2 computers 1 hard drive?

pc guy · #1 June 14th, 2006, 05:25 AM

is there a way that u can have 2 computers running off one hard drive? either at same time or 1 off and 1 on?

**Murray S.** · #2 June 14th, 2006, 05:34 AM

Howdy:

I would tend to doubt it as the two computers would have to be identical in every sense..

As an example, you install XP on the hdd in question.. Registry would have all the info for THAT system installed.. Try to boot from the second system and nothing would match as far as the rgistry is concerned so you would have to run a repair using the XP cd to get all that hardware changed in registry..

Then, when you tried to use the original system again, you would have to go through the same procedure..

Murray

gimpy530 · #3 June 19th, 2006, 06:45 AM

If all computers were the same it is possible, on a network......at my high school last year we got 25 or so new computers in the lab. They took out the floppy, cd rom, and hard drives on all of them.....they set them up with the a server and used a program to emulate the hard drive for each computer, so every computer would start up fron the hard drive of the server . Everyone hated it....it was set up so that every computer started as if you started XP for the first time so you got all those little messages that XP gives you.....little notifications in the bottom left and all.......and the netwowk couldn't keep up with the traffic of all the emulated hard drives so there was constant messages saying that data could not be written and blah blah blah......luckily I was in PC maintenece and repair 2 so we didn't use tose computers much, we tore apart older ones....(by old I mean from '94).......that's the only way I know of for using 1 hard drive on several PCs, and I would say just spend the 40 bucks or more to get a hard drive for each computer