WinXP, Win7, Ubuntu triple boot

[sudhix]

Hi,

I have 3 HDD's
A- WinXP
B- Ubuntu 10.04
C- Win7 64bit Professional

I installed WinxP first, Win7 later and Ubnutu last. However after installing Win7, WinXP is not shown in boot menu. So i used EasyBCD to add the entry manually, the entry appears however i get ntldr error and winxp doesnt boot. Installing Ubuntu didnt install grub at all and im not able to boot into ubuntu.

Attaching bcdedit output and error at booting process.

Pls help
Thanks
Sudhix

[saurabh_1e]

dude i to used to triple boot my system many times
the order of installing the os is fine

insert the ubuntu disk and then select rescue installation
select the automatically repair the pc
it will show errors in the installation mainly error in boot loader
install the new grub boot loader
it will detect all your operating system.



wait a minute you said three hdd
not three partition.

then you have to change the boot order in the bios and
select hdd that contains ubuntu as the first boot disk after you boot in ubuntu it will automatically detect the other hdd and operating system and they will appear on the boot menu

[celldweller1591]

With A HDD online with XP only , insert XP disk and open recovery console on startup right away by pressing "R" when the screen shows up.
Once the Recovery Console loads up, you will have to type in a number that corresponds to your Windows installation. This is normally just 1. Press Enter and then type in the Administrator password. Then type :
bootcfg /rebuild or Bootrec /rebuild /*to rebuild your boot config*/
fdisk /mbr
and wait for the process to complete.After that , type
Shutdown
Xp should boot now

Now Remove A and insert B hdd with Ubuntu 10.04 :-
Boot using the LiveCD. Open a Terminal and type in the following commands :
sudo grub
> find /boot/grub/stage1 /*finds grub location on the drive */
> root (hd0,x) /*x should be replaced by drive no. of your /root*/
> setup (hd0)
> exit


Now Online all HDDs and goto win7, see if its booting or not
If not then try these steps :-
1.Insert Win 7 installation DVD and boot from DVD drive.
2. Choose your default "Language", "Time", and "keyboard Input" on the first window and click next.
3. Now Click on "Repair Your Computer" to gain access to the System Recovery window. Now choose "Command Prompt" in order to run the desired utility which is called "bootsect.exe". Bootsect is located inside the boot folder so change your directory to boot.
4.Now run "bootrec.exe /nt60 C:\" (default position of your Windows partition is C:/). After that, type
bootrec.exe /fixmbr
bootrec.exe /fixboot
bootrec.exe /rebuildbcd
Restart and this will fix win7 loader without making any harm to XP loader (trust me i run 4 OS in my pc i.e. win7,XP,openSUSE,and ubuntu 10.04) but make sure you remove B hdd with Ubuntu installed. For details see

After making all HDDs live, goto ubuntu and open terminal, then type :-
sudo update-grub
and your win7 bootloader will get an entry in grub 2 of ubuntu

[sudhix]

Hi

Im taking a combination of both approaches. After changing the HDD boot priority Ubuntu grub showed up and an entry for Windows7.
The Windows7 entry showed Win7 and Winxp.
Win7 boots up. However, Winxp showed up the same error /ntldr missing (pic attached in previous post)

After disconnecting Ubuntu HDD, I tried to setup only Win7 and WinxP and havent been successful till now.

After using Repair option in Win7
"bootsect /nt52 d:" winxp boots up.
On using
"bootsect /nt60 c:" win7 boots up showing an entry for winxp. On selecting that, i get the same /ntldr error

Im not able to get both windows to boot together.
using bootrec /fixmbr and bootrec /fixboot and bootrec /scanos after this also didnt solve the problem.

Any help pls....

Thanks

[saurabh_1e]

connect xp hdd only repair it (((with xp disc only)))
then connect all the hdd
with ubuntu as boot disk and boot into ubuntu update your grub.

that's it

[sudhix]

Hi

I was able to boot xp using that technique. Thanks. Now win7 and xp boots..
Time to get ubuntu working (if Bangalore power situation gets better )

[anupam_pb]

I've a single 500 GB SATA hard disk with 4 partitions. First I installed Windows 7 in one partition and after installing 7 I installed XP in other partition. Now only XP is booting and no OS choice menu is shown. What could be the problem ? What should I do to boot Windows 7 ? I don't want to format the partition containing 7.

[sudhix]

3 options

1) Boot using ur Win7 dvd and after selecting language country etc, select "repair your computer"
There select startup repair and wait for Win7 to detect both OS's. If it detects both of them, bingo. Go ahead and perform the repair. U will get Win7 loader with winxp option

2) Install Acronis Disk Director 10 on winxp and after tat install Acronis OS selector. It will help u select Os's on different partitions. Its a gui based boot loader.

3) Perform option 1. If u dont get winxp entry to boot, add it manually using EasyBCD. Its a free download.

-sudhix

[saurabh_1e]

you shud install xp first and win7 later xp will always erase boot info of win 7

easy bcd will not run in xp without win 7 bootloader instalrd

now install xp first and then win7

[celldweller1591]

you shud install xp first and win7 later xp will always erase boot info of win 7

I agree to that. Xp will surely erase win7 loader so you have to fix it again that will add upto time and headache

[sudhix]

Thanks to all. I was able to get all OS's to boot up

-Sudhix