Edited by Lee, 18 June 2011 - 07:20 PM.
Triple boot XP,W7 and Ubuntu
#1
Posted 18 June 2011 - 06:17 PM
The free advice, opinions and sentiments expressed here are mine only, so you can safely assume I have no software or OS company patrons or any other benefactors when I post in this forum.
Register to Remove
#2
Posted 19 June 2011 - 12:08 PM
Edited by terry1966, 19 June 2011 - 12:11 PM.
#3
Posted 19 June 2011 - 03:11 PM
I could use one, but I'm using separate page files as on shutdown a page file doesn't empty. I can make a setting to have the page file empty on shutdown (had that set when I used to use just one page file for both xp and w7), but shutdown then takes a long time. This way I have a quick xp and w7 shutdown without mixed files in the page file (probably doesn't matter much, but I like to think it does).curious tho why you need 2, 7gb page file partitions, one for xp and 1 for win7, isn't it possible to use the same page file partition for both os saving you 7gb of drive space?
Well I did manage to install Ubuntu on that 15Gb partition I created next to w7, by choosing the "install next too w7" option and by not formating the partition, but letting Ubuntu do it in that Linux ext.4 format (I think that's what it's called).
This was the latest Ubuntu and I was very impressed with it to say the least Especially the super easy set-up. It automatically connected me to the Internet (it loaded some files from w7) and then nudged me to download the latest suitable Video Card driver. That was it, all done!
A couple of 'little" problems though
When I rebooted I only had the option to go to Ubuntu or w7 (no xp option). However, choosing W7 did not work, it would only go to Ubuntu
To cut a long story short, my regular MBR was hosed (something to do with "GRUB" I think) and Ubuntu had stolen my xp "C" letter and messed all the others up, so my xp and w7 image restore with their normal MBR in them didn't work !
In the end I reinstalled XP, deleted the Ubuntu partition and ran BCD to fix up the w7 letter back to "G" with priority boot and had it re-write the w7 MBR.
No big drama, but I might wait until I find out a bit more info before I reinstall that Ubuntu sucker again. It was a close call that it didn't wipe out xp AND w7. Then I would have been really angry
The free advice, opinions and sentiments expressed here are mine only, so you can safely assume I have no software or OS company patrons or any other benefactors when I post in this forum.
#4
Posted 20 June 2011 - 05:33 AM
To cut a long story short, my regular MBR was hosed (something to do with "GRUB" I think) and Ubuntu had stolen my xp "C" letter and messed all the others up, so my xp and w7 image restore with their normal MBR in them didn't work !
no idea why that happened linux doesn't use c/d/e etc for it's partitions/drives tables.
i'll dl the latest ubuntu cd and make a triple boot system, then i can give you step by step guide, grub shouldn't of hosed your mbr and the installer should of seen both your xp and win7 installs.
did you do anything special/different when you installed xp and win7 from the standard make partitions install xp then install win7?
#5
Posted 20 June 2011 - 09:51 AM
Edited by terry1966, 20 June 2011 - 12:07 PM.
#6
Posted 20 June 2011 - 01:16 PM
Edited by Lee, 20 June 2011 - 01:42 PM.
The free advice, opinions and sentiments expressed here are mine only, so you can safely assume I have no software or OS company patrons or any other benefactors when I post in this forum.
#7
Posted 20 June 2011 - 02:00 PM
Seems to me that Post #5 would be a nice Pinned Topic here in Open Source.
Anybody up for "neating it up" a little (Bolded or Colored, and bulleted for easy recipe-like presentation) ?
If you wish, you may Donate to help keep us online.
#8
Posted 20 June 2011 - 03:52 PM
#9
Posted 20 June 2011 - 03:58 PM
Nice work People,
Seems to me that Post #5 would be a nice Pinned Topic here in Open Source.
Great idea Doug
The free advice, opinions and sentiments expressed here are mine only, so you can safely assume I have no software or OS company patrons or any other benefactors when I post in this forum.
