so I was thinking about buying another hard drive and installing Linux on this drive. Problem is, I don't know if I will get the option to boot Windows or Linux on startup without going into the BIOS every time and telling it which hard drive to boot from. Anyone know if I can do this? If not, could someone recommend a good free program for repartitioning a hard drive without reformatting it? Help would be much appreciated.

 

[thedaver]

There are literally thousands of posts on this forums and on the net that talk you through installing windows first and then linux. Once installed you use the linux boot loader (either lilo or grub) and that boot loader offers the decision at boot time from which partition to boot from.

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[franklin97355]

Yes you can. I have a removable HD tray and swap the drives to swap the OS. Makes life a whole lot easier for me.

 

[stefanwagner]

The bootloaders (grub, lilo) allow to boot a predefined system (linux or windows in your case) after a specified amount of times (i.e.: 3 seconds, 30 seconds, ...) automatically, which is nice, if you boot the same system more often.

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