ide and sata hdd
 

hi! i'm a new member of this community.
i am just wondering if i could connect an ide interface hdd and a sata hdd at the same time, with both drives having different OS.
i have first setup our pc with the sata hdd. i have installed a win xp pro on that drive.(the ide hdd is not connected)
after the setup, i have disconnected the sata hdd and connected the ide hdd.then, i have installed another os on that drive, xp home. after configuring the ide drive,i have disconnected it and returned the sata hdd. at that time, i was thinking of using the ide hdd as a spare drive, whenever my sata drive fails. but now, i want them both connected to the motherboard for easier access. is it possible?
will there be no harmful effects to both drives?
are there any steps before i connect them both to the motherboard??

thanks!

Yes you can have them both connected.
Booting to which one can be determined by changing the BIOS setup option, boot priority.
Or you could use a boot manager, which will be aware of both OS's and give you the option of which to boot at start up.
The drawback of the BIOS boot priority, it's a slight inconvience.
The drawback of a boot manager, some configurations can be tricky to uninstall if you want to change your setup down the road.

re:
 

ei, tnx for the reply. but how could i use boot manager? is it preinstalled already in the motherboard? please help me regarding this matter. i am just a newby. thanks!

You can try this progam.
It's not too difficult to use, has documantation and a forum if you get stuck.
Download EasyBCD 1.7.1 - NeoSmart Technologies