# Question re booting from different hard-drives.



## mefizto (Dec 18, 2018)

Greetings all,

I occasionally need to use Windows 7.  Instead of attempting dual-boot or running Windows from a virtual machine, I was thinking about installing Windows on a different hard-drive.  I can then select the hard-drive to boot from in BIOS.  However, this is not the most convenient solution.  Thus, I was wandering if the hard-drive with FreeBSD or the hard-drive with Windows 7 could be used as a default hard-drive, and the relevant boot manager could be configured to offer a selection of (1) continue boot from the default hard-drive or (2) transfer boot to the other hard-drive.

Kindest regards,

M


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## Rhadamanthys (Dec 18, 2018)

install the bootcode selector of FreeBSD into the drive containing Windows. Have not done it in a long time myself.

```
boot0cfg -B ada0
```
adjust for the correct device. it assumes you have a MBR install. adjust to your correct device. if all goes well you will be presented with a selection at startup.


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## ShelLuser (Dec 18, 2018)

Another option (beyond the scope of this forum) is to add an entry to your Windows 7 boot manager to allow it to boot FreeBSD. Whether is possible or not also depends a bit on your setup of course, but the Windows boot manager can be used for this. Google should have more about that.


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## T-Daemon (Dec 18, 2018)

One other option is to install grub2 from a live linux image to a USB flash drive or sd memory card, and set it as first boot device in BIOS. That way you are not limited to the boot manager of the installed OS’s.

Note: I didn’t suggest the sysutils/grub2 port, as it is marked "DEPRECATED".


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## mefizto (Dec 19, 2018)

Greetings all,

thank you for your replies.  Since I would like to avoid GRUB, I will try the first two options.

Kindest regards,

M


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