Quad Boot using Easy BCD

J

jessa_jr

Active Member
Hi can anyone give me a guide on how to use Easy BCD for Quad Boot

OSes
XP
Vista
Leopard OSX 10.5.2
Ubuntu

From my last try of multi booting I managed to used the grub bootloader of Ubuntu for my triboot machine xp, vista and ubuntu following the wiki guide on quad boot. The problem in the grub of ubuntu is i have a messy boot menu when I already updated the ubuntu os. I have series line on the boot menu when I boot. I manage to deleted the other update of the ubuntu os in the boot menu but when I'm trying to edit the grub again to the updated version of ubuntu, I can't edit that already.

Hope you can help me configure my Quad Boot machine using Easy BCD.

Thanks
 
Hi Jessa, welcome to NST.
If you use the Vista BCD as the controlling boot, and use EasyBCD 2.0 Beta (important - not 1.7) to add entries for XP, OSX and Ubuntu, it should be very simple. (either Install Vista last or repair the Vista boot after all the OSs are installed will put Vista in charge.)
The latest Beta 2.0 has support for all the latest Linux distros which had become problematic in 1.7 due to grub syntax changes. 2.0 will also auto-configure your XP boot.ini for you, which had to be done manually before.
 
@ Terry60

Really, so I can install OSes in any particular order just installing vista last or even not. What I did in my last installation I hide the xp os boot flag by gparted so vista will not install his boot manager, so now you say even I dont hide the xp or any os in any order I can still manage to install the Easy BCD boot loader. Can you give me a sample order and what step will I do so I will not mess it up again. Thank you very much
 
You want Vista to replace XP's bootloader. Vista is backward compatible and will detect the XP boot and automatically create a dual-boot menu including XP. If you install XP after Vista, it will replace the Vista boot with XPs. XP is not forward compatible and cannot boot Vista.
If you Install XP, then Vista, then Ubuntu (don't allow grub to install to the MBR - force it to install in the Ubuntu partition), and use EasyBCD 2.0 to add an Ubuntu entry, those 3 will be simple.
I'll leave it to others (I've no Apple experience) to say when's the best time to install OSX. I don't know whether it has the same ability as Linux not to take over the MBR when told not to, or whether it will destroy the previous boots, Its logical install time would be last or first respectively in those scenarios.
 
How will I force to install the grub only in the ubuntu partition only. I will try to tripple boot first and use the easy bcd if I will encounter problem maybe you can help me and much better if you will post a tutorial on how force to install the grub only in the ubuntu partition.
 
Select the "Advanced" button at installation of Ubuntu, and type in a location like:

/dev/sda1
Click to expand...
which is the first hard drive (as detected by the BIOS), and the first partition (in the MBR partition table).
This will install Grub to the first hard drive, first partition, and leave Vista still controlling the boot, which is what you want. :wink: See the second link in my sig for step-by-step instructions on how to dual-boot Vista with Ubuntu.

Cheers.

Jake
 
@coolname007

Thanks, I have now a clearer picture but if my linux partition is not on the first partition, so I'll just change the "sda1" to sda2 and so on depending on the chronological order of my partition? How can I know where will be my linux partition.

I can't find the link on your sig.
 
Last edited:
jessa_jr said:
@coolname007

Thanks, I have now a clearer picture but if my linux partition is not on the first partition, so I'll just change the "sda1" to sda2 and so on depending on the chronological order of my partition? How can I know where will be my linux partition.

I can't find the link on your sig.
Click to expand...

The installer should give you the location of your Ubuntu root partition, when you install it, so you just enter that location at time of install, and you should get it right. :wink: As for you not finding the link in my sig...I guess its not all that noticeable. Where I said "Have a read of *this* and *this*", the second "this" is the one I was referring to. :smile:
 
Back
Top