triple boot windows 7 winXP and Linux

[DanDroiD]

Haven't used Win7 but yea Grub does everything perfectly with Vista and XP .. So guess no prob. should be with Win7 entry ..

The idea is that you want to boot directly to each OS individually.

One would not really want to boot to XP in Grub to be taken to a Windows 7 menu to select XP to then boot to XP... it's too many steps.

And booting to Windows 7 should take you directly into OS, not a boot menu for Windows 7 and XP.

The whole purpose of doing it as explained is that you can bypass Windows 7 or XP's secondary boot menu.

If you install Windows 7 without hiding the XP partition, Windows 7(or Vista) will install the boot files to the XP Partition as the active partition.

So by hiding the XP partition before you install Windows 7 (or Vista) you will install their boot files to thier own Partition instead, then you can boot without having to go through Windows 7's (or Vista) secondary boot menu too.

 

[madnav]

well by the method i mention u get the direct booting too.

just delete the XP entry from win7/vista bootloader usin msconfig and n u r good to go via grub

 

[sri_rng]

@pixelpusher : What exactly do you mean by hiding? I have carefully partitioned my HD to install Win7 now.. Your method sounds great, can you elaborate? I realized now that if you install via grub, it will take met to win7 bootmanager to go to XP!! Sad..

 

[b00gieMan]

Okay just a piece of my 2 cents..

Windows 7 Beta has issues with Linux "if you plan to use it with Wubi". It will install that perfectly but u wont get OS select option while booting.

2ndly what you want XP for? Just use Windows 7 7022 build (which is lates) and its pretty simple you dont need any old OS like Vista or XP.. Just install Windows 7 and on other partition use Ubuntu 8.10. Will be smooth and perfect. Ofcourse, 1st install Windows 7 and then the linux.

 

[DanDroiD]

^^ I'm booting Windows 7 form grub just fine thanks

well by the method i mention u get the direct booting too.

just delete the XP entry from win7/vista bootloader usin msconfig and n u r good to go via grub

This is less clean as you would still have Windows 7 installing boot files to Xp Partiton instead of it's own. Have you tested this?

@pixelpusher : What exactly do you mean by hiding?

It's really quite simple actually, if you are using g-parted... boot into the g-parted cd > select the partition you want to hide(in this case XP) > either right click for menu or use dropdown and select hide partition... and reboot. This basically hides XP partiton from all the other OS'S.. to be on the safe side it wouldn't do any harm to make the Windows 7 partition the active before installation.

You won't be able to hide XP from inside XP OS, you would have to do it in either another OS (which as yet you have not installed)... or from a livecd like gparted or Acronis.

So...

1. Install xp

2.boot into g-parted or other livecd like Acronis

3.hide XP Partiton and make Windows 7 partition active

4.install Windows 7

5.unhide xp partition

6.install ubuntu

7.edit /boot/grub/menu.lst and add

title Windows XP

root (hd1,0)

Where (hd1,0) is = to your windows hard drive and partition # Just remember Linux starts partition and hard drive #'s at 0 not 1...so hard drive 1, partition 2 would be (hd0,1)

chainloader +1

8.Make another entry like above for Windows 7