tri-boot/dual-boot/Vista already installed?

[G-Stress]

Guys, im lookin to get into something I already know it. Lookin for some insight/advice on this.

HP dv6227cl

1 gb ram

120 gb drive

amd turion 64 tl-50 x2

Vista Home Premium

What im lookin to do is tri-boot XP SP2 and my fav. version of linux (backtrack)

if not I could live with dual booting Vista and XP and just use BT off bootable cd.

The thing is since Vista is already installed I know it's probably gonna be complicated. I guess what I would like to know is what would be the best way to prepare the drive in this case and which would be better to install first XP or BT? I usually would use gnome partition editor off bootable cd to prepare the drive, but not sure if I can do that being that vista is already installed.

Partition Magic never works, never caused me nuttin but problems, so I would like to achieve this using anything/method besides anything to do with partition magic.

Thanks guys.

[Sparda]

GRUB should be able to cope with this. If you install XP first then BT then install grub (if it isn't the default boot loader any way) it should auto detect XP, Vista and Backtrack.

[G-Stress]

whoa... I went to use the restroom came back and bam just that quick got a reply and I just posted this :D Thanks Sparda.

Just one other thing, about preparing the drive, should i create seperate partitions for each OS and then have a 1 gig linux swap partition?

If so what partition tool would you recommend?

Thanks a bunch.

[Sparda]

Does the one vista partition fill the drive now? (and now I need the toilet ;))

[G-Stress]

LOL, handle your business Sparda. Yes unfortunately it does fill the partition, well there is the second 7 gig partition that's the recovery partition I planned on leavin that as it is. What's confusin me I mainly just wasn't sure how or if I should prepare the drive a certain way with Vista already being installed.

Previously I ran XP and BT and used gnome partition editor, but I believe it wipes out everything when using that and it was a bootable tool.

[Sparda]

ok, so your going to have lots of fun resizing the partition lol.

You need defragment and defragment that partition a number of times un till all the data on it is at the beginning of the partition, then you should beable to resize it with gparted with no problems (at least it's never gone wrong for me, but I have only done it with Windows XP and 2K).

[G-Stress]

Sweet, I don't have much data on it yet I was waiting till I got the chance to set it up like I wanted to. So I should be able to do that with the BT disc it has gparted. Actually I think I even tried that before but it never actually applied the changes to the partition but i'll give it a go.

Thanks, Sparda

[G-Stress]

Okay so what I did my friend gave me his lap-top to test things out on. So I installed the evaluation copy of Vista Ultimate I have and and installed XP. XP did give me an error during installation some procedure entry point unrepwmp.exe I think it was, but it did continue to install with no other probs.

After install was complete it only booted XP, but what I did was edit the boot loader and added a new line (copy & paste) and just changed the location.

the default line was set to boot xp from XPPROSP2 so all i did was change that in the second line back to WINDOWS and then I gave it the name "Microsoft Windows Vista Ultimate". Of course it prompts me when booting but it doesn't boot Vista :?

[Sparda]

You don't have to worry about the retarded windows boot loader working, GRUB should do all that for you once it replaces the windows boot loader.

[G-Stress]

Thanks again Sparda. I haven't installed BT yet, I just wanted to see what would happen after installing Vista then XP. I guess I just got 2 more questions for now.

1. My previous attempt if I just wanted to do Vista and XP am I missing something to make vista boot?

2. If I wanted to also just do Vista and XP could I still just use Grub as a boot loader?

Gonna try that now.

[Sparda]

1. My previous attempt if I just wanted to do Vista and XP am I missing something to make vista boot?

My best guess (since I have little experience with vista) is you would have to boot the Vista installation CD and use it to replace the XP boot loader with the Vista boot loader which (I guess) will allow you to boot both XP and vista.

2. If I wanted to also just do Vista and XP could I still just use Grub as a boot loader?

Of course you can, although this will mean you need a 512MB ext2/3 partition to store GRUB in. ;)

[G-Stress]

Thanks Sparda. I think i'm good to go now... I hope :D

[G-Stress]

Ok so far not to bad. I followed this tutorial to an extent.

http://www.hevnikov.com/blog/2006/11/13/tr...le-boot-screen/

Now the only thing I can't get booting is BT. I just need to figure out how to add it to the windows XP bootloader.

My setup is:

40 gb primary ntfs (Vista)

60 gb primary ntfs (XP)

11 gb primary ext2 (BT)

1 gb linux swap

I installed BT first then XP, then Vista, now only BT won't boot and i know it's just cause I need to add it to the XP bootloader somehow.

[cooper]

The bootloader is configured via hidden files in c:

Should be fairly easy to find.

[G-Stress]

Thanks Cooper. Sorry I wasn't specific enough. I knew how to edit the boot.ini file and I tried the following

C:WINDOWSisolinux.bin="Back|Track 2.0 Beta"

And it does display the entry then when I select BT it gives me a weird number on a black screen like "041800000" or something like that and just sits there, and after hitting any key it just reboots.

It also gave me the windows error about hal.dll

i just need to figure how how to write the entry to the xp boot.ini file

:?

[twist3r]

so this is all working with grub? I was actually looking around yesterday on how to dual boot backtrack and 2003 on my laptop, but I was under the impression that backtrack only worked with lilo

[G-Stress]

not sure if it only works with lilo or not, I at one time on my old lap-top dual-booted BT and XP Pro and I did use lilo. Now I'm using Vista boot loader and XP boot loader. I just need to figure out how to had the backtrack entry to the XP boot loader in the boot.ini file. Or should I say how exactly to type the entry I know how to add it, just not in the correct format. :?

[Sparda]

I'm not so sure that you can use the Vista loader with Linux... I would give GRUB a try, if it doesn't work you should always be able to reinstall the Vista loader.

[Guest ABC]

i aint read no replies ...

but i did this today

i had my hdd partioned before i installed vista(weeks ago);

a 210 and a 20 gig partions

vista was on the 210, so i added XP in to the 20 gig partion today

AFTER both OSes were installed i added a 3rd party boot manger .. gag

[G-Stress]

i aint read no replies ...

but i did this today

i had my hdd partioned before i installed vista(weeks ago);

a 210 and a 20 gig partions

vista was on the 210, so i added XP in to the 20 gig partion today

AFTER both OSes were installed i added a 3rd party boot manger .. gag

Did that work for you? If so what boot manager did you use?

@ Sparda, yea I am gonna attempt to use Grub, I never used it before, I used ilo once last time when I dual booted XP and BT. Is Grub similar to where I'll just write the entries in a txt file?

Thanks guys, gonna give grub a shot tonight.

[Guest ABC]

yes . one called gag

[G-Stress]

Excellent. Thanks man I am gonna check that out now.

@ Sparda

Hey I should be able to use lilo instead of grub if I choose to correct? After a bit of reading about grub it appears I need to download it and install it, but that's kinda tough now that BT is already installed and the only way to get to it is to boot of cd for now. Last time when i just went XP & BT I used lilo so i'ma gonna give that a shot i'll just have to figure out how to write the entries again, but hopefully it'll be cake :)

[Sparda]

Hey I should be able to use lilo instead of grub if I choose to correct?

Yep, I just like grub allot because of it's ability to auto detect other OS' installed.

[G-Stress]

k, Thanks Sparda. Yea I want to try grub I need to get familiar with these boot loaders and understand more how they work :D

[Guest ABC]

well im not 100% but from what i understand, it goes on the first sector of you disk and directs the mobo on which OS to boot.

it will replace your windows MBR, master boot recod.