EasyBCD Install For My New HP Laptop

Hi Ben, welcome to NST.
Read the sticky thread. At the beginning are a load of links that will give you background information.
When you understand the general philosophy and mechanics of the multi-boot, you'll feel more confident about jumping in.

Your 6Gb RAM might cause problems if any of the OSs you install are 32 bit.
 
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Hi Ben, welcome to NST.
Read the sticky thread. At the beginning are a load of links that will give you background information.
When you understand the general philosophy and mechanics of the multi-boot, you'll feel more confident about jumping in.

Your 6Gb RAM might cause problems if any of the OSs you install are 32 bit.
k, i read a lot of it, but i would like easy pointers, what order is the best for installing the multiple OS's, XP/VISTA/MAC OSX/LINUX

also what OSs do i need for 6gb ram, like for windows and mac os and is linux still going to work?

thanks again in advance, sorry for my newbish questions, im trying to learn,

Cheers,
Ben.
 
32 bit architecture has an addressing limitation of 4Gb (3.xGb when the reserved addresses are taken into account)
It's not a problem having 6Gb when the system's running (it won't get used), but it can cause the install setup problems sometimes. (remove 3Gb during install to workaround)

Use Vista disk management to shrink the Vista partition while the system is clean and not fragmented.
Allocate partitions for your other OSs and data of whatever sizes you desire
Install XP
Repair the Vista boot (XP will regress it)
Get XP dual booting
Install Linux
Get it triple booting
Read the OSX sticky thread regarding a compatibilty problem (Apple's) with multi-booting that OS.
Contact Guru about the possibility of circumventing the above
Consult the sticky link I gave you before for links to help on each step.
 
From the looks of it you're trying to install OS X on a normal non-Mac computer. This (short of doing anything illegal) is not possible, so you'll need to go buy a mac instead or stay away from OS X.

Order I would install it:
1) Linux (backtrack) first so you can confirm it won't have any problems with regard to the ammount of ram in your system
2) Windows XP - This well boot XP straight away after the install, so don't panic that you can't get back into linux just yet.
3) Windows Vista - This should automatically create the dual-boot between XP/Vista for you. Now all you need to do is open EasyBCD and add a new linux entry to boot linux.
 
From the looks of it you're trying to install OS X on a normal non-Mac computer. This (short of doing anything illegal) is not possible, so you'll need to go buy a mac instead or stay away from OS X.

Order I would install it:
1) Linux (backtrack) first so you can confirm it won't have any problems with regard to the ammount of ram in your system
2) Windows XP - This well boot XP straight away after the install, so don't panic that you can't get back into linux just yet.
3) Windows Vista - This should automatically create the dual-boot between XP/Vista for you. Now all you need to do is open EasyBCD and add a new linux entry to boot linux.
so i should uninstall vista then install backtrack, because it comes with vista installed already and should i set up the drives

Linux - ext3
Vista - NTFS
XP- NTFS
MAC OSX - HTF+ (Im a mac developer)

thanks
 
No need to uninstall Vista.

Just install Linux by following the instructions at Ubuntu - NeoSmart Technologies Wiki exactly step-by-step, then install XP and follow the instructions at Windows XP - NeoSmart Technologies Wiki to restore the Vista bootloader.

Thereafter you may install OS X and do whatever you like with that. EasyBCD 1.7.2 has a number of known issues with OS X though, and we're currently not providing support for OS X dual-boots until EasyBCD 2.0 (currently in beta) is released with completely-rewritten OS X features.
 
Yes if you want to keep Vista without a re-install you can. Use disk management as terry described to resize and make room for additional partitions for your other OSes. Install XP, Install Backtrack, and than repair the Vista bootloader using either EasyBCD if you can get back into Vista or a Vista DVD/recovery disc to perform startup repair.

You well need to add two entries for XP/Backtrack. Take a look at the sticky linked to in my sig for in-depth info on troubleshooting if you have problems. Stay away from illegal copies of OS X and only use the dev version if you have one on a non-mac computer.
 
No need to uninstall Vista.

Just install Linux by following the instructions at Ubuntu - NeoSmart Technologies Wiki exactly step-by-step, then install XP and follow the instructions at Windows XP - NeoSmart Technologies Wiki to restore the Vista bootloader.

Thereafter you may install OS X and do whatever you like with that. EasyBCD 1.7.2 has a number of known issues with OS X though, and we're currently not providing support for OS X dual-boots until EasyBCD 2.0 (currently in beta) is released with completely-rewritten OS X features.
im thinking now of installing windows 7, when and how, thanks again and again in advance ive had the most help on this forum.
 
I was assuming Vista was pre-installed, hence the suggested order.
If you want W7, I believe you need to get in quickly while there are still free keys available.
 
I was assuming Vista was pre-installed, hence the suggested order.
If you want W7, I believe you need to get in quickly while there are still free keys available.
i did its not a problem, but when do i install it (its starting with vista, then ill install xp then linux then "Windows 7"?
Thanks
 
Yep. Don't panic after the XP install when you can't boot Vista. Just keep going and Windows 7's installer should pick up on it.
 
