Dual booting with separate hdd

[Koolaids5689]

Is testing reactos viable on different hardrives? Will it erase the other hardrives data or will it break the entire pc?

[gonzoMD]

It is highly possible that Reactos corrupts data on your hard drive, so it is a MUST that you use dedicated spare hard-drive that doesn't contain any important data.
There won't be any damage to your pc, but keep in mind that ROS is an alpha quality software, mostly for testing/academic purposes and not for daily usage.

[dizt3mp3r]

Is testing reactos viable on different hardrives? Will it erase the other hardrives data or will it break the entire pc?

...and do NOT expose your real data drive to ReactOS either, simply keep it well away from ReactOS.

[TMStreicher]

Consider using a virtual machine like VirtualBox for evaluation if you do not own some old, spare hardware. VirtualBox is free and simple, and you avoid risking your main installation.

[Koolaids5689]

I’m buying an old $25 computer but I’m gonna try to use it as a regular computer

[middings]

In the past, I used my PC for building and testing ReactOS. That PC had two hard disk drives. One drive was my "real data drive". I used it as my Microsoft Windows XP drive. The other drive was exclusively for use with ReactOS. I always disconnected the power from the "real data drive" when using ReactOS. On my PC, removing power from the drive prevented ReactOS from damaging important data. Other PCs and drives might allow data to be damaged even with drive power removed.

NOTE: The SATA connector specification does not require an internal (used within the computer case) SATA connector to endure more than 50 matings.