How to triple boot win7, xp & pclos

[jiminid]

Hi,
after beating my brains out , I found out how to add win7 to a double boot with win xp and pclos.
So, if anyone else is in the same sitch...this is how you do it:

1. use gparted to create a partition for win7, make it bootable.
2. hide win xp and remove the boot flag.
3. install win7 into your prepared partition
4. unhide win xp.
5. install pclos to its own partition(s) ( mine is on a separate drive)
6. setup grub to boot winxp and win7 from their own partitions. you can actually assign them in the pclos installer. Mine looks like this:
title Windows 7 RC1
root (hd0,1)
makeactive
chainloader +1

title Windows XP Home SP3
root (hd0,0)
chainloader +1

7. reboot.
8. go back into pclos under root and change the order if you want.

Works great! Each OS boots directly to its own logon page.

Happy pclosing!

 

Jiminid

[corazon]

Hi, did you resize an existing  XP partition first? Or did you do a fresh install of XP, leaving space the the next W7 partition? Is the process to hide and change the xp bootflag part of the gparted gui? Or in menu options?

Cheers

[jiminid]

Hi, did you resize an existing  XP partition first? Or did you do a fresh install of XP, leaving space the the next W7 partition? Is the process to hide and change the xp bootflag part of the gparted gui? Or in menu options?

Reduced the data partition on the same drive creating another primary partition for win 7. In gparted you right click the xp partition and select manage flags. deselect boot and select hidden. right click the win7 partition select manage flags and select boot. After win 7 install go back into gparted and right click the xp partition select manage flags and deselect hidden. install your favorite flavor of linux and install grub to the mbr then edit your menu.lst to point grub to the individual partitions for xp and win7 and you should be good to go. 

[NinerSevenTango]

You should be aware that XP sees Vista and Windows 7 restore points as corrupted versions of its own and deletes them.  Every time you boot XP, it ransacks the disks, and it will search out and destroy your restore points on the newer operating systems.

To get around this, I used Vista Hide-N-Seek (just Google it), which uses a modified Grub4Dos script.  It works by hiding the Vista and Win 7 partitions whenever you boot XP, and unhiding them whenever any other OS is chosen.  Works like a charm.  But set it up with caution.  It's grub, after all.

I used it to set up a machine with Vista, XP, PCLinuxOS, and Puppy.

--97T--

[jiminid]

You should be aware that XP sees Vista and Windows 7 restore points as corrupted versions of its own and deletes them.  Every time you boot XP, it ransacks the disks, and it will search out and destroy your restore points on the newer operating systems.

To get around this, I used Vista Hide-N-Seek (just Google it), which uses a modified Grub4Dos script.  It works by hiding the Vista and Win 7 partitions whenever you boot XP, and unhiding them whenever any other OS is chosen.  Works like a charm.  But set it up with caution.  It's grub, after all.

I used it to set up a machine with Vista, XP, PCLinuxOS, and Puppy.

--97T--

Thanks 97T, Do you happen to know if that works with Windows 7 64 bit? No Veesta Here Senor. 

[pirate]

You should be aware that XP sees Vista and Windows 7 restore points as corrupted versions of its own and deletes them.  Every time you boot XP, it ransacks the disks, and it will search out and destroy your restore points on the newer operating systems.


--97T--

bull chit

[Duvid]

So far I have been successful tri- booting  Xp, Win7, PCLOS by installing each OS in that order. I first use gparted to make the partitions for each
                                   ntfs  ntfs   ext3 /   ext3 home linux swap

             Because you are only allowed 4 partitions on a drive I create an extended partition for all my ext3 partitions inside the extended partition create  /   home   linux swap  I have a terabyte drive so this has allowed me to actually quad boot  just for the hell of it.
 I first install XP in the first partition in the normal way, then I install Win7 in the second partition. If you were to stop here, your boot menu would be from Win7 which would  have Win 7, and  a second line that says "older windows version".

 Now you can go ahead and install PCLOS in the normal way. When you are at the end of the install put the bootloader  on the first partition which would be sda1 or hda1. It would  then recognize that there are other operating systems and name them as windows,and usually windows1. This can be renamed later if you wish, which isn't difficult to do.

I made a typo when saying that grub should be on sda1 or hda1. It must be at the beginning of the drive where the MBR is. During the install that is the first choice usually given
 
 

[Old-Polack]

So far I have been successful tri- booting  Xp, Win7, PCLOS by installing each OS in that order. I first use gparted to make the partitions for each
                                   ntfs  ntfs   ext3 /   ext3 home linux swap

             Because you are only allowed 4 partitions on a drive I create an extended partition for all my ext3 partitions. inside the extended partition create  /   home   linux swap  I have a terabyte drive so this has allowed me to actually quad boot just for the hell of it.
 I first install XP in the first partition in the normal way, then I install Win7 in the second partition. If you were to stop here, your boot menu would be from Win7 which would  have Win 7, and  a second line that says "older windows version".

