can you boot from an external hard drive

Having more than one operating system installed allows you to quickly switch between two and have the best tool for the job.

Windows also has its own boot loader, which can be used to select between different versions of Windows if you have more than one installed.ĭifferent operating systems have different uses and advantages. Grub loads instead of the Windows boot loader at boot time if Windows was already installed, allowing you to choose the operating system you want to boot. When you install a Linux distribution, it typically installs the Grub boot loader. The point is you’re devoting part of the drive to one operating system and part of the drive to another.) (In reality, many operating systems use multiple partitions. By p artitioning the drive into several different partitions, you can have one partition for one operating system and another partition for another operating system, splitting the drive between them. RELATED: Beginner Geek: Hard Disk Partitions ExplainedĮven if you only have a single hard drive, you can have multiple operating systems on that hard drive.

You could also boot an operating system - like a live Linux system or a Windows To Go USB drive - from external storage media. There’s no limit to the number of operating systems you he installed - you’re not just limited to a single one. You could put a second hard drive into your computer and install an operating system to it, choosing which hard drive to boot in your BIOS or boot menu. Your computer’s operating system is generally installed on its internal hard drive. When you boot your computer, the BIOS loads the boot loader from the hard drive and the boot loader boots the installed operating system.

Can you boot from an external hard drive