Yep. Don't panic after the XP install when you can't boot Vista. Just keep going and Windows 7's installer should pick up on it.
one last question, i have a 500gb hard drive, whats the best setup
i want
1 75GB For Vista
1 75GB For XP
1 10GB For ext3 (Linux)
1 50GB For Windows 7
1 50GB For HFS+ (MAC)
1 ~200GB For Data

i wanna know what is primary and extended and the like, also what order should they be on the drive

thanks so much, i will Donate money, Thanks again.
 
Doesn't matter. Looks like you've pretty much decided how you wanted it so who am I to tell you elsewise? Looks pretty equally spaced to me thanks to 500gb to play around with.

As far as the order, I'd try to keep related OSes organized (ie. Windows partitions next to each other) and have the last partition be the data one, but thats just me. Its really up to how you want it.
 
Doesn't matter. Looks like you've pretty much decided how you wanted it so who am I to tell you elsewise? Looks pretty equally spaced to me thanks to 500gb to play around with.

As far as the order, I'd try to keep related OSes organized (ie. Windows partitions next to each other) and have the last partition be the data one, but thats just me. Its really up to how you want it.
lol, i wanted to know if itll be a problem with this order, sounds like not, thanks for that, also i think i could only have like 2 primary and some extended and some logical could u please explain which one is what, thanks again
 
You can only have four primaries per a hard drive. Not that it matters, most OSes support installation/boot on extended/logical drives these days, but I might suggest keeping Windows and OS X on primaries. Linux for sure should be able to run on a extended without any problems. And your data partition can be extended as well since all you're doing is storing data there.
 
You can only have four primaries per a hard drive. Not that it matters, most OSes support installation/boot on extended/logical drives these days, but I might suggest keeping Windows and OS X on primaries. Linux for sure should be able to run on a extended without any problems. And your data partition can be extended as well since all you're doing is storing data there.
thanks for all that, sounds like im all done with this boot sequence, cya soon

Cheers,
Ben.
 
did someone ever install backtrack as a dual boot option, and how do i go about it, its a different than ubunto so if someone could please help me out there. thanks

Cheers,
Ben.
 
If its using a syslinux.cfg file post it and I'll modify it for grubs menu.lst.
Code:
This tutorial is going to assume a few things....

1. You have at least 2 neurons in your brain and that there is not to much tar build up
between them from smoking tweed.

2. Your already partitioned and ready to go. (If you need a tutorial on partitioning I cant 
help you)

3. You have heard of a shell and know how to get one going.

Alright so lets begin. I'm going to cover installing backtrack to harddrive to ways. #1 with a 
/boot partition and #2 where bt is all on one partition. (just a side note. The team is trying to
 shy away from HD installs and is encouraging USB install which in my humble opinion is 
the best way to go).Most of this info is from various sources on the wiki and I will attempt to
 put it into one tutorial for newer members.
So you have a fresh HD with 3 partitions..
sda1=/boot
sda2=swap
sda3= /

Boot your live cd and open a bash shell and begin.

[COLOR=Red]If your swap is not yet made then do this..(otherwise omit this step)
bt~#mkswap /dev/sda2
bt~#swapon /dev/sda2[/COLOR]

bt~#mkdir /mnt/backtrack
bt~#mount /dev/sda3 /mnt/backtrack/
bt~#mkdir /mnt/backtrack/boot/
[COLOR=Red]bt~#mount /dev/sda1 /mnt/backtrack/boot/  (note: If you only have one partiton to install 
backtrack to simply omit this step)[/COLOR]
bt~#cp --preserve -R /{bin,dev,home,pentest,root,usr,etc,lib,opt,sbin,va  r} /mnt/backtrack/ 
 [COLOR=Red]<<< note: there is no space in var. Seems to be a glitch in the matrix[/COLOR]
bt~#mkdir /mnt/backtrack/{mnt,proc,sys,tmp}
bt~#mount --bind /dev/ /mnt/backtrack/dev/
bt~#mount -t proc proc /mnt/backtrack/proc/
bt~#cp /boot/vmlinuz /mnt/backtrack/boot/ 

Now for lilo.
bt~#chroot /mnt/backtrack/ /bin/bash
bt~#nano /etc/lilo.conf 

Now I like to delete all the bulls**t in the lilo config file so here is what mine would look 
like. (remember to set your own VGA accordingly )

 lba32
 boot=/dev/sda
 prompt
 timeout=60
 change-rules
 reset
 vga=791
 image = /boot/vmlinuz
 root = /dev/sda3
 label = backtrack3_final 

Excellent. Save that and then execute lilo (I like to use the verbose flag)
bt~#lilo -v

after that exit your chroot enviorment
bt/~exit

and reboot and cross your fingers

bt~#reboot
i got this off the backtrack forum, i want to put backtrack on
1 Vista
2 XP
3 Windows 7
""4 Backtrack""

how would i go about doing that, thanks in advance

Cheers,
Ben.
 
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