 Now you can go ahead and install PCLOS in the normal way. When you are at the end of the install put the bootloader  on the first partition which would be sda1 or hda1. It would  then recognize that there are other operating systems and name them as windows,and usually windows1. This can be renamed later if you wish, which isn't difficult to do.
 

Why would you install grub to a Windows partition, rather than the MBR, where it properly belongs?

[Duvid]

 O-P I knew you would get me on this, but I was away from my computer  and couldn't fix  it before you saw it, but I did get a chuckle thinking you would catch it. My explanation of it was incorrect, but this is how I have always preceded with no problems..... When I am asked where to put the bootloader, it defaults to the name of the drive, which is where the mbr is, so I stand corrected OOPS. Everything else I have said does works though.
  
 O-P   Wanted to  let you know as well, that In the past you have walked me through fixing my grub and menu.lst, and the correct pronunciation of "comment" over "pound" and stanza, and I now have been extremely comfortable fixing them several times. Thank you very much.

[Old-Polack]

O-P I knew you would get me on this, but I was away from my computer  and couldn't fix  it before you saw it, but I did get a chuckle thinking you would catch it. My explanation of it was incorrect, but this is how I have always preceded with no problems..... When I am asked where to put the bootloader, it defaults to the name of the drive, which is where the mbr is, so I stand corrected OOPS. Everything else I have said does works though.
  
 O-P   Wanted to  let you know as well, that In the past you have walked me through fixing my grub and menu.lst, and the correct pronunciation of "comment" over "pound" and stanza, and I now have been extremely comfortable fixing them several times. Thank you very much.

Wow! Here I was, thinking you'd found some nifty new trick with grub, and it turns out to be a typo. What a let down.

[NinerSevenTango]

Thanks 97T, Do you happen to know if that works with Windows 7 64 bit? No Veesta Here Senor. 

Yes, it works with Windows 7 exactly the same as Vista, according to the developer.

--97T--

[NinerSevenTango]

You should be aware that XP sees Vista and Windows 7 restore points as corrupted versions of its own and deletes them.  Every time you boot XP, it ransacks the disks, and it will search out and destroy your restore points on the newer operating systems.


--97T--

bull chit

"What it Does
Vista Hide 'n Seek is NeoSmart Technologies' solution to a host of complicated dual-booting problems that present themselves when multi-booting Windows Vista together with older versions of Windows. In particular, Vista Hide 'n Seek solves these two problems:

   1. Booting into Windows XP deletes any and all system restore points & shadow copies on Windows Vista partitions.
   2. If you have more than one copy of legacy Windows and are multi-booting with Windows Vista, you'll have to go through two menus to get into one of the legacy entries.

Vista HnS solves these by modifying the Vista bootloader to list all Legacy entries along with the Windows Vista entry in a single boot menu, allowing you to directly choose which OS to boot into.

More importantly, Vista HnS isolates legacy Windows entries from Windows Vista partitions while they are running, solving a lot of the more complicated problems that underhandedly present themselves in a typical XP-Vista dual-boot scenario."

The above is lifted shamelessly from http://neosmart.net/forums/showthread.php?t=1341

If that's not enough, just Google "dual boot restore points".  Maybe all those people are full of it too, like I am.

--97T--

[Duvid]

O-P  (lol)  Sorry O' great wizard,but there isn't one that you don't know of.

                      

                        

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[jiminid]

Thanks 97T, Do you happen to know if that works with Windows 7 64 bit? No Veesta Here Senor. 

Yes, it works with Windows 7 exactly the same as Vista, according to the developer.

--97T--

Thanks, I wonder what it does to my agonizingly tweaked and twisted grub bootloader from whom all blessings flow-(with much aide and abetting by old polack)

[Duvid]

 You can either approach it as if its not broken don't fix it, or take the opportunity to try another way to approach a situation. I like  poking around, sometimes it fails, but I always come out learning something new. Regardless I have ALWAYS been able to fix what I tried. Probably why I go on the forum, and probably why I have seeked out new topics. I know there is always my remaster disk if I really messed things up so bad that it was beyond help from our friends on the forum,but haven't had to use it yet.
 That's one of the many great things about linux, you can actually tweak the system in so many ways, and in the process learn.