Topic: Triple OS, Just For Fun :)

[moezoe]

if you have boring with your OS...
Try Multi OS.. Like system PC..



Oke .. to the point for trick..
1. Instal WinXp
2. Instal Win 7 (Other Partition)
3. Instal Win 8 (Other Partition, not in Partition Xp or 7)

and last check this image..


selected OS automatically as drive (C:)
this is not illegal..
cause i'm not modifying anything...
  

[Samker]

I've never tried this...

[jheysen]

You can add Ubuntu to the mix too :p

[moezoe]

I've never tried this...

you must try it bro..

You can add Ubuntu to the mix too :p

Ubuntu removed from my system before Installing Win 8..
and the partition i made same with Xp..

[stonecoldtx]

If you install the right version of Windows 7 or Windows 8 FIRST, you can use the Boot from VHD feature, and install as many OS's as you have room on your physical disks . . . a VHD for each OS.

Here are some articles on this subject:

http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=2744
http://social.technet.microsoft.com/wiki/contents/articles/516.how-to-boot-from-a-vhd.aspx
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd799282(v=WS.10).aspx

[devnullius]

Also see EasyBCD if you are running Windows.

Karma!

Devvie


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[devnullius]

I've been playing with multi-boot the other week on my data recovery machine that got overwritten by dragonfly bsd install : ((

I now have multiboot: Windows XP, Windows 7, PC BSD, Mint Linux, Elementary OS & Ubuntu Desktop.

But it was surprisingly hard before I got it all working well.

Biggest problem? There is no single do-it-all bootmanager. Sigh, I miss the 90s ;p

Partition layout:

free space (size: 128MB) - for the Gods and future emergencies.
Primary C: (size: 4900MB) - empty FAT32, except for bootfiles
Primary HIDDEN (CLONE of Primary C:)
Primary BSD (50GB minimum advised; 10GB really needed; I use 25)
Extended Partition;
Logical 1: Windows XP
Logical 2: Windows 7
Logical 3: Mint
Logical 4: Elementary
Logical 5: *IX Swap
Logical 6: Ubuntu Desktop (first: server, but that one ain't as good)


How to install? What's the deal with C: & hidden clone??

Ok, why the C:-part? Well... I first made it really small, but an effort to upgrade Windows XP (with SCSI drivers) to Vista -> 7 -> 8 failed. Especially Vista upgrade was very picky on the size of the C:-partition (even when installing to Logical 2 - Windows 7). So I made it 4 GB just for that. Otherwise I'd have taken about 256MB. I work this way so if anything goes wrong, all OS's will have their partition and boot records in place and only C: (empty) needs repairs. Also, I make a duplicate image of this boot-disk C: - again, for when something goes wrong.

Now for the real part... In which order to install and what to look out for!
For your convenience I'll assume you have 1 big partition, formatted.

1. Install XP.
When done, download EaseUS® Partition Master Free Edition. Shrink your XP partition with 9928MB (approx:). Keep freespace to the LEFT.
Done? Leave some freesapce (128MB). Create 2 unique EXACTLY SAME SIZED primary partition (4900MB each). You'll have to fine-tune this, it doesn't matter if a little extra freespace remains. Most important is that they are same size! Also do STEP 2 to save time.

2. Reserve BSD space!
We could have done this in step 1 too.
Again, shrink your XP installation with Freespace to the left. Give it the size you want to reserve for your BSD installation. Make a Primary partition (PC BSD will NOT work from an extended partition!), type FAT32 and label it BSD (gives easy recognition once in BSD setup).

3. Free space ready? Primary 1 + 2 ready? BSD-reserved ready?
Again, shrink your Windows XP partition but this time with freespace to the RIGHT. The freespace must be big enough to contain all your other OS's. Usually this means to shrink XP to the max (keep 50% free volume space for performance & updates).

4. Big free space to the right ready?
Now for the Big Trick. Convert your primary XP partition to a logical extended partition! Read more here: http://superuser.com/questions/552441/how-to-convert-a-primary-partition-to-logical

5. Free spaces ready? Primary 1 + 2 ready? BSD reserved ready? Logical XP ready?
Now it becomes a little easier... First create a partition to hold Windows 7 - leave free space OR already create FAT32 partitions for your future Linux distro's - label volumes accordingly!
Install Windows 7 to the logical Win 7 partition :)

6. You will now have multi-boot Windows XP / Windows 7.

7. Install PC BSD.
You will now have multi-boot Windows XP / Windows 7 / PC BSD.
Follow PC-BSD instruction carefully! De-select to install an MBR bootloader! Do not install the bootmanager at all (or at least to the PC-BSD's partition itself, if such an option is supported).
Start Windows. Use EasyBCD to add PC-BSD to the bootlist used by the Windows Boot Manager.

8. BE CAREFUL NOW! Getting STEP 7 to work well was the hardest part. If my memory failed me when I wrote this article - please forgive me. Try EasyBCD to assist you? Install it in Windows 7...

