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General discussion

triple boot w/ 2 drives

by rodwlee Aug 22, 2008 6:03PM PDT

Hi all, I'm researching any potential problems before I get started.
I have 2 HDD on my computer,1-500GB and 1-65GB. The 500gb drive I
have divided into 2-250GB partitions, with xp-pro on 1. I want to put
vista on the second partition, and linux on the 65GB HDD.
Everything I have read on the net,talks about making a triple boot system with all
3 OS's on the same drive. Are there any major differences (or problems) with installing or running
xp-pro/vista/linux from 2 drives.
I have a gigabyte motherboard, and the bios has both drives listed
as master drives. I have a boot priority I have to set. It is currently
set as 1-cd/dvd 2-C: HDD 3-External usb HDD,my 65gb drive is E:

Ant help would be appreciated
Rodney

Discussion is locked

3 Posts
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Plenty of problems.
by r. proffitt Forum moderator Aug 22, 2008 10:51PM PDT

"xp-pro/vista/linux"

XP Pro prior to SP2 had severe issues with installing to SATA drives over 127GB. Vista has its own needs for the boot manager, and Linux comes in so many flavors that you may have to be more specific.

Your research is going to go downhill fast unless you get the versions in there.

Meanwhile look up OSL2000.
Bob

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re: Plenty of problems
by rodwlee Aug 23, 2008 2:06AM PDT

Sorry for not including os versions.

I have xp-pro(sp2) installed,and I have vista(sp1).
For linux i'm still trying to decide between ubuntu,kubuntu or santa fe

Hope this helps

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Did you want to go native?
by r. proffitt Forum moderator Aug 23, 2008 2:17AM PDT

If so, install XP SP2 first but leave unpartitioned space (do NOT partition all space ahead of time.) Then install Vista to it's own partition (each of these OS do not require any third party partitioning tools). At this point you have XP, Vista dual booting and a menu.

Last you pop the latest Ubuntu in and let it use the remaining unpartitioned space and it will install and provide a boot menu.

So it's all possible to do natively if you do so in the right order. Remember I won't be discussing how to install Windows or its drivers.
Bob

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