[Gatewaygeek]

I have Freespire, Mandriva, Ubuntu, Windows XP, and Red Hat.
Is there a way I can make these OSes "play nice".
I have a brother and two sisters who are not very computer literate.
I want Windows XP to be the default OS, Freespire to be secondary, Ubuntu to be third choice, and Mandriva to be last.
The main reason why I need XP to be default is because of gaming and the fact that my family doesn't want to learn how to use linux.
I already have each one installed on separate computers and I have been experimenting with these for about two to three years.

[coastie65]

I am dual booting Vista & Windows 7 on this Gateway. I took the easy route as I have two Hdds in here and have Vista on one and Windows 7 on the other. Right now the default in BiOS is set to boot to Vista and if I want to boot to Win 7, I hit F10 at the Gateway Splash screen and then enter on the Hdd with Win7. When you partion a Hdd with multiple OS's then each aortion should read as Local D: Local E: and so forth, so essentially it would be the same. You jus set the Default in BiOS to boot XP and unlees you go into F10 and select something different, it will boot to XP at start up. I had thought about adding XP to the mix, but so far it has only been a thought.

This post has been edited by coastie65: 25 October 2010 - 02:14 PM

[Gatewaygeek]

coastie65, on 25 October 2010 - 02:13 PM, said:

I am dual booting Vista & Windows 7 on this Gateway. I took the easy route as I have two Hdds in here and have Vista on one and Windows 7 on the other. Right now the default in BiOS is set to boot to Vista and if I want to boot to Win 7, I hit F10 at the Gateway Splash screen and then enter on the Hdd with Win7. When you partion a Hdd with multiple OS's then each aortion should read as Local D: Local E: and so forth, so essentially it would be the same. You jus set the Default in BiOS to boot XP and unlees you go into F10 and select something different, it will boot to XP at start up. I had thought about adding XP to the mix, but so far it has only been a thought.

I want to try and use Grub to boot all of them, but I'm not so good at that part of Linux

[BGG001]

Gatewaygeek, on 25 October 2010 - 03:05 PM, said:

coastie65, on 25 October 2010 - 02:13 PM, said:

I am dual booting Vista & Windows 7 on this Gateway. I took the easy route as I have two Hdds in here and have Vista on one and Windows 7 on the other. Right now the default in BiOS is set to boot to Vista and if I want to boot to Win 7, I hit F10 at the Gateway Splash screen and then enter on the Hdd with Win7. When you partion a Hdd with multiple OS's then each aortion should read as Local D: Local E: and so forth, so essentially it would be the same. You jus set the Default in BiOS to boot XP and unlees you go into F10 and select something different, it will boot to XP at start up. I had thought about adding XP to the mix, but so far it has only been a thought.

I want to try and use Grub to boot all of them, but I'm not so good at that part of Linux

The way I do it is by using EasyBCD 2.x for Windows. What it does is it modifies (or creates if GRUB overwrote the Windows MBR) and you can add any operating system to it. There's no advanced work to do at all. What it does is it'll give you the list of your operating systems that you set up. You choose the default operating system, the order of the list, and the timeout. If you select Windows, it boots straight into Windows. If you select a linux distro, it'll bring up GRUB for that specific OS. I've been using it with Windows 7, Windows XP, Windows Server 2008 R2, and Ubuntu Desktop 10.10 x64.


I know you said you'd prefer to use GRUB, but I know this is a solution that would work for you regardless which way you prefer. Personally, I like Microsoft's boot loader though...it's a lot cleaner looking IMO.

http://neosmart.net/dl.php?id=1

Let me know if you need help. Only recommendation: back up your MBR before proceeding one way or another (EasyBCD will allow you to back it up). If you mess up, throw in a live CD and rebuild the GRUB loader.

[techie4fun]

I to would suggest installing the OS's on separate drives. Since you'd like to use GRUB, you're on your own....

[drastic19]

Another option would be to utilize VMware Workstation. You could install VMware on the Windows XP OS and install the other operating systems as virtual machines depending on what you will be doing with them. I am currently running VMware Workstation with the following operating systems: Window XP Pro, Windows Vista Business, Windows Server 2003, Ubuntu, and Backtrack 4. This will help by maintaining HDD memory that is usually allocated for each OS.

[BGG001]

Hmm, found something that's brand new called Burg. I'm going to give it a shot, I'll post when I know how it works and how well it works.

http://code.google.com/p/burg/

[Ramus]

The way I set up mine is by creating separate partitions in which to install each distro.

My set-up...

500 gb HD = ...
120 gb partitioned for Windows
350 gb partitioned for Storage (back-up for multiple PC's in house)
10 gb partitioned for Linux Mint
10 gb partitioned for Linux Kubuntu

And on top of that I have a second 20 gb HDD installed containing a full install of Ubuntu 10.10 (my baby).

This is just how I chose to set up my multiple OS's.
I'm not sure, but I think the best way to make multiple Linux Os's work together is a partition for each distro.

I'm not familiar with partitioning after a Windows installation, but I've heard of a program called Partition Magic that is supposedly useful.
My partitions and system set-up was done from a fresh start - pre planned and thought out.
I have never tried to install multiple OS's on one partition.

[LiveBrianD]

Ramus, on 05 January 2011 - 08:31 PM, said:

I have never tried to install multiple OS's on one partition.

I'll describe that in one word. DON'T. I once did that with XP on the same parititon as Windows 2000. Fortunately 2000 uses the WINNT folder and XP uses the WINDOWS folder. However, XP overwrote some of the things in the Program Files folder. I'm not sure why the installer even let me do that. I had to do a complete reinstall to clean it up. This is when I was too young to know better - I think I was 8.

[EkuquoL]

Dual booting with one HD is simple...


First install a desired OS first...
Format the entire disk....

ONLY PARTITION on a ONE specific size > I.E.:200GB

DO NOT PARTITION the other space... Leave it as Unallocated space.

After you have set up that first OS--install the second OS on the Unallocated space

Then Viola you will not have annoying index errors popup -- An now u can Dual boot from one HD..

[nicholasarmwood]

Hey thanks for the advice on dual booting

[Watcher426]

As far as installed multiboot I do not know. However for USB keys there is multiboot it's a program that installs a grub loader onto the key and lets you drag and drop ISO files onto it to multiboot live versions. I think it lets you add persistence but I'm not sure.