Linux - HardwareThis forum is for Hardware issues.
Having trouble installing a piece of hardware? Want to know if that peripheral is compatible with Linux?
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Yes or no? Can I install one of my previously used, good, bootable hard drives into my tower for use as a second hard drive? Must change it so it doesn't boot.
If no, I can live with that. The old hard drive gets wiped clean and installed as my second hard drive.
If yes, thank you. Searches have been useless. If you folks tell me it's possible then I'll take it from there.
Last edited by charleswilliams; 07-24-2019 at 08:32 AM.
Distribution: Artix, Slackware, Devuan etc. No systemd!
Posts: 368
Rep:
Hi,
Yes, you can use your bootable drive as a second (third or fourth etc.). Just make sure that your existing drive is set first in the BIOS/firmware boot order.
If you have nothing on the drive that you want to keep, then by all means wipe the drive if you wish.
Note. If using a legacy/MBR system then you can still prepare and use the drive as GPT (as a secondary drive) if you want more primary partitions than MBR supports..
Hard drives are bootable if there is boot code of some sort in the place where the firmware is looking for it: the MBR in the case of a BIOS and the ESP in the case of a UEFI chip. If you don't want your second drive to be bootable, don't put a bootloader on it.
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