Dual Boot - Desktop Power Switch SSD

Ubunoir · 04-14-2018, 12:22 PM

Hi, my first post, thanks for letting me join this community.
I'd like to ask you a question since I'm planning on how to build my next desktop.
The idea is to use a Ryzen 3 2200g (or the upcoming Ryzen2)

A while ago I followed the suggestion of Joe Collins "The Dual Boot Deception" on Youtube. Since I had bad experiences in the past with dual boots on the same hdd, I've bought another ssd, using a caddy for my laptop. Installing Windows and Linux Mint on those separated hard drive. So I'm not having issues doing dual boots using the bios instead of Grub so far.
Now I would like to build a desktop pc, but I wonder if there's a way to have a physical power switch that can select the drive I want to use. Specifically I'd like to have 1SSD Windows + 1SSD Linux + 1HDD storage. So during installation and boot I'd like to have a power switch to select which drive I'm gonna use. I've googled it many times but I can't find anything. There's a switch by Kingwin, Sisun and Oreco, I've seen online, anyone used it? Or it's possible to build one following some tutorials. BUT this only works with SATA and I'd like to use M.2 PCI.
I don't think I can find anything like this and man if I've tried... I wonder if you have some suggestions. The idea is being able to use a fast storage system for the bootable drives. I'd prefer small capacity to save some money and because the real storage is gonna be on the HDD. That's why I'm focusing on PCIe.

Before you comment "why do you want the dual boot,it's bulls**t" please let me say I found this setup being useful because I need some applications that are in windows, it's also useful if one of the 2 systems fails and I've an alternative OS ready. And with only $50 it's like having another PC where I can learn and experiment with Linux Mint since all the other hardware is shared. So I found this very convenient so far. (I'm even thinking to add a 3rd small SSD to try other distro if, with your help, I can come up with a solution)

Thank you for reading my post, I'd really appreciate your input
PS. I'd like to specify, that I'm looking for a power switch cause I don't want to remove the other SSD (opening the case etc) every time I need to install an OS to prevent mistakes. Also, having the other OS totally disconnected avoids issues during OS updates.

AwesomeMachine · 04-15-2018, 03:43 PM

AFAIK there is no such switch available. Are we talking about a laptop here? Three drives in a lappy? ANd on a PCIe bus? That sounds impossible! And, M.2 drives won't boot off the PCIe unless the BIOS enables that (read: very new). If you had problems dual booting off the same drive, it was not because you only used one drive, but because you did it incorrectly.

If you want to choose which operating system to boot from, it doesn't matter whether the OSs are on separate drives or not. The grub boot loader allows you to choose the one you want, even if they're on the same drive.

AFA having 2 separate systems in case of a breakdown, everyone can have that. It's called a Live distro USB.

I'm not trying to be harsh. Don't get me wrong. I'm just trying to be honest.

Ubunoir · 04-15-2018, 05:30 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by AwesomeMachine

Are we talking about a laptop here? Three drives in a lappy?
If you had problems dual booting off the same drive, it was not because you only used one drive, but because you did it incorrectly.

If you want to choose which operating system to boot from, it doesn't matter whether the OSs are on separate drives or not. The grub boot loader allows you to choose the one you want, even if they're on the same drive.

AFA having 2 separate systems in case of a breakdown, everyone can have that. It's called a Live distro USB.

I'm not trying to be harsh. Don't get me wrong. I'm just trying to be honest.

Hi... well I would like to say "thanks for the kind reply", but I don't see why you wrote this condescending reply.
Matter of fact I put some effort trying to explain what I'm trying to achieve. I specified that I'm doing dual boots on my laptop using a "caddy drive", you might use google images to check what I'm talking about if you've never heard about it.
So, I explained that I'd like to use that system (2 drives) also on my new desktop pc I want to build. I'm familiar with Grub and I'm familiar with the issues related with updates and formatting one of the 2 OS. I've even quoted one of the sources that explain that in much bigger details. If you say that there's not such a thing, grub is solid as a rock... then I must think you're not using dual boots very often.

About switches I've named 3 brands making this sata switches... Kingwin, Sisun and Oreco and I was wondering if there's some equivalent pci... but yet I said I'd be fine with sata if there's no other option
https://www.amazon.com/PW4101-Alumin...70_&dpSrc=srch

https://www.amazon.com/device-switch.../dp/B01MAX56SA

https://www.amazon.com/Kingwin-Optim...00TZR3E70?th=1