Do I really have to burn an OS to disk ?

Is there any way I can just create a bunch of partitions on an HDD while it's in a working computer, put operating systems on those partitions, then boot from them with the drive back in the original computer ?

I've already got the drive in a functional system for recovering files from the dead copy of Windows that was on it. This seemed like a good question to ask before I pulled the drive out and started burning OSes to disks.

You will have a driver problem when you return the HD to the original PC unless the hardware is the same. For example, if both PCs are Dells, it would work.

Of course, the driver problems can be easily corrected in many cases. It's up to you if you want to go that route.

What if I put ISO images on the drive, any way to get the target system to treat partitions like CDROM drives ?

You can do that with thumb drives. For example, I put Backtrack on a bootable thumb drive. I can use it on any computer that supports USB in the boot sequence. I don't know about doing that with IDE drives and moving the drive from one PC to another.

Another thing I've glanced at is network booting. I'm not sure about where to start with that either though.

http://www.kegel.com/linux/pxe.html

http://nu2.nu/bootdisk/network/

Those are what I've glanced through so far. I'm still a tad confused about how to setup TFTP/DHCP on the hosting server.

Let's go back to the beginning. What is you ultimate goal?

Well put it this way, if I had a treasure map, it would look like a Family Circus comic.

My goal is to go where no joebert has gone before.

Joe, I didn't have time to look for detailed instructions, but I think if you do searches along these lines you'll eventually hit upon the method.

I know with Windows, it's basically a hidden partition at the front of the drive, usually only slightly bigger than the OS itself. Might include something along the lines of a slipstream install with some code for a hotkey to select on boot.

you can make partitions in the hard drive as many as .
but you can create only one primary partition after that you can create the secondary partitions.