Multiple OS installers in single bootable External HDD

[jhay_e03]

Hi guys,

I would like to ask if it is possible to load multiple windows OS installers on a external HDD? I have searched a lot of sites but it doesn't give me what I want. Can you guys help me with this?

Regards,
Khraieyscael

[Salmon Trout]

Could you describe the reason for needing to use this?

[jhay_e03]

Hi Salmon,

I bought an external HDD and I want to use it to be my one-stop shop OS installation disk on different types of OS. I will create 2 partitions on external HDD, the first one will be the OS installers (bootable) and the other will be my personal data. I want to use that method to get rid of my DVDs and to use single drive instead using flash drive and reformat it every time I will perform OS installation. Is there any way to do bootable external HDD with multiple windows installer images? thanks guys.

Khraiyscael

[strollin]

I don't know how you can use your existing hdd to hold many bootable installers.  However, a company called Zalman makes a line of external hdd cases that have the ability to emulate an optical drive.  I have one of these and have dozens of ISO images on it.  I can select any of the ISOs stored on the disk and can boot from the selected ISO.  Plugs into a USB port and appears to the system as an external optical drive. Works with Windows, Mac and Linux ISOs.

See here: http://www.zalman.com/global/product/Product_Read.php?Idx=750

I currently have the ZM-VE200 and just ordered the ZM-VE400.

[Salmon Trout]

You can boot from ISOs mounted on a USB flash drive or HDD using a tool called grub4DOS

http://www.themudcrab.com/acronis_grub4dos.php

[strollin]

Looks like Grub4DOS would work but would take some time to setup and I believe it would require you to modify things each time you added a new ISO.

With the Zalman, there is no setup, copy the ISO to the drive and it's ready to use. 

[Salmon Trout]

Looks like Grub4DOS would work but would take some time to setup and I believe it would require you to modify things each time you added a new ISO.

A  small amount of time to set up, and a simple edit to the menu.lst file when a new ISO is added, but to set against those things, it's free and you can use any pen drive or USB hdd you have lying around. I do agree the Zalman product looks very useful.  I found some Amazon reviews that make interesting reading.

[strollin]

Since jhay_e03 already has a drive that he wants to use, Grub4DOS is probably the better solution.  I do love my Zalman though, I can carry a whole arm load of installer disks around in a 2.5" external drive.

[jhay_e03]

thanks Salmon and Strollin,

I will try your suggestions and hopefully it will work on NTFS type of Volume. My another concern is if Grub4DOS and Zalman can support NTFS file type because I've tried Xboot but it doesn't support NTFS. anyways, please give me time to try those suggested apps and I will keep you posted. thanks guys, really appreciate it.

Regards,
Khraieyscael

[Salmon Trout]

My another concern is if Grub4DOS and Zalman can support NTFS file type

Grub4dos supports booting an ISO on a volume holding an NTFS file system, but bear this in mind: I believe the OS inside the ISO needs to support NTFS natively so Windows disk images will be OK but you may have a problem with some Linux ISOs.

[strollin]

My Zalman is formatted with the NTFS file system and doesn't care what file system the OS within the ISO supports.  As mentioned earlier, the Zalman appears to the hardware as an external optical drive with the selected ISO image mounted as if it was a CD/DVD in the drive.  As long as the machine it's plugged into supports the ability to boot from an external USB device it works.

[Salmon Trout]

My Zalman is formatted with the NTFS file system and doesn't care what file system the OS within the ISO supports.

Neither does grub4DOS; however an OS booted off the ISO may, or may not be able to 'see' the volume containing the ISO, depending on whether that booted OS can read the file system installed on that volume.