Korean Job Discussion Forums

[kprrok]

Well, I've got this PC that my wife and I never use, so I figure I'm gonna have some fun with it.

I've got XP Pro SP3 on it now, and I've partitioned the drive so I've got the XP drive and 2 extra logicals. I'm going to put Win7 on one and Ubuntu on the other.

I've never tried linux, so that'll be new, plus the whole triple-booting will be interesting.

Wish me luck.

[Underwaterbob]

It would be incredibly awesome if you somehow got one partition running Mac OS instead of another version of windows.

[kprrok]

[tatertot]

Are you just using the built-in Windows 7 bootloader? I think that should probably work, but if you have any problems I recommend giving EasyBCD a try. It uses the Windows bootloader but allows you to configure it using a GUI inside Windows.

[lost at sea]

I don't think one primary and two logicals are enough.

I suggest installing Windows XP first, then Windows 7 and then Ubuntu.

First prepare your hard drive. If you are using a SATA hard drive you can do:

First partition: NTFS (sda) Windows XP (primary)
Second Partition: NTFS (sdb) Windows 7 (primary)
Third Partition: NTFS (sdc) Storage Partition (primary)
Fourth Partition: EXTEND (sdd) Ubuntu (primary extend)
sde5 /boot (ext2) (logical)
sde6 /root (ext4) (logical)
sde7 /home (ext4) (logical)
sde8 /tmp (reiserFS) (logical)

Note: I prefer to custom partition my Linux OS, if you don't you can just use the auto-partition function of the installer and let it do it. I don't think it's a good idea though. I am not using Ubuntu so I am not sure if Ubuntu has reiserFS compatibility. I am pretty sure Ubuntu works with ext4.

Windows XP will install easy, resize the partition and free up enough space for one Windows 7 install if you didn't configure the partitions earlier.

Windows 7 creates multiple partitions by default. One of which is the boot partition. I suggest installing Windows 7 and then either moving the boot partition to the main Windows 7 installation partition (done by erasing the boot partition, then inserting the Windows 7 CD and doing a recovery and telling it to use the main install for placing the boot partition). This will save your hard drive one primary partition. If you only have one partition available, Windows 7 may install entirely on one partition automatically. I am not sure. Once again, resize the partition and free up enough space for one Ubuntu install if you didn't configure the partitions earlier.

Ubuntu will over write the Windows MBR, and you need to use Grub or Grub2 to fix the whole mess. It will be fixed by chainloading Windows XP and Windows 7. You will need to know the location of them, such as hdd 0,0 for sda1 etc. I am sure your guide will guide you through it.

The storage drive is my suggestion, that way you can transfer files between Windows XP, 7 and Linux. Linux can read an NTFS partition and write/read data from it and so can Windows XP and 7, this way all 3 of your OSes can share files like music and documents etc.

Windows XP and 7 will not be able to read Linux partitions because Linux uses a format that Windows can not read without a special program. Even then, Windows can not write to a Linux partition.

I don't think 3 OSes on a single HD is very good, I mean you need to consider the HD and cylinders. The more outside an OS is, the slower read times it will have. Read times can be reduced by a few seconds by having an OS on the outside of the cylinders. If you're worried about this, it's probably best to do this:

Partition 1: Windows 7 PLUS Ubuntu on the same partition (Wubi installer)
Partition 2: Windows XP
Partition 3: Storage NTFS drive

This way Windows 7 and Ubuntu are located in the early cylinders and will load much faster.



edit:

Here is my dual boot: