I am up and running: Installed XP Pro (30 GB) Installed VISTA Ultimate (20 GB) Installed Ubuntu 8.04 (15 GB OS, 5 GB swap)
I am now able to triple boot my laptop, with no problems. Let the fun begin! Thanks to all. -Dave -----Original Message----- From: Peter van Houten [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Thursday, October 09, 2008 7:59 AM To: NT System Admin Issues Subject: Re: Triple boot Agreed [if you want a messy mixture of the Vista and Grub boot loaders]. I needed a clean, easily *modifiable* system; I would have preferred to use the free Grub approach but could not integrate all the operating systems I required. Acronis OS Selector achieved that. I said that Vista was forthright, not particular. forth·right [adj.] 1. Direct and without evasion; straightforward. 2. Proceeding straight ahead. i.e. Vista and XP, to a lesser extent, do not allow the efficient management of partitions as one is able to do in Grub and Acronis. Moral of the story: Whatever floats your boat. On the 04/10/2008 14:24, Ken Schaefer wrote the following: > 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/> ~
