Multi Boot question

[irishbiker]

Hi All

I'm using a triple boot system currently its:

Windoze XP
Mac OSX
BT R4


To keep it simple I used windose's boot menu. For Mac OSX I used chain0 and for BackTRack 4 I used bootpart with installing BT's boot loader on the partition I was using for the install.

Now with installing BT5 it just won't boot, I've tried both ext3 and 4 along with using and not using BT's bootloader.

Anyone else having any problems? Anyone else used a multi boot proggie?


TiA

Irish

[r083rt]

Windoze XP
Mac OSX
BT R4

and want to now install bt5 lol your asking for trouble why mac OSX come to think of it why windows lol

just install gnome X86 BT5 as you main and set up virtualbox and run windows inside ,max OS etc etc

with all that setup you will either you will do something and lose one or all if you need to reinstall an OS it can really mess you up I can see nightmares ahead

you can download a usb multiboot tool and boot bt4 , bt5 Mac OS and just leave windows as your main if thats what you want
http://www.pendrivelinux.com/downloa...MI-0.0.1.2.exe

it can get very tricky having installed mutiboot OS as when something goes wrong it can be a complete waste of time and really is not practical


k.i.s.s
keep it short and simple

[irishbiker]

I'm not installing BT5 I'm replacing BT4

Running Virtual Os's is not an option for me, and I'm not getting into the childish which OS is best discussion. I've been running vanilla OS's for about a year without a problem.

I thought bootpart was Grub2 compatible, if not can I inject an earlier version? Anyone else used a multiboot proggie?

[sylvestor2002]

Hi All

I'm using a triple boot system currently its:

Windoze XP
Mac OSX
BT R4


To keep it simple I used windose's boot menu. For Mac OSX I used chain0 and for BackTRack 4 I used bootpart with installing BT's boot loader on the partition I was using for the install.

Now with installing BT5 it just won't boot, I've tried both ext3 and 4 along with using and not using BT's bootloader.

Anyone else having any problems? Anyone else used a multi boot proggie?


TiA

Irish

I too am trying to install bt5. I have Win 7, OSX and currently wiped out my bt4 partition. When I boot up my BT5 dvd and start the installation process to the 50GB of free continous space I created after wiping out bt4, I am not able to put the boot loader files onto the linux partitions. I know with BT4, I could select the boot loader files to be installed onto my linux partitions. (This would let OSX manage my boot up system.) So now I'm stuck and thinking of going back to BT4 as I don't want to ruin my Win 7 and OSX installations.

On a side note: Anyone know where I can download an old copy of BT4, r2 ?

[dragon1964m]

Hi Irishbiker. I am running a triple boot with Win 7, Ubuntu 10.10 and BT5 Gnome-32. I just used the Grub from BT5 as my loader. Never tried a multi-boot with Win and OSX on the same drive though. Does that require something special or could you use Grub to resolve your issue? A minor edit to the Grub conf. file will still allow OSX to be your primary boot option.

[kiwipuffin]

So to be honest I haven't even tried installing BT5 yet, still running it off of live cds and my usb to test it out. However, my experience with multiboot hd is that to reinstall one os you have to reinstall all of them. I could be doing something wrong, but from my experiences, it's not as simple as merely erasing the one you no longer want and installing a new one. I have had 7, osx, and ubuntu and when reformating the 7 needed to redo the entire thing. Finally decided it wasn't worth it and now just do virtualbox. I definitely understand the need to have multiple OS. Each has it's own benefits and its own downfalls. Nothing is perfect. So given your situation where you need all three, and you can't afford to run virtual machines I would say you may have to consider reinstalling everything from scratch. I know that the Y.U.M.I. that was linked above works well for flash drives and I've used another called SARDU that works good as well, however only ever on flashdrives so not sure how well they'll do for your situation. Might want to consider getting a desktop with 12gb ram or something crazy like that so that it can handle each os at 4gb+ and not have too many slowdown problems. Or my personal favorite of dual boot two and run the third off a cd or usb if you don't use one of them too often.

[Sariking]

Use the same drive you installed the bt4 on it to install bt5 .
for example if your bt4 installed on sda1 then format sda1 and choose it to install bt5 on it with the same swapping partition.
and it will work ..

[lukasoft]

my experience with multiboot hd is that to reinstall one os you have to reinstall all of them.

This is not the case. You NEVER have to reinstall all of the operating systems. In your case you simply reinstalled 7, which removed the (assuming) grub boot loader by default. All you have to do is save the menu.lst or /etc/default/grub from your grub install before you install the new OS. Then restore the grub boot loader using one of many ways, and lastly restore the /etc/default/grub or menu.lst and modify it if necessary for the new operating system.

[irishbiker]

Hi all

Thanks for the replies. I had thought about using grub as the main boot loader but I found it a pain to install. For my system Windoze XP is the main OS. Using bootpart seemed to be the best option and it worked great. Can anyone tell me what the different between BT4 and BT5 boot is?

[irishbiker]

Hi All

Just an update to let you know I got it to work. With a little of digging around I found a program called EasyBCD http://neosmart.net/dl.php?id=1

As I use windoze as my main os this program allowed me to add multi boot options using windows boot manager.

My problem is that I use XP and EasyBCD requires the bootmgr from vista/Windows 7 and without it EasyBCD just won't work.

The Solution is to copy the c:\windows\boot folder (its hidden) from you legal *GRIN* copy of Vista/7 to your XP machine and install it in the same location as before (c:\windows\boot)

Then simply use EasyBCD to write a new MBR and it all seems to work.

Of course this worked for me, if you try it and it kills your machine its not my fault. do your research..

P.