The definitive dual-booting guide: Windows 7, Linux, Vista and XP step-by-step

Paul George (New user):

I was using Grub to boot XP and Linux, but this is much better.
Good article.

Nanoxy (New user):

I like to say thanks to the APC.MAG. Because I'm running Ubuntu in my Vista PC. So I have dual boot Vista installed first and Ubuntu 8.04. Because of the step by step guide on how to I was able to dual boot Vista and Ubuntu., And Im very happy and everything went smoothly with no problem. Once again muchas gracias!!!

YF Liang (New user):

So, if I were to start with a blank PC, which would be your
preferred OS to install first? Install Windows (XP/Vista),
or Linux first? Thanks.

phillw (New user):

Put Windows on 1st, it's just easier that way !!

Rad (New user):

Can you do a guide on how to dual boot VISTA 32 and 64 bit or how to move from 32 to 64?

kitegeezer (New user):

Very nice.

can we move on to multi boot?


i have followed your instructions an now have dual boot with vista installed first

I want to go to multi boot - Visa installed first (xp installed second by your instructions) and ubuntu

in order vista xp linux (ubuntu)

phillw (New user):

As we always say in the UK, here's one we prepared earlier ..
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=991987

Those crazy people are up to about 4 O/S booting last time I checked !!!

Ken collins (New user):

I followed instructions in loading XP on to OS with Vista already installed inserted XP CD Install screen came on clicked Install this message came up "this program is blocked due to compatibility issues" because the OS on Computer is newer than XP How do I get past this?? Ken Collins

TechyTru (New user):

How I did it was to download this utility here:
http://www.proaudiosoft.com/dualboot.html
Worked awesome for me ...

Pasquale (New user):

I havee a HP m9250f computer with Windows vista Premium installed. I want to install and dual boot Windows XP Professional. I have received instructions from HP on how to do this. I am able to partition my hard drive OK, but when I restart and try boot from my XP CD, the drive just spins for a few minutes and the system boots up normally with Vista. If I restart and hit the Escape key at the first blue screen, I then get the boot selection menu. I then choose the CD/DVD option, press any key to continue and I get the Windows Setup screen. The problem is, the partition option select screen that shoulod appear doesn't. Instead the software starts loading files and drivers. When this is finished a message appears saying that Windows is starting up. Then I get a screen that says Windows has been shut down because of potential damage to my system. There is no way to get out of this screen except to power off.

Faraz Karamat (New user):

Hi, I facing the exact same problem as you. Were you able to find a solution? If you did can you please let me know how you did it? you can contact me on my email: faraz.karamat@live.com.

Thanks
Faraz

Riddla (New user):

can you triple boot xp,vista, and suse linux 10.0?

tenzin (New user):

i think you can. If you already have a dual boot configuration of xp-vista, then simply installing suse linux should get you the tri boot conf.

Riddla (New user):

Edit: double post of above

dromonbylad (New user):

How about a gude on how to triple boot XP, Vista and Linux(Ubuntu). I have a new Vista Ultimate 64bit PC and wish to add XP (for older games and support for my old film scanner) as well as try Ubuntu linux. I can start with a clean hard drive.

kitegeezer (New user):

Still no step by step for tripple boot?

aubie8 (New user):

i tried this. when i did the "SHRINK" command. It shrank the volume by 90ish GB. But now, I don't have another partition with that extra space. Its gone. What should I do now?

STEVO (New user):

right click computer, then click manage, then click disk managment, & you should she your vanished 90 GB space.

dollymop (New user):

how about a dual boot win 2K pro installed and win XP pro

pilot (New user):

I managed to get Ubuntu 8.04 and Vista Home Premium running and dual booting for about 2 weeks. The grub bootloader would ask which Operating System to boot and it would default to Ubuntu which is fine. Then I tried to boot in Vista to no avail. I cannot even get vista to boot at all even in safe mode. Any help would be appreciated. Hardware is a Sony Vaio model VGNAR730E for what thats worth. Thanks in advance Pilot

izzy620 (New user):

Hey guys. Your blog helped me out so I just want to return the favor. I am currently running a triple boot of Vista Home Premium SP1, Windows XP SP3, and Ubuntu Linux. The way it boots is that upon startup the GRUB menu loads with three entries. Ubuntu, XP, and Vista. I think this is what you guys were looking for. If so let me know I'd be more than happy to write up a step-by-step.

kitegeezer (New user):

Hi Izzy,

I for one have been waiting for someone with (much) more know how than I have to do a step by step for exactly what you have done. I have a dual core AMD 500+ 4GB RAM with 32 bit home premium sp 1 and 32 bit XP SP3 using easy BCD, I'd like to add the 64bit version of Ubuntu. I can handle the drivers, but am clueless about changing over to Grub

Hansi (New user):

I should have read all posts before submitting mine. The only difference is that I am going to be using Vista Ult 64bit. In which order did you load? And, I'm assuming that there may be some differences between the Ult 64 load and the Home Premium; not sure about that and was wondering if you might know?

