Installing XP, 7 alongside Ubuntu 12.04

[cyborg]

Hi,

 

I have a system with the below configuration:

Processor: Intel Pentium G630

Motherboard: Asus P8B75-V

Graphics Card: Sapphire Radeon HD7750

HDD: 1TB

 

I have the following partitions on my HDD now:

C: Primary Partition, 25 GB, NTFS, Win XP installed

D: Logical Parition, 400 GB, NTFS, this contains some data that i do not want to lose

<Rest of the HDD space is unpartitioned>

 

I plan to install Win 7 and ubuntu now. Also, i would want to have Win 7 as the default operating system that should load when booting. I had previously faced problems after paritioning, i think i had messed up selecting primary and extended partition options which had removed my GRUB loader, forcing me to install XP again. I did go through some of the info on the internet, but i could not completely understand the procedure. Please help.

[EuroFight]

Windows 7 has a good built in partitioning software. If you create a new partition in Windows 7 installation (At least 20GB for just the OS and SP1), then you can partition other areas easily.

[cyborg]

Also, i would want to have Win 7 as the default operating system that should load when booting. Any advice how to go about it?

[IVIYTH0S]

I used this on my dad's computer to have manage his XP and Win 7 partitions and it let it prioritize win 7 but always show the bootloader on boot (and you can set how long the bootloader menu is up before booting to the primary OS)

 

http://www.vistabootpro.org/

 

Idk if it'd work with Ubuntu though

Edited August 27, 2012 by IVIYTH0S

[EuroFight]

I believe Windows 7 can configure the boot OS selection menu, you would need to select Windows 7 as default and it would boot automatically after a number of seconds.

 

This is accessible under Start > Type "msconfig" > Boot

 

Edit: Just checked and this is correct. It can set any OS on your HDD to the default, and it doesn't require any installation which is another plus

Edited August 27, 2012 by EuroFight

[billt79]

the Ubuntu bootloader (GRUB 2) is capable of loading both windows 7 and XP. The best way to go about this is installing windows 7 into some of the unpartitioned space first, so it doesn't clash with XP and leave some space for ubuntu and install it last. Ubuntu has a decent partitioning tool in the installer, and will automatically install GRUB and detect both of the windows installs. The way to make windows the defualt OS to load at boot time is to boot into ubuntu and open a terminal and type "su" without the quotation marks and enter the root password to gain root privileges, then type

cat /boot/grub/grub.cfg | grep "menuentry"

After this copy and paste the entry of the windows 7 install but only the information contained within the quotation marks, then enter

nano /etc/default/grub

this will open a text editor, after this find the line saying "GRUB_DEFAULT=0" navigate to the 0 so that it is highlighted, using the arrow keys and hit delete then press ctrl+shift+v. that should enter the info on the end of that line. press ctrl+x to save and exit then type

update-grub

when you next boot the defualt OS will be windows 7.

[freddie]

ooooh nice config. i ran the same 3 os setup only recently and this is how i went about it.

 

 

installed xp.

installed 7

instaled ubuntu.

 

 

at this stage grub would be your bootloader and ubuntu will be your primary os, if grub doesnt pick up xp dont worry!

 

 

boot into win7 and download and install this nifty tool called "easy bcd" the free edition is fine.

 

go to edit boot menu and select the default os of your choice and rename them accordingly to your liking. (if that takes your fancy)

 

if you dont like grub, then go to "bcd deployment" and write the win7 bootloader to the mbr and then your set.

 

 

if you have any more specific questions, fire away. multi booting is my thing.

[freddie]

 

This is accessible under Start > Type "msconfig" > Boot

 

Edit: Just checked and this is correct. It can set any OS on your HDD to the default, and it doesn't require any installation which is another plus

 

 

Yep, this is very handy however you cant write the windows 7 bootloader to the mbr with msconfig which is a downer if you dont like grub.

 

 

but if you just want to assign a default os, this is definitely the way to go.