hard drive switch

[syncdram]

need help, have sd-11 motherboard, 2 western dig. hard drives 40g. trying to make a hard drive switch to load between 2 different hard drives with 2 different ops. i have to go into cmos to auto detect hard drives, nothing i do seem to work with a spdt switch. any suggestions? Ken

[coolcps]

Im not sure if what i am saying is right, but from what it sounds like you want to have it boot the other operating system on another HDD. In that case go into bios, the boot devices, then boot priority and put the HDD with the OS you want to number 1. I hope that helps.

[syncdram]

yes i'm trying to boot between 2 opperating systems on 2 different drives without partitioning and a bootmanager.

[syncdram]

I've just tried your suggestion and it didn't work, I have one drive set to primary and the 2 drive set to slave, went into the bios and tried but it still booted into the primary drive

[scott_d]

Are you trying to do the trick that they showed on Tech Tv?
http://www.techtv.com/screensavers/howto/story/0,24330,3425846,00.html

[syncdram]

yes i am i spent about 11 hours on this with no luck, i'm thinking now mabey i can't do this with my motherboard because its not a self auto deticting drive bios on boot, i have to physicaly go into the bios and manually auto detect each change i make with every change i make to a hard drive. Any body with any suggestions i'm listening.

[scott_d]

Since you cant get the jumper switch method to work, you may have to invest in one of these if you really want it to work.
http://www.romtecusa.com/trios/product/rom_t6_main.htm
HTH

[mike breck]

Try putting your jumpers on the Slave position on both HDs.

Nicklock uses exactly the same principle and that's what they recommend for two WD HDs.

http://www.nicklock.com/

Naja found this out when he tried to use Nicklock with two WDs.

HTH

[syncdram]

I will try that, 2 questions though, 1. when i do this and go into the bios to auto detect the hard drives will only 1 come up as slave? and 2. on the plugs that i'm using for the jumpers, do i put both black and red wires together for each jumper plug then solder them to a post on the swith or solder on red from one jumper plug and a black from another jumper plug to a post on the switch?

[mike breck]

Well if this switch works, then you won't have to go into BIOS at all. All you'll have to do is set the switch to the up or down position before switching on your PC, and that will determine which HD will boot.

As the description from your link says the connection for <i>both</i> HDs is either complete or broken, then that implies to me that black/black goes to one post and red/red to the other.

Solder the other end of the wires to the switch, separating the two wires from each jumper to the two leads on the switch.

[syncdram]

I want to thank every body who responded to my posts, me i just give up! ..... I'll have to go back to the old 1 drive partioning with a bootmanager, whata lot of work though. I honestly gave this my all and apritiate everyones response. Thanks. Ken

[mike breck]

Why don't you try HD Caddys? That's what I use and it works very well.

They are cheap and reliable. You just switch off, pull out one HD with OS and then pop in the HD with the other one.

[Naja]

yes i am i spent about 11 hours on this with no luck,

You're not alone my friend--been there, done that!

Try putting your jumpers on the Slave position on both HDs.

That's correct. I've got the nicklock and its the same thing as what you are doing, EXCEPT mine provides a lock to physically lock anyone out of either HD or BOTH.

HOWEVER, If you are using WD HDs then (at this time) you must use two WD HDs and set the jumpers on BOTH of them to SLAVE (NOT Dual Slave).

If you are using another brand of HDs-set BOTH of the jumpers to Master.

Remember WD only works with WD. But nicklock is working around this some how-in the near future.

You can get nicklock at:

Nicklock@newegg (http://www.newegg.com/app/viewproduct.asp?DEPA=&submit=Go&description=nicklock) For $20 after shipping. <-to me that's worth $20 to lock out my computer completely.

Here's a thread I started when I was going those the same circles that You are:

WD Jumpers (http://www.pcmech.com/forum/showthread.php?s=&threadid=71922)

The thread Mike and I worked on (Thanks Again, Mike) is here:

Nicklock Thread (http://www.pcmech.com/forum/showthread.php?s=&threadid=72271)

Skip over the crap that deals with my particular situation--it's not complicated.
This thread will also explain how to keep the drives completely isolated, linked up to each other, or where only one can see the other, and how to get those links back!

Check out Nicklock's Install page and it will help break it down for you.

Remember, in this setup WD only works with WD.

PS I know you're using WD, but someone else may read this that isn't.

[syncdram]

Ok guys i thought i would tell everyone that i figured out how to get these two drive to work seperatly from each other, no jumpers, no hard drive switcher, very basic and simple. what i did was put 2 switches on the power supply plug that powers each hard drive. 12 volt side and 5 volt side on both primary and slave, shut the power off to one drive and turn the power on to the other drive and the computer thinks i have 1 primary drive. 4 switches total. It works fantastic! see guys i was very determined. and it only cost me $ 4.00 for the switches. Ken

I also tested this on different drive manufactuers (mixed drives) not just WD and WD. Works fantastic.