Thanks!

lambda (New user):

Hi Izzy,
It's good to know that somebody like you has done the triple boot already. I have a machine that dual boots Vista Business and Ubuntu 8.04 and would like to add XP3 into it. Can you please share how you successfully did the triple boot (Vista, XP, and Ubuntu)? Would appreciate a step-by-step guide when you get a chance. Thanks!

izzy620 (New user):

definately sir. sorry i never got an email as to whether someone responded but i wll be sure to make it

millersnme (New user):

Tripple Boot... I used your guide and I got 3 os on one pc... Vista 1st. Then I installed SUSE then I installed UBUNTU and they all work great. I did find out the hard way you do not want to install SUSE last as it will wipe out your UBUNTU install.

Frosty (New user):

What about having XP and vista on 2 different HDs will this tut be the same? Is it then easier? Harder?

bartolomeus (New user):

Can you make a PAGE 7 "How to dual-boot Vista with XP and Linux (Vista installed first) -- the step-by-step guide with screenshots"

(I have vista preinstalled now, and want to have all 3 in grubs bootmenu)

hoebrechts (New user):

try linux

Hansi (New user):

This is exactly what I was looking for but would like to take it just a little further. Perhaps it's already been done; if so, sorry. I am in the process of building a new system but am going with Vista Ultimate 64. My previous system was running XP Pro and I was very happy with that OS. Since this will be my first venture with Vista Ult 64 I thought I'd go with a dual boot system. However, I have been very interested in wanting to try out Linux as well. Can a system be set up with all three on one partition or do multiple partitions be needed?

Thanks in advance!

ReneB (New user):

qw

ReneB (New user):

I've loaded 8.04 with XP (1st) according to instructions. On boot-up my pc defaults directly to XP - no choice. Can someone supply instructions to adjust this small problem?

tenzin (New user):

the answer is to modify the configuration in the grub menu.
use a live cd to boot linux, then go into /boot/grub then edit menu.lst
inside this file everything is pretty clearly described.
You can set the timeout for the menu in the third section.
You can also change the default os choice by replacing the number in second section to the number of line of your choice as it appears in the boot menu.hope this help!

tenzin (New user):

Any idea about the best way to tri-boot vista ,xp , and ubuntu.
I already have dual boot vista-32 and kubuntu-8.10 . What is the best way to add win xp.(i have two complications, i no longer have the vista DVD, and my hd is SATA. )

two4two (New user):

I have three HDDs, each attached to an add-in HDD controller card and not to the mobo. I'm keeping Win 98SE, which is the primary master on that card, and installed XP in a dual-boot setup on the primary slave on that card. The third drive is the secondary master on that card. I then installed Ubuntu onto the third HDD (but I had disconnected the other two drives before I did so). I wanted to use the Microsoft boot menu with the linux as a third available OS rather than have the grub menu with its one line pointing to Windows OS's which then navigates to the Microsoft menu. This is a two-tiered process and I'd rather keep a single process. I tried the trick of copying the master boot record (512 bytes) of the linux drive to a file on the "C" drive and then manually editing boot.ini to point to that file. It doesn't work. Maybe it has something to do with the fact that my "C" drive is FAT32? Also, it appears as though with linux the designation of drives attached to the mobo is different from those attached to an add-in card. Something to do with HD0, HD1, etc., vs SD0, SD1, etc.? Or I've read something about drive designation for add-in cards begin with HD4 or HD7 or something like that? I don't want to re-install Win XP (although I could do a repair install), and I certainly don't want to mess with the Win98 SE. Anyone have any experience with this setup where all three drives are on an add-in HD controller card and wanting to use the Microsoft boot.ini process instead of GRUB/two-tiered process?

tenzin (New user):

IMHO, copying the MBR hack is not that a great idea. If your primary OS is XP , why don't u use easyBCD. It has a good support for managing all boot thingies (windows,linux,etc). I have it on my system and i have vista on first partition, xp on third and Ubuntu on forth. You can see on one of the window which harddisk and which partition is visible and then you just select and mark as bootables.This boot manager will safely do all the modifying you need, and no need to mess around with boot.ini or NTLD or NTdetecxt.com.

