[starship_troopers]

Ok, so I have windows 7 Rc that im going to reinstall, and xp pro (which im on) and mandriva 2009, whats the best way to triple boot these on one harddrive?

edit/ ok so should i partition my hard drive and install windows 7 first so i have a dual boot of xp pro and windows 7, then install mandriva, or which order i guess.

[starship_troopers]

i should say, this is just a way for me to know, i am doing it on my HDD but...i am buying a 1TB hard drive i just need to do it first so i dont have to keep formatting my new drive when it gets here to get it right. so ....need help so i can do it here first.

[Coknuck]

I would put the OS that I use the most first and so on after that.

EDIT: If you install Windows 7 first it makes it easier to partition because a partition manager is built in. 

[starship_troopers]

i was just worried about how the partitioning should go. because its easy to do them to dual boot. but i've never tri booted before...and with linux you gotta do a little bit more than just a normal partition and install.

[Coknuck]

Also with W7 you can choose which boots first after installation.

[starship_troopers]

true. but windows 7 uses the MBR. linux would use a swap file or whatever its called so i dont know the order to do the installs because if i do it wrong i risk only one or 2 of the 3 being recognized. im not sure which boot loader to use either. the windows or the linux swap

[Coknuck]

You got me lost!

[starship_troopers]

lol same here. i know what i want to do, i just dont know which boot loader is going to load up so i can triple boot.

[mudmanc4]

Install whatever windows OS , then use Linux to make space on the XP partition and then use the GRUB bootloader to dualboot XP, then install whatever else yo want, once yo get into triple booting, it can get a bit silly, but it's done every day. If your gonna get into Lilo, then you'de better do your homework, it can test your knowledge.

Just write down EVERYTHING, the location on the drive of every entry, and you'll be ok, I think you've done close to this before , havent you ?

[starship_troopers]

yup i've done it before but not with 2 windows versions and linux. so im just making sure on here and doing some research. dont wanna screw up lol.

[mudmanc4]

Quote

yup i've done it before but not with 2 windows versions and linux. so im just making sure on here and doing some research. dont wanna screw up lol.

I always keep in mind that if we never fail, then we never gain. That goes with anything, so read up, and do what  you think is right, then note everything you did.

It's been a while since I've done it, but somewhere on here I wrote a guide, something that worked for the application I was dealing with.