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Booting Multiple Operating Systems


Craig
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I am preparing to install multiple operating systems on my desktop PC and would like some information to help me along my way.

I will be installing the following operating systems:

Windows XP Pro

Windows XP Home

Windows Server 2003

Windows Me

Windows 98

Mandrake Linux

Redhat Linux

SuSE Linux

All of the above will be manged by a boot manager which i have decided will be OS Selector 8.0.

I have got OS Selector installed at the moment with my Windows XP Pro installation and it looks and works very well.

Now i do have a 80GB hard drive, but i have also purchased a 160GB which i will take delivery of on Tuesday.

I'm not decided on the setup yet, but i will probably allocate 10GB partitions to each of the operating systems and then have further partitions to install applications.

All operating systems and software will be installed on the new 160GB hard drive, and i will use the 80GB hard drive as a local installer and copy all software from CD onto that hard disk, and if i have room i will create a drive image of some operating systems as a backup.

The help I require is I would like to know in which order i should install my operating systems.

I would like Windows XP Pro to be the first O/S installed as this will be my main OS.

Now i know if i pop my Windows 98 CD in while i'm running XP Pro it wont allow me to run the setup as it is a previous version, so does anyone have any ideas?

Thanks for any help provided,

Craig.

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I don't know a lot about it, Craig, but everything I've seen on forums indicates that the oldest OS must be installed first and so on. ( Windows) As for including Linux, I think it ought to be last as it can see the others OS's but not vice-versa. I'm unsure about that, but you should pop over to the Pit and ask Bruce on the Linux board. He's a Linux expert, all flavours, and his advice is invaluable, albeit free. :)

He's also multibooted everything made.

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How can I install Windows 98 after Windows XP?

This procedure assumes that Windows XP is installed on drive C:

Drive C: must be FAT16 or FAT32 to be able to install Windows 98 after XP is already installed. The 98/Me installation routine cannot write to an NTFS partition.

You must have a second hard disk or partition formatted for FAT16/32 in order to be able to install Windows 98/Me.

As always, installing 98/Me to the same partition as Windows XP is Not recommended!

I recommend the use of a Windows 98 Startup disk for this procedure. You should ensure that DEBUG.EXE is on your Startup disk. On a 98 Startup disk, created from Add/Remove Programs, its in the EBD.CAB file on the Startup disk. For a 98 Startup disk created from FAT32EBD.EXE its on the floppy

Installing Windows 98

Use a Win98 Startup disk (with CD support) to boot your computer.

Insert your Win98 CD into the CD Rom drive.

At the A: prompt type X:\Win98\Setup.exe where X: is your CD-ROM drive.

Proceed with the install. When prompted for the install location, you'll see C:\Windows.000. Choose Other directory and change this to the drive you wish to install 98 to and name the folder Windows (or something else if you prefer).

Complete the Win98 install. Allow the computer to boot into Win98.

Repairing the Windows XP Boot Loader

Create a Win98 Startup Disk

Create a Notepad file with the following entries, exactly as shown:

L 100 2 0 1

N C:\BOOTSECT.DOS

R BX

0

R CX

200

W

Q

Save the file to the Win98 Startup Disk as READ.SCR

Boot the computer with the Win98 Startup Disk and at the A: prompt type

DEBUG <READ.SCR

Steps 1 - 4 create the BOOTSECT.DOS file needed to boot Win98. You may need to use the ATTRIB C:\BOOTSECT.DOS -S -H -R command if BOOTSECT.DOS already exists and you get an error when trying to recreate it.

Configure your computer to boot from the CD drive. This is done in the BIOS, or your computer may offer the option at startup if it detects a bootable CD. If your computer does not support booting from CD-Rom, you should also be able to boot with a 98 Startup disk, and run WINNT.EXE from the I386 folder of your XP CD.

Insert your XP CD and boot from it.

You'll see some files being copied, then you'll be presented with a choice of installing or repairing an existing installation. Choose Repair.

You'll be asked which XP installation you want to log into. Enter 1. There is usually only one installation.

You'll be prompted for the Administrator password. For Home, the default password is blank, so just hit Enter. For Pro, enter the same password you did during setup for the Administrator account (this is not the same as the password for an Admin level account. It must be the Administrator account password).

At the C:\Windows prompt, type FIXBOOT. You'll be prompted to confirm. Do so.

When FIXBOOT is finished, remove the XP CD and type EXIT and the machine will reboot.

Reconfigure your computer to boot from the hard drive if necessary.

You will now get the XP Boot loader with your choice of operating system

source : here

Obviously, just ignore the boot loader section as you are running your own....

can i ask why XP pro and Home on the same machine??

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If i'm not mistaken...

An operating system (win, linux) has to be installed to a Prmary partition.

Of which 4 are allowed on a disk (regardless of size) You can have more partitions on a disk, logical drive etc.

But for primary partitions only 4 on the one disk.

Remember that you cannot run Windows apps on Linux.

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Thanks for the support here guys / gals!

I'm now thinking about dropping Win 98 or Win Me.

Not sure which one though, as i class Win 98 as being more stable than Win Me, but Win Me does have a better colour scheme!

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Okay, so far i have the following installed on my new 160GB hard drive:

Windows 98

Windows XP (full)

Windows XP (internet only)

Windows Server 2003

However when i use the OS Selector to manage the booting, no matter which OS i select to boot, it only boots Windows XP (full).

If i uninstall OS Selector and use the Windows boot loader all works fine.

I would rather use OS Selector as it looks better, so can anyone help me out with this little problem?

Thanks,

Craig.

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