And to the other tri boot seekers, i would love to contribute to the how to.I had to spend some days trying to avoid all kind of weird pitfall when i first set out to install xp and kubuntu on to my Vista. But this place is new to me and i am not sure where to post . he he

Peridot (New user):

How do i triple boot Vista, Linux and XP (with vista installed first)?

tenzin (New user):

to Peridot.
follow the instructions given in dual booting vista and xp first. Then depending on which distro of linux u plan to use, It would be as straight forward as booting off a live cd, and select install options. Most live cd will competently walk u through a multi boot setup in just few screens. I use kubuntu. The only thing i had to do was select the manual partition option, create appropriate partitons for linux(after xp has been installed with vista) and then let it do its job. It does a good job of detecting the other two windows and adds it to the boot menu( in my case it was grub).

Peridot (New user):

Thanks tenzin i will try as u said :)

jimf28 (New user):

I want to reinstall xp on my dual boot xp-vista setup
My XP needs to be reinstaled. I have a dual boot setup with XP installed first. each OS is on its own HD.

jimf28 (New user):

I have a dual boot xp/vista setup. Both OS are on seperate HD
The original setup was done with XP installed first.
The problem is I need to reinstall XP, how do I reinstall XP on a Dual Boot XP/Vista setup
thanks

vinod7779 (New user):

i installed linux(redhat)frist on my pc & i want to install vista can i follow the instuctions of dual-boot Vista with Linux is that sufficient to run dual boot succesfully on my pc??? please guide........mine is not Ubuntu 8.04.

vinod7779 (New user):

i installed linux(redhat)frist on my pc & i want to install vista can i follow the instuctions of dual-boot Vista with Linux is that sufficient to run dual boot succesfully on my pc??? please guide........mine is not Ubuntu 8.04.

Noremacnek (New user):

How can I use a second hard disk with XP already installed and working to dual boot on a Vista PC?

Denzie (New user):

i already have multi boot with vista and XP...like is it possible to install ubuntu on another partition? I partitioned the HD of my system to 3....kindly advise...thank you!

Denzie (New user):

hi! i already have XP and Vista on my machine...was thinking if its possible to add ubuntu on it.... kindly advise on this one. thank you!

tenzin (New user):

yes. just make sure to do the manual selection of the partition(which you had earmarked for ubuntu) when ubuntu asks you where to install.The minimun is two partition, one root, another swap.

mjl (New user):

Hi.

I'm a linux dabbler. I've tried various flavors of linux over the last half dozen years or so. The computer I'm intending to put kubunutu on is a shared computer running WinXP used by my family. We have lots of stuff on it that would be a tragedy to loose so I must be VERY careful not to damage anything when I install Kubuntu 8.10.

My question is; What does the option "use largest continuous free space" mean on the disk configurations portion of the install routine?

I put a new 500Gb drive in my computer a while ago and created a new Windows install on it in an 80Gb partition. I put one other 80Gb partition on it and have left the remainder of the disk unpartitioned - intending to put Linux in that space.

Is this unpartitioned space the space that the installation routine will use if I choose the option to use the Largest free space or will it try to use the largest unused space on existing partitions. The installation dialog is not clear.

I can't afford to screw this up so I would really appreciate some help.

Thanks!

mjl (New user):

Hi.

I'm a linux dabbler. I've tried various flavors of linux over the last half dozen years or so. The computer I'm intending to put kubunutu on is a shared computer running WinXP used by my family. We have lots of stuff on it that would be a tragedy to loose so I must be VERY careful not to damage anything when I install Kubuntu 8.10.

My question is; What does the option "use largest continuous free space" mean on the disk configurations portion of the install routine?

I put a new 500Gb drive in my computer a while ago and created a new Windows install on it in an 80Gb partition. I put one other 80Gb partition on it and have left the remainder of the disk unpartitioned - intending to put Linux in that space.

Is this unpartitioned space the space that the installation routine will use if I choose the option to use the Largest free space or will it try to use the largest unused space on existing partitions. The installation dialog is not clear.

I can't afford to screw this up so I would really appreciate some help.

Thanks!

tenzin (New user):

i am pretty sure it will use the largest portion of the hard disk(physical) irrespective of the partition. For eg. you have c and d, and d is empty,c is half full. If the portion of c that is empty happens to be one bordering the free partition , then it is thought to e contiguous, and will be used to create linux partition.If not, then only the d partition will be used. To be on the safe side, i always do a defrag on the windows partition so that all the data are compact and all the free space ends up in a continuous stretch at the end of the partition. Then, depending on how big my requirment is, i either resize the partion, or chose not to use that part.And then when installing linux, i do the manual partition so i can specify which part of the hard disk linux can use. Hope this helps.