How to Dual Boot With Two Hard Drives

Dual booting allows you to run multiple operating systems on independent internal hard drives. This may be two instances of the same operating system, to allow for a backup in the case of a drive failure, or two disparate operating systems to allow for more than one working environment. Dual booting operating systems from independent hard drives provides program flexibility, especially now that Macintosh computers are based off of Intel processors across a wide range of vendors.

Instructions

1. Install the primary operating system to the primary hard drive labeled by the computer as "C:\." Follow the standard operating system installation procedures included with the installation disk by the operating system manufacturer.

2. Reboot the computer and enter the primary operating system.

3. Insert the installation disc for the second operating system to be installed.

4. Start the installation program and select the second hard drive as the target for the installation. In most instances the second hard drive is labeled "E:\."

5. Reboot the computer upon the successful installation of the second operating system.

6. Select the operating system you wish to boot into on an automatically generated dual-boot screen that now appears prior to every operating system boot process.

Tips & Warnings

• Back up all important files to an external location before changing the computer to dual boot with two hard drives.