# how to use 2 hdd setup



## dbuff (Jun 4, 2014)

Hi,
I currently have 1-HDD dell studio 1749 laptop. I want to install FreeBSD. I read about problems with dual boot. I also wanted to build a more secure system. This is what I think. I could add a second HDD. How could I best use 2-HDD setup to safely preserve my current windows 7 machine, and also have FreeBSD? Possibly safest option? I though that first I could just use RAID 1 to mirror my current configuration. Then I could do dual boot on first disk, and if anything goes wrong with Windows 7 data I will still have another disk. And when I succeed I will then mirror the disk with dual boot and have 2 mirror disks with dual boot Windows 7/FreeBSD. Does it make sense. I am just a newbie. Thanks.


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## wblock@ (Jun 4, 2014)

First step, mandatory: make a full backup of the Windows system.

After that, the safest option?  Install a VM.  Otherwise, if the laptop can hold two hard drives, install a second one.  Temporarily remove the Windows hard drive, then install FreeBSD on the second drive.  Reinstall the Windows drive.  Use the BIOS boot menu to select a drive at bootup.


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## dbuff (Jun 5, 2014)

What do you mean by "full backup"? Would system image backup work? I am not sure but I thought that I could do mirror HDD with RAID as a "full backup". I hope I don't talk nonsense. Thanks a lot.


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## wblock@ (Jun 5, 2014)

A full backup means if something accidentally happens to the main disk, there is another copy that has all the information.

A mirror is not really a backup.  A backup can be kept separately from the computer.

Clonezilla works fairly well, although it requires a little Linux knowledge.  The commercial versions are supposed to work, too.


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## dbuff (Jun 5, 2014)

Thanks. I will look into Clonezilla as a full backup solution. BTW I think I can also use a RAID array to do full backup. Thanks again.


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## Oko (Jun 5, 2014)

I would suggest wiping Windows completely and have a soft RAID 1 if you going to use UFS. I am not sure if you want to use ZFS for the root. I use ZFS only for data storage but FreeBSD supports booting from ZFS so you might want to check that one.


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## dbuff (Jun 5, 2014)

Thanks I will definitely look into this. Thanks and thanks.


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