Triple Booting Vista, XP, and Ubuntu

I tried doing this a couple of times before, but failed. Most of the documentation I found online were helpful, but they were not descriptive enough to explain the whole process—at least for me. Even though this guide is written based on the HP TX2500, anyone should be able to use these instructions on any PC. So here is an easy guide to install Windows Vista, Windows XP, and Ubuntu 8.10:

Starting with a Fresh Install:
If you have already installed the operating systems, and having issues configuring the boot loader, then refer to the next section.

1. First make sure to create the required partitions. You can use a single partition to install Vista and XP, but I recommend not to do so. My TX2500 came with Vista installed already. So I had to use a third party software to alter the partitions as I didn't have the Vista setup disks.

2. I used Paragon Partition Manager as it supported both 32-bit and 64-bit PCs. Partition Magic, unfortunately damaged my partition table and I lost the Vista backup drive that came originally with my notebook. So I recommend using Paragon Partition Manager, and not Partition Magic to do this.

3. Make sure you have at least 5 partitions, for:
    a) Windows Vista
    b) Windows XP
    c) Linux OS (Ubuntu 8.10)
    d) Linux Swap
    e) Data Drive (Common drive to share data across platforms)

4. Make the Windows partitions NTFS and the the Linux partition EXT3. It is best to have the data drive in NTFS format, as it will help smooth transferring of files between Windows and Linux.

5. First, install Windows XP, then Windows Vista, and finally Ubuntu. Vista should automatically detect XP and add it to the boot loader, and use the Ubuntu GRUB boot loader to add the Windows operating systems.

Configuring MBR:
This method works with any order of OS installation. You will need a copy of Paragon Partition Manager's recovery disk burned on to a CD. You can do this by installing Paragon Partition Manager on any Windows-based PC and burning a recovery CD.

1. Boot your PC with the recovery disc, and make only the Linux partition active and the others inactive. Having multiple active partitions will prevent your PC from booting to an OS.

2. Reboot your PC and load up Ubuntu.

3. Open up a terminal screen and type the following: “sudo gedit /boot/grub/menu.lst”

4. When gedit opens up the menu.lst file, go to the end of the file and add the following code to represent each Windows installation on your system (You will be prompted to provide the administrator password at this point):

    title Microsoft Windows XP x64 Edition
    root (hd0,1)
    savedefault
    chainloader +1

5. Change the “title” and “root” parameters to represent your system: hd0 represents the first physical hard disk, and the value following the comma in the parameter (hd0,0) represents the partition number. For instance, (hd0,0) means first partition on the first physical hard disk, (hd0,1) means second partition on the first physical hard disk, and (hd1,0) means first partition on the second physical hard disk.

6. Some guides that I found online suggested adding a “makeactive”' command after the “savedefault,” but I suggest not to use it, as it changes the active partition upon boot and if you haven't configured the boot loader on the most recently updated partition, it might result in a failed boot.

7. According to this method, you only make the Linux partition active and remove the boot loaders from all the other partitions. Make sure the root folders of each operating system have the following structure (If not, you can change them from within Ubuntu):

    a) Windows Vista: Root folder should have the “bootmgr” file and a folder named “boot” with the “BCD” file inside. The boot configuration information is stored in the “BCD” file in Windows Vista.
    b) Windows XP: Root folder should have the “ntdetect.com,” “ntldr,” and “boot.ini” files. Boot configuration information is saved in the “boot.ini” file in Windows XP.
    c) Linux (Ubuntu): The “/boot/grub/” folder should have the “menu.lst” file. Boot configuration information is stored in the “menu.lst” file in Ubuntu.

8. If the files mentioned in the previous step are present in your partitions, all you got to do is change the “menu.lst” file as explained in step 4, save it, and reboot your PC. You should be provided with a list of operating systems to boot from the GRUB boot loader.

Summary:
For the advanced user, this is a summary of what you should do (All steps can be completed by loading up Ubuntu).

  1. Make only the Linux (Ubuntu) partition active.
  2. Check and update the files on each Windows partition (Step 7).
  3. Modify the GRUB boot loader (menu.lst).

This should prevent you from the hassle of trying to modify your Windows-based MBR. I hope that I managed to explain the process clearly, as one of the main issues for a beginner, is to understand the tech-background of the booting process. If you understood step 7, then everything else should be easy. Send in your feedback; and good luck updating your MBR!