The purpose of this post is to get some dialogue going regarding the pros and cons of multi-booting vs multiple hdds.
For the sake of argument, we will discuss laptops with the construct that they have only 1 hdd.
and
For the sake of argument, we will discuss desktops with the construct that they have more than 1 hdd.
Finally, when discussing laptops, we will refer to the primary solution of multi-booting.
vs
Finally, when discussing desktops, we will refer to the primary/secondary solutions of multi-booting and multiple hdds.
For the sake of knowledge and learning, we will say that having 2-4 OSes is the ultimate goal of this post.
Please no debate on OS supremacy.
Additionally, I would prefer no one mention virtualization.
Multi-Booting
Pros:
1) At boot - boot to any OS without pressing more than 2 buttons.
2) Enables having more than 1 OS without requiring additional hdds.
3) Enables editing of another OS for within yet another OS..
Cons:
1) Organizing the bootloaders can be a nightmare; especially when an OS update goes horribly wrong or a partition is reformatted.
2) Limited disk space for OS + DATA.
3) Edits in the bios, tables, etc can sometimes introduce a limitation to one or more of the OSes.
Multiple HDDs
Pros:
1) 1 HDD per OS = true freedom in terms of bootloader(s)
2) Specialized formatting based on OS preference
3) Better performance for disk scans, virtualization, etc
Cons:
1) Additional hardware, power, heat, noise
2) Possibility of additional boot times, scan times, etc
3) Possibility of wasted GBs
I'm sure that there are many more pros and cons for both scenarios...but this is a start.
So what are your thoughts?