#10
Posted 20 June 2011 - 08:19 PM
Register to Remove
#12
Posted 21 June 2011 - 04:53 PM
1st partition is 30gb where the xp operating system is installed
2nd partition is 30gb where the win7 operating system is installed
3rd partition is 90gb where the data for both operating systems is stored
the partitions look like this when in xp :-
and like this when in win7 :-
notice the partitions show up as hard drives(after installing xp i gave them labels, "win7", "xp", "data"), even tho there is only 1 hard drive in the pc, more about this later.
it's the 3rd(data) partition we're going to shrink to create a 30Gb partition and install ubuntu onto.
before you start the install you want to :-
1:- MAKE SURE YOU HAVE EVERYTHING BACKED UP!!!
last thing we want is for you to lose any data,
i suggest using drive imaging software or at the least have all your data backed up along with the means available to re-install your windows operating systems and all the programs you use.
2:- clean and defrag the partition where your going to install ubuntu.
================================================================================
step 1:-
download and burn the latest ubuntu live cd from here:- http://www.ubuntu.co...ubuntu/download
you should already have done this really, and been using it as a live cd long enough to decide you like ubuntu and want to permanently install it on your hard drive.
================================================================================
step 2:-
put the cd into your pc and reboot it.
on the reboot it should load and give you this screen :-
if it doesn't boot to this screen you will either need to go into bios and set the cd/dvd drive to be first boot device or tap a certain key(this key depends on your pc but is usually something like "F12") on the post screen which will then open a menu list so you can choose what device to boot from first, chose the cd/dvd drive.
still doesn't boot to this screen? check the burn/cd is good maybe try a different cd and burn again or start a help topic so one of the techs can help you.
now you're at this screen :- you need to first select what language you want to use on the left, the default is English, then you want to click on the "Install Ubuntu" button to start the install process.
================================================================================
step 3:-
now you're at this screen :- i suggest you place ticks in both the "download updates while installing" and "Install this third-party software" boxes, i never for speed of install reasons only.
some people won't tick the "Install this third-party software" box because they only want to use open source software,
as for the updates box, they are going to be needed at sometime anyway so why not during the install.
boxes ticked or not, your choice, now click the "Forward" button.
================================================================================
step 4:-
now you're at this screen :-
the "Install Ubuntu alongside Windows 7" is set as the default choice(shown by the dot next to it) so no need to do anything here except click on the "Forward" button.
================================================================================
step 5:-
this tells you where it's going to install and is probably the most important part so i will go into a little bit of detail about linux drives/partitions so you'll understanding what your actually seeing.
now you're at this screen :-
what you're being shown is a single partition being divided into 2 halves,
you'll notice one half is /dev/sda6 (ntfs) and is 49.2GB and the other half is /dev/sda7 (ext4) and is 48.9Gb in size,
so what exactly does this mean?
well unlike windows which uses letters c,d,e, to show both the drives and the partitions, linux uses sda, sdb, sdc etc, to show drives and then adds numbers to show the partitions on that drive, 1 to 4 are reserved for primary partitions and numbers 5 and above are for logical partitions.
so /dev/sda6 (ntfs) tells you the drive is the first hard drive("sda") and the partition being divided up is the 2nd logical partition("6", 5 being the 1st logical partition) formatted with the ntfs file system.
/dev/sda7 (ext4) tells you the installer is going to create a new 3rd logical partition on the first drive and is going to format it with the ext4 file system for the Ubuntu install.
to show this better and to double check where Ubuntu is going to install, click on the orange " advanced partitioning tool" link just below the partitioning diagram,
on this screen near the top:- you can see how the drive/s and partitions are identified in linux, notice on this system there is only 1 hard drive and it has 3 partitions each colour coded, green for sda1 (ntfs) 31.5GB(which is the xp partition), orange for sda5 (ntfs) 31.5GB(which is the win7 partition), and blue for sda6 (ntfs) 98.1GB(which is the data partition and where we wanted the install to go).
the reason all the partitions are not primary partitions(sda1, sda2, etc) is because they were created during the xp install which only creates 1 primary partition then extends the rest of the hard drive and creates logical partitions on it.
now you have a better understanding of linux partitioning/drives, i hope.
so click on the "Back" button to get to this screen again :-
click on the "Forward" button to get to this screen again:- sorry about the slight diversion but we're now where we want to be.
we only wanted a 30Gb partition for ubuntu so mouse over the join between the two partitions in the diagram until the pointer changes and looks like the one in the picture, now right click and drag it to the right until you get to the size you want:- when it's at the correct size, click the "Install Now" button
================================================================================
Edited by terry1966, 22 June 2011 - 10:39 AM.
