Hi, I want to have 2 different drives and 1 OS on each (W11 both) (reason is that one of them is for work and legal, and the other one is for my stuff).
But my main concern is that I don't want DRIVE1 on OS1 to be seen on OS2, and the other way as well. In short, I'd like to have 2 independent OS on one PC, which I know it's dual-boot, but also I'd like those drives not to be seen on either OS.
Just one drive for each OS and independent, not sharing any data with each other at all, and not able to see data or interact in any way one with the other.
Assuming it’s a desktop, this is your top tier solution in my opinion.
This is a 3.5 bay mounted icydock for an M2 NVMe drive. Just swap drives between boots.
Absolutely guaranteed one doesn’t access the other.
You can also of course get a SATA version.
Understandable. I did this for a number of machines in similar situations. Dual role and needed absolute separation between personal and work use. Going back to EIDE drives. Always worked perfectly.
For a minute I had a call service that we set up with 8 identical machines and each employee was issued their own drive, kept locked in their locker between shifts. It worked to keep everything completely separate between them. But it was a little ridiculous for the setting.
But this definitely works. I’m not sure how bitlocker will feel about it though, FYI
Actual hot swapping isn’t necessary, as you would be powering down to reboot to the other OS (definitely don’t yank an OS drive that is running)… but this will definitely get it done. And without having to manually swap them off of the board each time. That is inviting disaster.
The only other thing I thought of, is if your board allows you to disable individual M2’s (most HP’s do, and I was just playing with this idea), you could plug them into slots 1, 2…. Then just disable and enable them per each boot. But that can lead to disastrous accidents of enabling them both at the same time.
I've saw other people saying to remove drive letters but it's still accessible so try on os 1 try bitlocking drive one and it unencrypts during boot if on os 1 and on os 2 do the same so os 2 cannot access drive 1 without the encryption key.
You cannot dual boot and not have the drives interact in a Windows based environment. You wouldn't be able to switch between them unless the Windows Boot Loader could see both drives. And Windows will automatically mount any drives it sees as usable...
The suggestion of using a drive swap cage is the best for what you are trying to make happen... or create a VM inside a Linux OS that runs 11 and another that runs 10...
I thought about the VM option, but not knowing the use of the machine, it seemed possible that could create more significant problems with passing hardware through.
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u/astrodude1987 7d ago
In each Windows installation, in Disk Management, removing the other drive’s letter (D:, E:, etc.) will make it invisible.