Triple Booting (or More )

Woodbob

Member
Hi,

Have Win XP Pro 32-Bit on Drive "C" - Was Installed first

Have Win XP Pro 64 Bit on Drive "D" - 2nd Install

Have extra Storage Disk "E" - no operating system

All working just fine...

Would like to install another Drive - say Disk "F" and add another operating system
say Windows 7 to play with...

Any ideas/problems I should look for?

Would I simply just add the drive and reboot with the Windows 7 disk in the CD
the same as I did with adding Win XP Pro - 64 bit?

Thanks for your help
 
Hi Woodbob. Welcome to NST.
Assuming you're planning to install Win 7 to an external USB drive, I can tell you straight out that wont work. :wink: I tried it myself, and got a message saying it couldn't be installed to a USB drive. So if you want to install it another hard drive, you will need to connect it directly to the motherboard, having one drive as "master" (drive 0) and the other as "slave" (drive 1). I would recommend installing Win 7 with the drive you're installing to first in the boot sequence in the BIOS (which can be accessed by pushing Del, F2, or similar at startup when you're at the first splash screen you get to) to ensure Win 7's boot files go to the same drive you're installing Win 7 to, and not your other drive. That way if need be you will be able to standalone boot it should you not be able to access your other OSes on your other drive, and it wont mess up XP's standalone boot either. Then simply add an entry to your Win 7's BCD with EasyBCD for XP, and you should be good to go. :smile: Your boot.ini will need to have two entries in it though in order to boot into either XP, with each one pointing at the respective partition (and rdisk (1) ) the OS is on.

Jake
 
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And copy your boot.ini to the drive Win 7's on before you use EasyBCD. Now when it auto-configures, it'll probably create two indentical entries in the boot.ini file which will only get you into one of two of your XP installs. Its a problem thats being worked on, but for now, let it auto-configure and than manually edit the copied boot.ini to change the partition(x) value for one of the two entries under [operating systems] to point to your other XP installation.

Make sure you're using the most up-to-date build of the easybcd beta as changes are being made regulary.
 
Dual Booting

Hi,

Thanks for your answers. Perhaps I wasn't clear in my question???

I already have a working Dual Boot system - one boots Win XP Pro 32 Bit and the other Boots Win. XP Pro 64 Bit. One on Drive "C" and another on a seperate Drive "D". Both Drives are internal SATA drives.

I also have an additional SATA drive ( "E" ) simply for storage - no operating system.

All of these boot and work fine.

I would like to add another seperate, Internal SAT drive and install Windows 7 on it thereby having a Triple Boot system. I know that an external USB drive won't work but thanks for the information. I would not want to purchase one and find it doesn't work for my purpose.

I know that I did not use any seperate software ( EasyBCD ) when I created the Dual Boot and wonder if I could simply add the new SATA drive - install Windows 7 and Boot???

What do you think?

Thanks for your assistance.

Woodbob
 
I know that I did not use any seperate software ( EasyBCD ) when I created the Dual Boot and wonder if I could simply add the new SATA drive - install Windows 7 and Boot???

What do you think?

Thanks for your assistance.

Woodbob

Yes, you could do that, but then you would lose the ability to standalone boot into XP if you had to. :wink: That is the whole point I was getting at in my last post. If you put your Win 7 drive first in the boot sequence in the BIOS, then the Win 7 bootloader will get installed to the MBR of that drive, instead of the MBR of whichever XP drive it is that is currently drive 0.

But, if you want to do that, then certainly no one will stop you...
 
Dual Boot

Hi ,

Thanks again for your help. I just downloaded EasyBCD - I'll install it and take a look

I haven't purchased the new drive as yet so there's time to think!

Woodbob

Addendum:

Hi,

Downloaded EastBCD 2.0 Beta Build 60..get the following error:

Error accessing BCD registry

Details: The boot configuration data stor could not be opened

Is it me??

Thanks

Woodbob
 
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That is because there is no BCD on your system yet, and wont be until you install Win 7. :wink: So wait until you install Win 7, and then download and install it on that OS, and use it to add an entry to boot XP to your Win 7 boot menu. Then follow the rest of our suggestions, and you should be fine.
 
Dual Boot

Hi,

Thanks again, I thought I was loosing it - well maybe I am!!!

I'll be getting a new drive soon and will venture into "IT" again

Woodbob

Addendum:

Hi,

Well thanks again. I'll be buying a new drive soon and will venture into the unknown again!

Woodbob
 
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