How to Triple Boot Windows XP, Windows Vista, and Ubuntu Linux

Quick Summary:

1) Partition your hard drive with 4 partitions

2) Install Windows XP

3) Install Windows Vista and Use EasyBCD to modify Windows Vista boot manager

4) Install Ubuntu (install the Ubuntu boot manager to the partition not the MBR!)

5) Use EasyBCD to modify the Windows Vista boot manager to allow booting to any of the three operating systems.

Detailed Explanations of the steps:

1) Partition your hard drive drive with 4 partitions (gparted is a good tool for this):

a. Windows XP partition with at least 20GB space (30GB+ recommended)

b. Windows Vista partition with at least 20GB space (30GB+ recommended)

c. 2 Linux partitions

i. Main partition (3GB+ recommended)

ii. Swap space (512MB+ recommended - double the size ay Disk Usage FTP of your RAM is a good rule of thumb for this)

Gparted may be obtained here: http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=115843&package_id=173828

Some detailed gparted instructions (taken from APCMAG at http://apcmag.com/5023/dual_booting_xp_with_vista)

Get Started - Using GParted

We assume that before you start this tutorial, you have backed up the drive (partitions and data) that will host the two operating systems.

Your first step will be to modify the Windows XP system partition to make space for Vista using GParted

The GParted Live CD ISO is available here burn it to CD and boot the system from the disc. The version we used was 0.3.4-7.

Boot the Linux machine from the GParted LiveCD. Depending on your system, you should just need to select the auto-configuration boot option.

During boot, press Enter twice when prompted to select the keymap and language settings.

When the main GUI loads, right-click on the main Windows XP NTFS partition (depending on your setup, probably /dev/hda1) and select Resize/Move.

XP & Vista - Resize Partition

Use the slider to reduce the partition size and free up enough room to instal Vista (at least 10GB) and click Resize/Move.

XP & Vista - Resize Partition 2

The changes haven't actually been made, they've just been scheduled to run. To commit the changes and resize the partition, click Apply. GParted will ask to confirm the changes hit OK and away you go.

2) Install Windows XP (unless already er FrontPage Extensionsinstalled). You should install this to the first partition you created.

3) Install Windows Vista. You should install this to the second Server Server Information Set Spartition you created. The Vista ite Editor SiteDelux View my Web site Visitor Stabootmanager will replace the XP bootmanager. The Vista boot manager will call Vista 'Microsoft Windows Vista' and will call XP 'Earlier version of Windows'. You can change this with Vista's command line BCDEDIT OR for easier tistics WebSite Creator by CM4allchanges use EasyBCD. EasyBCD can be obtained here: http://neosmart.net/dl.php?id=1

Some detailed EasyBCD instructions (taken from APCMAG at http://apcmag.com/5023/dual_booting_xp_with_vista)

Once Vista and EasyBCD is installed to configure the bootloader go to 'Configure Boot' you'll see the two entries, for XP and Vista. To change the name of Windows XP, just overwrite 'Earlier Version of Windows' with 'Windows XP' and click Save Settings.

Reboot the system and the changes are visible. You have a dual-booting Vista and XP system. That's all there is to it.

4) Install Ubuntu (install the Ubuntu boot manager E-Mail AutoResponder Change Catch-Alto the partition not the MBR!). This was written using the 7.10 version of Ubuntu.

You can download Ubuntu Linux for free from http://www.ubuntu.com/

Download the .iso file and burn it l MailCentral Manto disk. (you can use NERO to do this age Spam Filter POP Mail Domain Adand here are some instructions on that: http://www.wizardskeep.org/mainhall/tutor/neroiso.html) d Registered Domai. Boot from the new CD you just n to Account Custom Dcreated.When installing Ubuntu choose filesystem type ext3fs (this is the only one that will work with EasyBCD). Make sure you select 'Manual' for the partitions and use the main and swap partitions you created earlier for Domain Central DLinux. When the 'Advanced' button shows up click it and replace the location for the bootloader with /dev/sda3 (instead of /dev/sda3 use the partition you installed Ubuntu to).

5) Use EasyBCD to modify the Windows Vista boot manager to allow booting to any of the three operating systems.

When done installing Ubuntu boot into Vista and use EasyBCD to create a new boot entry for Linux with the boot loader type of Grub (Ubuntu uses the Grub boot loader) then select the partition you installed Ubuntu to and choose 'add entry'. To make Ubuntu load easier/quicker boot into Ubuntu and edit the menu ing Manager Registlist: gedit /boot/grub/menu.lst? and change 'timeout 10' to 'timeout 0'

That's it. I hope this works for you as easily as it did for me!