[jrbuergel]

I will be booting Vista, XP, and then installing Linux with grub. So the Vista boot loader will be setup to boot both Windows, so then when I do install a Linux on the same hard drive, (all on separate partitions) what is the best method to boot up all 3 systems? Should I just allow grub to install on the master boot record, and then chainload XP and Vista, or will that not even work. Or I could install grub on the boot sector of what will be my Kubuntu root partition, and then try to add this Linux to the Vista boot loader ?

[saikee]

One of the many ways.

The many ways include

(1) Using Grub to boot all 3 independently (the above way, both XP and Vista need a primary partition each)
(2) Using Grub to boot Vista with Vists's bootmgr dual booting Xp and Vista. (Vista and Xp is then linked but still in separate partition. The Xp can be installed in a logical partition in this case at the owner's discretion.
(3) Using Vista's bootmgr triple boot the 3.
(4) Using Lilo instead of Grub
(5) Using a 3rd party boot loader sourced outside the 3 systems.

The Vista and the new Win7 have an identical boot loader so the above can be extended to include Xp, Vista, Win7 and Linux in any combination.

[jrbuergel]

Thanks and I think I will use boot method #2. So then after grub is installed on the MBR, will it only show chain load to Vista and not for the XP ?

[saikee]

M$ boot loaders are backrward compatible only but not forward. Vista's bootmgr use a different method (that relies of GUID identification code) for booting that XP's NTLDR cannot do. So Xp can't boot Vista. Thus the only way you can link the two systems is by bootmgr from Vista.

You can install Xp and Vista in any order but the only M$ boot loader that fires up the two is from Vista. There is more work involved if you put Xp later than Vista.

Grub doesn't know Vista or Xp it is booting. It only knows there is a boot loader in a certain partition and if instructed goes there to hand over the control. Grub can't even read the content of a NTFS partition!

If you want Xp to be the default system between Vista and Xp you use BCDedit to change it in command prompt or download a 3rd party boot loader manipulator like EasyBCD which is easier to use on a desktop.

[jrbuergel]

So now I have XP Pro installed on my second partition, with Vista as C, and in Vista that 2nd partition was as drive D:\ formatted NTFS. But the XP install selected drive letter H for that partition, and this computer has a digital media card reader which has drives; D,E,F,G, and the DVD as drive I. So if I use the XP disk management to re-assign those card readers drives D, E to higher letters, which makes D available for the XP, and E for the DVD. So how do I change the XP H drive letter to D ? Can this be done from Vista disk management ? Or should I just unplug that digital media card reader, and let Windows XP re-assign drive letters in order. Then if the card reader is re-connected, and the PC booted, possibly the latter drive letters will be assigned to that card reader, but the D will be for XP, and the E for the DVD maybe ?

[saikee]

I have not paid much attention to the drive letters assigments but I believe apart from the booting and running system partitions you should be able to remove any drive letter and reassign it to another device or partition.

I believe Vista alsways want ti keep itself in "C" and assigns the partition that boots it as a "D". XP does the opposite and follows the detection order of PC.

Perhaps you should try it and see the consequence. I believe in your case you should be able to get Vista as C since it is the controlling partition for booting. If Xp is in the second partition after it then it should have no problem of being the D drive.

[jrbuergel]

This is now fixed by disconnecting and I will be removing that card reader from the PC, and then I did do a full fresh re-install of my XP Pro which then set to drive D: and the DVD to E: And both Vista and XP now match drive letter assignments, with Vista as drive C:, thanks. But I have an issue with the SATA BIOS settings which have options for configure as IDE, or set it to as AHCI. So now I can only boot Vista when it is set to AHCI, and only boot the XP when the BIOS SATA is set to configure as IDE, and if not it gives a stop code error 07B. And I did search for a ASUS P5QL Pro motherboard BIOS update, and I have the lattest version apparently. Also I did look in each one's Device Manager to check for driver updates, so how can I boot these with out changing the BIOS setting each time ?

[jrbuergel]

Fixed this issue by changing the BIOS SATA configuration settings from that AHCI to IDE, enhanced. And then reinstalled Vista so that both XP and Vista use that same BIOS setting.

[gyrgrls]

I chain-load from ntldr.

When I choose UNIX (Valhalla) from the menu, it calls GRUB.
It works quite well. I prefer ntlder over GRUB or LILO, for
my startup menu. It's lightweight, and it's plain text. YMMV.



Here's how I set it up on my main workstation::

 [boot loader]
timeout=15
default=c:\bolin
;default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(4)\WINNT
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(4)\WINNT="Win2k" /fastdetect
c:\bolin="Valhalla" 
c:\bodos="DOS622" /WIN95DOS
c:\CMDCONS\BOOTSECT.DAT="Recovery Console" /CMDCONS
c:\="Win 98" 
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(2)\WINNT="Emergency Win2k boot" /fastdetect

[gyrgrls]

Originally Posted by jrbuergel

Fixed this issue by changing the BIOS SATA configuration settings from that AHCI to IDE, enhanced. And then reinstalled Vista so that both XP and Vista use that same BIOS setting.

You might want to mark this thread "Solved".

[jrbuergel]

I did finally get all the install and boot issues fixed, so I now dual boot with the Vista boot manager and my fresh XP Professional added to the boot menu using that Vista Boot Pro program. But I did find out that the XP install placed it's 3 main boot files, ( NTLDR, boot.ini, and NTDetect.com) all into my first partition which is Vista C: drive, and not where they most often need to be, on the XP D: drive, (2nd partition on the same SATA hard drive). So since I thought that was not right to have XP's boot files missing from it's root drive, I moved those boot files over to the D: from the C:, which then it did not boot XP, only Vista. So after I did then copy those XP main boot files back over to the Vista C: drive, re-booted and got into the XP Pro no problem. How do I then tell the XP boot files to re-direct to D: during boot to look for those files ? Thanks for all the help.

[gyrgrls]

Originally Posted by saikee

I have not paid much attention to the drive letters assigments but I believe apart from the booting and running system partitions you should be able to remove any drive letter and reassign it to another device or partition.

I believe Vista alsways want ti keep itself in "C" and assigns the partition that boots it as a "D". XP does the opposite and follows the detection order of PC.

Drive letter assignment is a kickback from the days of MS-DOS.
However, Windows NT (yes, XP and Vista are really NT versions)
assigns drive letters separately, after Windows loads, independent
of the physical or logical order of your partitions.

I have over 30 logical drives, and so they can't all get drive letters.
I must ditch the drive letters, and use mount points (a type of reparse
point). With mount points, you can call your volumes
"Fred", "Wilma", "Barney", and "Betty".

Oh, and we have a computer named "Robot".
Really, we do. I'm not kidding. After my wife
leaves, Ithink I'll rename it "Bam-Bam". "Pebbles
just won't get the job done". Robot will be missed.
But I digress...

Here is a screenshot of my first six internal drives...
according to Partition Magic (external drives not listed):

and don't forget, this machine is a monster - mutibooting
MS-DOS 6.22, Wndows 98, Windows 2000, Windows XP,
and RHL 7.3 (Valhalla). I'm thinking of adding Suse 10.0,
just because I like old OS's.

[saikee]

and don't forget, this machine is a monster - mutibooting
MS-DOS 6.22, Wndows 98, Windows 2000, Windows XP,
and RHL 7.3 (Valhalla). I'm thinking of adding Suse 10.0,
just because I like old OS's.

Think I did something similar a few years back when all of the above were inside the 145 systems.

As for now I have just completed my write up for booting 126 Xp in one hard disk.