#13
Posted 21 June 2011 - 04:54 PM
now you'll get a warning popup that looks like this:-
this is your last chance to go back and alter anything before changes are made to your hard drive, we don't need to, so just click on the "Continue" button.
================================================================================
step 7:-
now you're at this screen :- just click on your time zone on the map or type your location in the box to select your time zone, then click on the "Forward" button.
================================================================================
step 8:-
now you're at this screen :- select your keyboard and if needed type in the box to test it, then click on the "Forward" button.
================================================================================
step 9:-
now you're at this screen :- just enter your name and create a strong password, use letters,numbers and characters, eg:-W2Ła2tgh*^ , i'd also change the default setting so when i started ubuntu it would take me directly to the desktop instead of asking me to log in, do this by moving the dot from the circle next to " Require my password to log in" to the circle next to "Log in automatically" by clicking on it, you may also want to put a tick in the "Encrypt my home folder" for a little bit of extra security, i don't use this feature or know anything about it, so couldn't tell you if it has any effect on the speed of use or how much extra security it offers a user.
again these are user preferences so choose what you think is best for you, then click on the "Forward" button.
================================================================================
step 10:-
now you're at this screen :- this is IMPORTANT!!! if you don't put the tick in the "xp Windows 7 (loader) (sda1)" box before clicking the forward button when you reboot you won't have the option to boot into your windows operating systems so PUT THE TICK IN THE BOX NOW!!
click on the "Forward" button.
================================================================================
step 11:-
now you're at this screen :-
ok it's now installing, so have some fun and read a bit about ubuntu just click the arrows on the side of the screen..here's two of the info screens.
================================================================================
step 12:-
when it's finished installing you'll get this screen:-
just click the "Restart Now" button
when it's finished shutting down it'll pop open the cd/dvd drive and you'll get a screen similar to this:- just remove the cd from the drive and then hit the "Enter" key on your keyboard" to finish the shutdown and restart.
================================================================================
that's it finished,
from now on when you start your pc you'll get a screen like this :- if you do nothing it will always boot into ubuntu.
when you want to boot into either windows operating systems just use the down arrow key until "Windows 7 (loader) (on /dev/sda1)" is highlighted and hit enter.:-
it will then take you to the windows screen you saw on start up before installing ubuntu, where you can choose which windows os to boot. :-
anyway hope this isn't to long winded and helps at least one person.
Edited by terry1966, 22 June 2011 - 10:44 AM.
#14
Posted 21 June 2011 - 05:14 PM
#15
Posted 21 June 2011 - 07:45 PM
================================================================================
step 10:-
now you're at this screen :- this is IMPORTANT!!! if you don't put the tick in the "xp Windows 7 (loader) (sda1)" box before clicking the forward button when you reboot you won't have the option to boot into your windows operating systems so PUT THE TICK IN THE BOX NOW!!
click on the "Forward" button.
================================================================================
Yep, that's where I went wrong. Forgot the tick and went from bad to worse from there on.
Tried the triple boot out again and it worked fine. Couldn't have done it without your peerless help. Thanks.
You might have to halve the pixel rate on those images, as anyone on dial-up is going to take a long time working their way through those instructions
Cheers,
Lee
Edited by Lee, 21 June 2011 - 07:46 PM.
The free advice, opinions and sentiments expressed here are mine only, so you can safely assume I have no software or OS company patrons or any other benefactors when I post in this forum.
0 user(s) are reading this topic
0 members, 0 guests, 0 anonymous users