Quad Booting

archp2008

Hello,

I have taken an interest recently in multibooting, mainly because I enjoy l the variety of features presented to me in this way. I presently have XP, Vista, and Linux (Ubuntu 7..10) triple booting successfully. All were installed on separate partitions so I have used up my limit of 4 primary partions on the main drive. I would like to try Vista 64 on a separate drive to see if my system will run faster with a 64 bit system and utilize all my RAM. Can any one point me to a beginner's step by step guide for installing an operating system on a separte drive with a setup similar to mine. I would like to edit Grub to recognize the third version of Windows on one of my other drives. Thanks in advance for any comments or suggestions.

mmonnin

If you want to install it on a second drive you could just change the hard drive boot order in your BIOS anytime you would want to boot up with the other OS. You will be rebooting anyway, go into the BIOS and tell the second drive to boot first.

drasnor

The Gentoo Dual-Boot Guide has what you're looking for. Specifically, make an entry like this in GRUB's config file. I think it's named /boot/grub/menu1st.conf on Ubuntu boxes:

title Windows XP
rootnoverify (hd1,0) #Windows is secondary drive, Linux is primary
makeactive
chainloader +1
map (hd0) (hd1) # Tell the first hard drive to pretend to be the second
map (hd1) (hd0) # Tell the second hard drive to pretend to be the first

-drasnor

archp2008

Many Thanks, Drasnor and MMonnin. I'm a little vague about how to ascertain the hd() values. I'm inside Ubuntu now and I forget how to display the partitions here. I have my main drive divided into three partitions one for XP, one for Vista, and one for Ubuntu with the 3 subpartitions. I was thinking perhaps of trying to tryl a 64-bit Windows system on a small (20GB) IDE drive that just shows under file system and New Drive. I definitely need more practice on using the terminal window. I'll have a look at the Gentoo Guide now. Thanks again.

drasnor wrote:

The Gentoo Dual-Boot Guide has what you're looking for. Specifically, make an entry like this in GRUB's config file. I think it's named /boot/grub/menu1st.conf on Ubuntu boxes:

title Windows XP
rootnoverify (hd1,0) #Windows is secondary drive, Linux is primary
makeactive
chainloader +1
map (hd0) (hd1) # Tell the first hard drive to pretend to be the second
map (hd1) (hd0) # Tell the second hard drive to pretend to be the first

-drasnor

drasnor

Values for hd are formulated drive,partition. Drive counts from zero and begins with hard disks on primary IDE master through SATA. If you run grub from the command line, typing (hd and hitting tab will show possible completions.

-drasnor

archp2008

drasnor wrote:

Values for hd are formulated drive,partition. Drive counts from zero and begins with hard disks on primary IDE master through SATA. If you run grub from the command line, typing (hd and hitting tab will show possible completions.

-drasnor

Thanks again, Drasnor,

I went ahead and installed XP64 to my IDE 20GB drive, and am replying to you from within that version now. I am going into it by changing hard drive boot sequence in BIOS as Mmonnin suggested. It would be nice to have the systems all listed when I choose Earlier Version of Windows, though. Is this done within Grub or within NTLDR? I have used EasyBCD within Vista to edit the names for the two Windows systems I already have. Isn't that NTLDR that I am editing? Couldn't I just go ahead and add the XP64 option using EasyBCD within Vista and leave Grub as it is? I will try hd tab within Ubuntu <TAB>and see what it shows and get back to you. I appreciate the help.

drasnor

You can do it either way. I had assumed you were booting all your Windows versions as separate entries in GRUB but simply having one entry for NTLDR in GRUB and booting Windows from NTLDR works too.

-drasnor

archp2008

Thanks for the reply. I had a bit of trouble with the grub> hd press tab other than getting a list of possible commands. I was reading a site about installing a hard drive in Ubunut which suggested the command sudo lshw -C disk which gave this long listing for my system:
arch@arch-desktop:~$ sudo lshw -C disk
*-cdrom
description: DVD-RAM writer
product: DVD-RAM GSA-H54N
vendor: HL-DT-ST
physical id: 0.0.0
bus info: scsi@0:0.0.0
logical name: /dev/cdrom
logical name: /dev/dvd
logical name: /dev/scd0
logical name: /dev/sr0
version: 1.00
serial: [HL-DT-STDVD-RAM GSA-H54N1.0007/04/10
capabilities: removable audio cd-r cd-rw dvd dvd-r dvd-ram
configuration: ansiversion=5 status=open
*-disk
description: SCSI Disk
product: WDC WD200BB-00BS
vendor: ATA
physical id: 0.1.0
bus info: scsi@0:0.1.0
logical name: /dev/sda
version: 12.0
serial: WD-WMA741246992
size: 18GB
capabilities: partitioned partitioned:dos
configuration: ansiversion=5
*-disk:0
description: SCSI Disk
product: WDC WD3200AAKS-7
vendor: ATA
physical id: 0
bus info: scsi@5:0.0.0
logical name: /dev/sdb
version: 12.0
serial: WD-WCAPZ3163503
size: 298GB
capabilities: partitioned partitioned:dos
configuration: ansiversion=5
*-disk:1
description: SCSI Disk
product: WDC WD3200AAKS-0
vendor: ATA
physical id: 1
bus info: scsi@6:0.0.0
logical name: /dev/sdc
version: 01.0
serial: WD-WMAT10261759
size: 298GB
capabilities: partitioned partitioned:dos
configuration: ansiversion=5
*-disk:0
description: SCSI Disk
product: STORAGE DEVICE
vendor: Generic
physical id: 0.0.0
bus info: scsi@2:0.0.0
logical name: /dev/sdd
version: 9325
capabilities: removable
*-disc
physical id: 0
logical name: /dev/sdd
*-disk:1
description: SCSI Disk
product: STORAGE DEVICE
vendor: Generic
physical id: 0.0.1
bus info: scsi@2:0.0.1
logical name: /dev/sde
version: 9325
capabilities: removable
*-disc
physical id: 0
logical name: /dev/sde
arch@arch-desktop:~$

The first hard drive listed (after the DVD drive) is the one that I have installed the XP64 on. It's listed as -disk before disk 0. I don't know what help this info is is to me. I will leave Ubuntu and go into Vista where I have EasyBCD and see if I can figure out that. Thanks again.

drasnor wrote:

You can do it either way. I had assumed you were booting all your Windows versions as separate entries in GRUB but simply having one entry for NTLDR in GRUB and booting Windows from NTLDR works too.

-drasnor

archp2008

I had a go at EasyBCD inside Vista but had no luck. I looked in My Computer first and ascertained that the drive that I just installed XP64 on was listed as Drive E. In EasyBCD the option of choosing a second version of XP was not there. If I selected XP, the drive option was greyed out The only other option was to choose Windows Longhorn. Then I could point to Drive E. That added the third Windows menu option, but when I looked at the descriptionof the 3 entries, it read Drive U for the third entry instead of drive E. When I saved it and restarted I could see the 3-way list but only for a split second - not nearly long enough to make a choice - but then the 2 option list replaced it. Perhaps M$ doesn't permit two versions of XP on the same computer. Who knows???

drasnor

I wouldn't know about EasyBCD, but to see the GRUB drive mapping you have to be in the GRUB shell. Try running 'grub' from the command line and trying what I posted a little earlier.

-drasnor