Run XP, Win7 & Ubuntu

Dave-22 · #1 November 26th, 2009, 06:53 AM

Hi,

I have a machine with 2 SATA drives and an older IDE drive - can boot from either SATA.

I have XP installed on one SATA drive (CMOS to boot from this one) and a copy of XP on another SATA drive - small partition I had been playing around at XP install time and never removed it.

I also have Ubuntu on the IDE drive. The Ubuntu install put GRUB on the main XP drive and I could choose to boot XP or Ubuntu.

I have now wiped the second XP drive and installed Win7 (unplugged the XP drive while I did it). This seems to have "broken" the GRUB boot, I can boot from the Win7 disc but if I set the CMOS to XP drive I get the GRUB error - possibly because the old 2nd XP has become Win7? I am currently booting from XP with the Win7 unplugged.

The Ubuntu is an old version and I want to reformat that drive and put a newer version on there.

Ideally I'd like to be able to select at boot time either of the 3 O/S's. What is the best option for all 3 to co-exist?

The only OS I need to preserve is the XP one - I have not used win7 yet so can reinstall if a differnet order is necessary.

Hope this makes sense - or am I dreaming?

Cheers - Dave

kairozamorro · #2 November 26th, 2009, 07:10 AM

Dave, put Windows back in charge of the boot process following these instructions. With the latest build of EasyBCD adding working entries for the remaining OSes should be easy.

Terry60 · #3 November 26th, 2009, 12:38 PM

When you install a new Ubuntu, it will overwrite the Windows boot by default, and grub will become the controlling boot manager. If you don't want this to happen, you must use the "advanced" option during the Ubuntu install when defining the boot process. That will enable you to prevent grub installing to the MBR.
Both grub and W7 bootmgr (with EasyBCD's help) are perfectly capable of triple booting your OSs for you. You just need to choose which one you prefer.

Dave-22 · #4 November 26th, 2009, 01:04 PM

Thanks Guys,
Looks like it is possible.

One question, given I currently have GRUB on the XP disk, should I (can I) remove that so the boot loader can be on the Win7 disk.

Terry60 · #5 November 26th, 2009, 06:47 PM

W7 bootloader is already on the W7 disk. Just put it first in the BIOS, install EasyBCD 2.0 from the link Justin gave, add an XP entry to the W7 BCD and let EasyBCD auto-configure when it offers.
Add an Ubuntu entry and point it to the partition where grub installed (tick the "grub isn't....." box if that's a different HDD to W7)

Dave-22 · #6 November 26th, 2009, 11:06 PM

Thanks Terry,
I'll give that a try over the weekend.
Dave

Dave-22 · #7 November 30th, 2009, 11:58 AM

Have downloaded and installed EasyBCD 1.7.2.
Wheen trying to run it I get:
Application was unable to start correctly (0xc000007b)

Coolname007 · #8 November 30th, 2009, 03:32 PM

Use EasyBCD 2.0 Beta, and make sure .Net Framework is installed.

Dave-22 · #9 December 2nd, 2009, 11:53 AM

HI Jake,
Installed latest beta and got the same error.
Checking control panel in Win 7shows the .NET framework 3.5.1 box greyed (not ticked) and expanding this shows that the 2 "Windows Communication Foundation" entries not ticked.
Do i need to activate one or both of these?

Cheers - Dave

Addendum:

Oh - follow up question this should work with Win 7 64 bit which is what I am using??

Terry60 · #10 December 2nd, 2009, 12:37 PM

EasyBCD works fine with x64.
There must be a duff .NET framework on your W7 installation.

Computer Guru · #11 December 2nd, 2009, 01:10 PM

.NET 3.x is *not* required, but .NET 2.0 is.

Reinstall one or more .NET packages to make sure everything is correct.

Dave-22 · #12 December 2nd, 2009, 11:49 PM

Hi, Thanks for the quick reply. I found a thread on a Microsoft forum that said .NET 2 is included in .NET 3. But there was also info on how to check if your install has any problems in this area.

Since I am only at the stage of starting with Win 7 and have not moved any data or apps over to it yet I may wipe the Win 7 disk and start again. I'll then load EasyBCD as soon as I've done the install before I install any other Apps.

Last time I disconnected the XP disk for the Win 7 install, would it be a good idea to leave it connected for the Win 7 install?

Terry60 · #13 December 3rd, 2009, 01:12 AM

Only if you want it to put its boot files on the XP partition.
Probably simplest for future upgrading (abandonment of XP maybe) to keep W7's boot files with W7.
Also, partition the W7 HDD yourself in the configuration you want before installing W7. If you let W7 do the formatting and partitioning itself, it will hide the boot files in an unlettered 100Mb partition.

Dave-22 · #14 December 3rd, 2009, 01:45 AM

OK will install with just Win 7 disk connected - I had that 100Mb partition problem last time , so I'll reformat the disk myself. Should be able to do it tonight.

kairozamorro · #15 December 3rd, 2009, 06:40 AM

Well its not really a problem with our latest build of EasyBCD which can handle the boot partition problem with Windows 7 automatically with the exception of a bitlocker enabled system, but yes, go ahead and format it before starting W7's installer with something like GParted if you don't want W7's installer setting up your boot files on a dedicated partition.