Huh? Install XP
Install Vista - it will recognise the prior operating system and add it to the MS bootloader. Not sure what you mean by Vista being particular about installation demands - it's not different to any other OS Install Ubuntu. Cheers Ken > -----Original Message----- > From: Peter van Houten [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] > Sent: Saturday, 4 October 2008 8:02 AM > To: NT System Admin Issues > Subject: Re: Triple boot > > David, I needed a laptop with multiple operating systems for portable > support work and I experimented for about a week until I managed to get > the configuration below to work. I initially tried every free route and > almost gave up on the project even after resigning myself to using > Acronis OS Selector. Even that needed a lot of fiddling. > > I must warn you, it is not for the faint hearted and I can't guarantee > it will work for you. Vista, in particular is quite forthright in its > installation demands! > > The procedure listed below your message... > > > *From:* David Mazzaccaro [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] > > *Sent:* Friday, October 03, 2008 4:55 PM > > *To:* NT System Admin Issues > > *Subject:* Triple boot > > > > I would like to be able to triple boot my machine: > > Windows XP Professional > > Windows Vista Ultimate > > Ubuntu (latest version) > > > > What is the best way to do this? My hard drive is 80GB > > I assume Gparted is the best utility to create the the partions - and > > start from there? > > > > Any direction to get me started is appreciated. > > Thx > > Making a multiple boot system using Acronis OS Selector > ------------------------------------------------------ > > Using the following operating system and data partitions: > > . Windows Vista SP1 > . Windows XP SP3 > . Kubuntu Linux 8.04 > . FreeBSD 7.0 > . Linux/Unix swap > . NTFS data > > PC operating systems use a hard disk drive divided up into a number of > partitions. Only 4 PRIMARY partitions are allowed. It is possible to > use EXTENDED partitions which can contain numerous LOGICAL partitions to > create more than 4 partitions. > > The physical disk is divided up into cylinders, heads and sectors > (c/h/s) and each head covers a track of 63 sectors (sector 1 to 63). > The first sector of the disk 0/0/1 contains the MBR (Master Boot Record) > and the partition table with the layout of the disk. The remainder of > this track (up to and including the last sector 63 is normally not used > but for our purposes, it is used by Acronis to store the OS Selector > boot loader code. The first partition created will start at 0/1/1 > > 1. Boot from the Linux or FreeBSD CD and create a small primary > partition, say 100MB, as /dev/sda1 and format as FAT32. This will be > used to store the Acronis OS Selector programs and data. Using FAT32 > format allows us to access the partition from DOS, if needed, in case of > catastrophe. Acronis allows one to use a Windows partition to store > this data but knowing Windows, I would prefer to keep it completely > separate. It also allows us to add and delete partitions at a later > stage without disturbing the code. > > 2. Boot from the Vista DVD and create the next partition for Vista. Use > whatever disk space is needed but bear in mind that Vista (as well as > XP, Linux and FreeBSD) will use the last NTFS partition to store data, > so the program partition does not need to be too large, so I chose 20GB. > Vista tends to rewrite the MBR and boot sectors, which is why we > install it first. > > 3. Boot from the Linux CD and run GpartEd. Check that the first two > partitions are /dev/sda1 (100MB) and /dev/sda2 (20GB). Create the next > partition (/dev/sda3) for Windows XP as NTFS and bear in mind the sizing > constraints as per the Vista install. (We cannot directly install XP as > the install process would overwrite our MBR and system boot sectors, so > we will use a partition copy later on). > > 4. Create the fourth primary partition (/dev/sda4) as an extended > partition. (This will contain the remainder of the logical partitions > we require). Use all the remaining space on the disk. Within this > extended partition, create an EXT3 partition (/dev/sda5) for Linux and a > partition (/dev/sda6) for FreeBSD Unix. Make sure the mount points are > set as "/". Use whatever size is required (I used 10GB each) Create > ONE swap partition (/dev/sda7) for Linux and Unix and the rule of thumb > is 2 x RAM, so I used 2,048MB. Lastly, create a data partition > (/dev/sda8) for all the operating systems using the remainder of the > space. All the operating systems can read and write NTFS, so use this > format to prepare the last partition. > > 5. Install Linux to the first EXT partition but make sure that under > advanced settings in the partitioning section, you select the boot > record to go into the Linux partition and NOT to the MBR! > > 6. Boot the system (it will automatically go into Vista as there isn't > anything in the MBR to tell it otherwise). Install Acronis Disk > Director and make sure it goes into the very first FAT32 partition. > Choose to load the OS Selector option. > > 7. Reboot the system and OS Selector should start automatically, > displaying Vista, Linux and floppy boot options. Boot from each to > check functionality. > > 8. Use Acronis Trueimage to copy an existing Windows XP installation. > Trueimage is unable to directly copy one partition to overwite another, > so I used a USB hard drive containing an XP installation and dumped the > image file on the data partition. I then ran the program again to > restore that image to the XP partition we created in (3). > > 9. After restarting the system, it might be possible to boot into XP but > if it doesn't work, boot from an XP CD and choose "R" to repair at the > "Welcome to Setup" screen. Choose the XP installation and after entering > the administrator password, enter FIXBOOT (*NOT* fixmbr!) at the command > prompt to repair the XP filesystem boot record. > > 10. Restart the system and boot from the first FreeBSD CD. Install > FreeBSD to (/dev/sda6) > > Voilà! (hopefully) > > ~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that ISN'T a resource hog! ~ > ~ <http://www.sunbeltsoftware.com/Business/VIPRE-Enterprise/> ~ ~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that ISN'T a resource hog! ~ ~ <http://www.sunbeltsoftware.com/Business/VIPRE-Enterprise/> ~