9. Now for the part where I messed up many times... The other Linux distros! Ubuntu is the trick here, for it has the smartest auto-Grub 2 implementation I've seen. BUT be aware, do not go "exotic" on your filesystems!! (http://www.gnu.org/software/grub/manual/grub.html) *

10. Install Mint Linux BUT INSTALL ITS GRUB BOOTLOADER TO ITS OWN PARTITION. ** After installation, you will not be able to boot MINT. Only the OS's from STEP 7. IF asked for a swap partition, point to Logical 5. READ (http://www.gnu.org/software/grub/manual/grub.html) * FIRST!

11. Install Elementary Linux BUT INSTALL ITS GRUB BOOTLOADER TO ITS OWN PARTITION! ** Also see STEP 10. BUT READ (http://www.gnu.org/software/grub/manual/grub.html) * FIRST!

12. Install Ubuntu. I use approx 6GB for Ubuntu...
The Ubuntu (DESKTOP!) installation will auto-detect AND auto-add all necessary GRUB 2 bootloader entries. BUT, again, INSTALL GRUB TO Ubuntu partition itself!!! ** Leave the MBR UNTOUCHED!
When done, boot into Windows 7, start EasyBCD and add Ubuntu boot manager. For instruction, see http://askubuntu.com/questions/62440/is-it-possible-to-boot-ubuntu-using-the-windows-bootloader/62442#62442 **

13. Multi-Boot Windows XP / Windows 7 / PC BSD and As many Linuxes-as-you-like ànd Ubuntu! Enjoy your hard work :)


Further information / links.

-- https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Disk_Cloning#Cloning_an_entire_hard_disk . Also look at CloneZilla and SystemRescueCD (ddrescue)!
-- There is also a tool to "repair" GRUB 2 entries. Not tested yet.
http://handytutorial.com/boot-repair-simple-gui-tool-to-repair-grub2-boot-loader/
-- FUN! Boot ISO's too! Still in edit ;-) http://www.sordum.org/7763/quemu-simple-boot-v1-0-easily-test-your-image-files/
-- HOW TO restore ROSA GRUB bootloader. Rosa's GRUB is the best I've seen in a decade, if only I knew how to manage and tweak it! Two very interesting user comments explaining in great detail how to restore / rebuild the boot manager boot entries used by GRUB / Ubuntu / ROSA, can be found here: http://forum.rosalab.ru/en/viewtopic.php?f=15&t=1334 . 
-- Excellent technical information on what MBR is, what partitions are and what the difference between an active partition and a system partition is, here: http://www.pcreview.co.uk/forums/does-active-partition-mean-t1489512.html


I guess that's it for now folks!

Karma!

Devvie


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Conare nullius momenti videri fortasse missilibus careant
——
All spelling mistakes are my own and may only be distributed under the GNU General Public License! – (© 95-1 by Coredump; 2-013 by DevNullius)




* http://www.gnu.org/software/grub/manual/grub.html
I had (I guess) MANY boot problems because I tried all these fancy new filesystems. I shouldn't have done this. My guide I'm writing above assumes you use one of the filesystems mentioned here:
" Support multiple filesystem types transparently, plus a useful explicit blocklist notation. The currently supported filesystem types are Amiga Fast FileSystem (AFFS), AtheOS fs, BeFS, BtrFS (including raid0, raid1, raid10, gzip and lzo), cpio (little- and big-endian bin, odc and newc variants), Linux ext2/ext3/ext4, DOS FAT12/FAT16/FAT32, exFAT, HFS, HFS+, ISO9660 (including Joliet, Rock-ridge and multi-chunk files), JFS, Minix fs (versions 1, 2 and 3), nilfs2, NTFS (including compression), ReiserFS, ROMFS, Amiga Smart FileSystem (SFS), Squash4, tar, UDF, BSD UFS/UFS2, XFS, and ZFS (including lzjb, gzip, zle, mirror, stripe, raidz1/2/3 and encryption in AES-CCM and AES-GCM). See Filesystem, for more information. "
As you can see, not much to chose from :(

** Also see this Youtube video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nNVIvVUwaf4 . Copy Paste:
"This is a HD tutorial on how to Dual Boot Ubuntu and Windows. EasyBCD is used. You can get it from www.neosmart.net . It does not cover the installation of Windows or Ubuntu, but it shows you how to use the Windows Bootloader to boot the operating systems, rather than using Grub. This has advantages such as having a nicer looking boot menu, being able to automatically boot windows after a few seconds and being able to easily edit menu entries."

[mashed]

I've not tried a double or triple windows system.  I did set up a Win7 Pro x64 with Ubuntu recently.

Unfortunately the loader Ubuntu added slowed everything down.  I ended up starting from scratch again and running Ubuntu and Win8.1 Beta in Virtual Boxes.