Quadruple booting XP, Win 2003, Vista, & Suse

K

kriswauters

Member
I've been trying to install this quadruple system for almost a week now, but i can't seem to get it to work
xp+vista ok
xp+vista+suse ok
but when I add the 4th one everything stops working
I also liked to use System Commander to choose the OS to boot, but this most of the time causes more trouble

anyone can show me how to install this properly?
 
Hi Kris, welcome to NeoSmart Technologies.

Recommended installation order:
XP -> 2003 -> Suse -> Vista

But since you've already done it in a different order, here's what you need to do:

Install EasyBCD in Windows Server 2003.
Use EasyBCD -> Bootloader Management -> Reinstall Vista Bootloader
That should get you to be able to boot into 2003, XP, and Vista.

Then use EasyBCD -> Add/Remove -> Linux -> "GRUB isn't installed" -> Add Entry
That should leave you with a quad-booting. Congratulations! :smile:
 
I forgot to ask some more things:

Which type of partition (primary,extended, ...) do i need to create to have all 4 OSes working. Do I need to create them beforehand or at the Install screen of the OS.
How should the recommended structure be? Pleasy give me step-by-step instructions as I'm a newb in these things
Thx already for the quick response
 
No problem.

XP should be the first partition and set to primary.
2003 should be primary.
Vista primary.
Linux extended.
 
Ok I got them installed and I can boot them all (yippie! :smile: )
BUT: when I select either WinXP or 2003 (from the Vista bootloader)I get presented with another selection screen between XP and 2003 (boot.ini ?)
I figured this is the boot.ini selection screen, so I copied & altered the boot.ini on both drives but it still seems to load only the first boot.ini. Any suggestions?
 
crap thats not that handy then
Maybe there is another hack to do it? I'll be imaging this PC first anywayz
For now this is working

Thx alot for the help and congratz on the superb program :smile:
maybe some suggestions/remarks:
- at install it complains about msvr75.dll (?) missing. Maybe you could include this file in the installer to unpack to the same dir as the setup routine so this error does not appear?
- maybe also a warning if .Net 2.0 is not installed?

Also several links on your mainpage have 404 errors (guides, research, reviews)

If this could be added it would make your program even more 1337 :grinning:
 
MSCVR71.dll is installed with almost any other program, we considered shipping it with the setup, but decided against it since it's rather large and setup still works without it (you just don't see that ugly white).

We'll definetely be adding a .NET 2.0 warning in the next release though, thanks for the reminder.

Unfortunately there is no hack for this issue. We worked on it almost non-stop for several months at a time, but in the end we had to give up. There is just no possible clean way of doing this that doesn't involve modifying system files, which is something that Microsoft has made clear it won't tolerate and blacklist any system tweaking utilities that do that.
 
Computer Guru said:
Unfortunately there is no hack for this issue. We worked on it almost non-stop for several months at a time, but in the end we had to give up. There is just no possible clean way of doing this that doesn't involve modifying system files, which is something that Microsoft has made clear it won't tolerate and blacklist any system tweaking utilities that do that.
Click to expand...


wow :S didnt know you worked so much on it

Now I got a different problem: I cannot seem to ghost this disk to distribute it to a number of same type of pcs. When I ghost it and put it back on a fresh new disk I do get the OS Selection screen but then it complains about \NTLDR missing or winload (for Vista). I guess I could copy those files, but for a great number of pcs this is not too handy.

Maybe I am missing something on the ghosting? Or maybe another program is more appropriate? I read about Paragon but this doesnt seem to be freeware (anymore)
 
Are you ghosting the entire PC? or only certain partitions/disks?

There're ways of configuring the BCD that might help.
 
OK, post the output from "Detailed Mode" in EasyBCD's first screen.. Please put it between
Code: 
 tags.
 
I've solved this some weeks ago, but didn't have the time to do an update sorry :shame:
apparantly ghost likes to fiddle with the mbr, partition layout (?)
When I use the following switches the whole structure of the HDD is retained:
Code: 
Ghost32.exe -ia –id –ir –ib –nolilo –fdsp
this copies the HDD's sectors instead of reading the partitions and files inside them
downside is that also empty sectors are copied and makes the image large.
anywayz thx for all the help
 
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