LinkBack URL
About LinkBacks
Triple Boot System, XP-Vista-Opensuse
Hello folks. Welcome to my first Guide.
First a little explanation. I know there are many guides to dual boot XP and Vista, as well as triple booting. My issue with these guides, is that almost all of them require some third party software. examples: Partition Magic, Acronis..etc.
The guides themselves are just fine, however setting up a triple boot system can easily be done without those programs. If you have ever had to reinstall XP(we all have at some point,damn you Bill!), you can setup a triple boot system.
Ok...here we go.
Some keywords: partition=a divided part of your hard drive.
OS= Operating system
Side note:yes i stole these pictures from various websites, but i am writing this guide at work, not at home in front of my triple booting machine.
Items Needed
~XP install disk
~Vista install disk
~Opensuse install disk(unfortunately I have not done this with any other Linux, but from what I understand all Linux has some type of boot manager included,and Opensuse is so nice)
~160gb Hard drive *note* The drive doesn't need to be 160gb, obviously though you want a drive that is big enough for all your stuff.
Now if you plan to set this up on your existing pc, you will need to back up anything important to you.
We will be completely wiping your hard drive-You will lose any unsaved data-So back up what you need to
Heed that warning, please.
So here we are now: I assume you have backed up all your important stuff and are ready to begin. I also assume you know how to tell your pc to boot from CD/Rom.
Step 1 Boot from your XP install disk. follow thru the prompts. Once you get to the part that asks you where you want
to install windows-Stop.
We are going to stop here and start going real slow...mainly because this is the part where most things are set up incorrectly.
Step 2 You should now see something like this:Click
Obviously this is just an example, your screen may be very different. We are concerned with the "C" drive. Now i don't know how your drive is set up. It may already have a partition on it. It may not. I don't know, it's your drive. The purpose of this guide is to help you install 3 OS's on one hard drive. If you are not sure of how your hard drive is currently set up, you should stop what you are doing and find out. I stress this because we will be wiping the hard drive completely. You will lose any unsaved data.
Step 3 Now is the time to delete everything. As you can see in the above picture, you have the option to delete. This is where your commitment to this guide comes into play. There is no turning back after you delete. So select the "C" drive, press "D" to delete partition, you will get a confirmation screen, especially if that partition already has windows installed on it. So now you have deleted everything, and i point you back to the picture.
Your screen should basically look like that picture. However it should now say unpartitioned space. And it should list the total size of your drive.
Step 4 This part is also very delicate. Think about what you want to do before you do anything. I would suggest even writing it down, just to be sure. Again look at the picture above. You see the option to "create partition in the unpartitioned space"? Good, so press "C" on your keyboard. Now you see a screen like this: Click
The first partition you will be creating, will be for the XP install.
Now when choosing your partition sizes, for instance: my drive is 160gb. Im installing 3 OS's. If you do basic math and divide 160 by 3, you get 53.34. So I am going to make my first partition 50000. The second one 50000, and the third partition will be the remaining space. Now you can figure out your own division, and divide your hard drive however you want.
After you create the first partition, follow the same steps to create the second partition. You won't have to create the third as it will be the remaining space on the drive.
So you should now have 3 partitions.
Step 5 Ok now we are going to start installing. You will need to select the first partition you created and hit "enter" to install. You will then be given the option to format the drive. Choose NTFS. You can choose quick format if you'd like to, however I recommend the full format...it takes longer, but so what.
Now all you have to do is install XP just like you would normally. Now I recommend installing XP and all the updates and drivers for your pc, before moving onto the next install. Don't start installing programs or anything or your favorite email client...just updates and drivers. Updates and Drivers. UPDATES and DRIVERS. sorry. I am just as excited as you to have my pc triple booting. But updates and drivers are very important.
Step 6 So you installed updates and driver first before coming to this step right? Good job.
So here we are, you've decided you kind of like the way Vista looks, however you have heard tons of bad things about it(most are true), but you want to give it a try. Dual booting or triple booting gives you this option.
Now your pc should already be setup to boot from disk, so put in your Vista install disk, reboot.
Unfortunetly for the pirate world, Vista is not so easily installed as previous version. Unless of course you already have a pirated version of Vista, which may contain it's own problems anyways.
So assuming your copy is legit, you will have to enter your handy dandy key code to actually install Vista.
Lets fast forward just a bit. You should eventually see this: Click
Notice on this picture and on your screen how it says "Disk 0 Partition 1" - "Disk 0 Partition 2" - "Disk 0 Partition 3".
Remember when we created our partitions, we made the XP partition first, the Vista second, and remaining was left for Suse.
So we are going to chose "Disk 0 Partition 2" and hit enter.
Same format questions apply as before.
Now we wait for Vista to install. After install, guess what's next? updates and drivers. Updates and Drivers. UPDATES and DRIVERS.
Step 7 So you installed updates and driver first before coming to this step right? Good job....deja vu?
After you are done playing around with Vistas pretty colors. Lets get onto, in my opinion, the easiest install of all 3 OS's.
OpenSuse. Now I am by no means a Linux guru, In all honestly, I dont claim to know anything about Linux. I can use Linux and be very happy doing it, I also wouldn't go as far to say that I have tried all versions of Linux. But I have tried al ot of them. I wouldn't want to try and list all the different versions that i have tried. however out of the versions I have tried, OpenSuse has been the most pleasant. Again I am not a Linux or OpenSuse genius, so really and unfortunately, if you mess this part up, I can not help you. I know that is harsh and pretty scary. If it is too much for your stomach to handle, you can simply stop now. Congratulations you now have a dual boot system. The end.
I knew you had it in you. So put in your Suse disk, and reboot. Choose install. Like I said before, this will be the easiest install, long but easier. I say easier because Suse will calculate and figure out where to install itself. It will also figure out where to install the different partitions for itself(swap..ext)..Now I have relied on Suse to make these decisions for me, but I highly recommend checking the info before accepting. You should see something like this: Click
If you notice on the picture, you will see "set mount point of /dev/sda2 to /windows/c" , that indicates a windows partition, your screen should show two windows "C" & "D".
Like I said before the install is a little long, but you only have to answer a few questions and then its done.
Hmmmmm, I wonder what's next? updates and drivers. Updates and Drivers. UPDATES and DRIVERS.
Now after Suse is all updated and installed, you may want to configure the boot manager. But in all honesty its really not needed. So i wont cover it. Basically if you don't configure it, after you reboot you will see something similar to this: Click
The main differences you will see will be "windows" as an option. one will be "C" and one "D"...now like i said you can change Suse's boot manager to actually show the names of each windows OS. Again its not needed but more user friendly.
Step 8 Show your friends how cool you are by showing off your new system!
I hope this guide was easy to understand, I also hope it helps you triple boot your system. Maybe it will also help you to experiment with other OS's. Linux can be difficult, but i encourage all to give it a try. As well as Vista, Vista does have a lot of problems, but so do most new OS's. So give all the operating systems a try and find the one that fits you. Enjoy!
Reply With Quote
