Hi everyone,
I have a home built computer here are the specs:
Windows 7 Ultimate
Intel i7 2600k unlocked processor
Asus P8 Z68-V Pro Motherboard
Antec EA-650 Green 650Watt PSU
Logitech wireless keyboard and mouse
Diablotek EVO ATX Midtower Case
LG 22x DVD writer (Sata)
Liteon DVD writer (Sata)
Corsair 8GB Ram
WD 1TB (Sata) Hard drive
Anyway here is what I wanna do but have not gotten around to figuring it out.
I am currently running windows 7 on this set up. I have an extra 500GB western digital hard drive (sata) laying around that I decided to throw in this setup,
then i thought why not run another operating system on that 500gb hard drive. I was thinking either linux or I have windows xp. My question is how do I go about setting up this computer to turn on and give me the option for which operating system/hard drive I want to boot into. Is it like a boot loader or something? I was also thinking if I use some kind of boot loader it would be nice if it had a feature where if I dont select anything within X amount of seconds it defaults to my windows 7.
Any advice is greatly appreciated.
Thanks
Basically what Spirit said. You want to plug in all your hard drives first, if you have only one hard drive, you can partition it. With Windows, always install the oldest first like Spirit said. If you have recovery disks for one os, make sure you keep the C:\ Partition open, use disk management in the other os if you install it first to redirect the partition that the other operating systems are on to a different drive letter that is free, otherwise you risk wiping your operating systems you put on first, and make sure the recovery disk data has space on the MASTER hard drive, it does not give an option as to where it installs, so...
If you wanted to install Windows XP (On a recovery disk) and run W2K and 7 like I have before, you need to either:
Install 2K first, boot the os, go to start, control panel, administrative tools, computer management and click disk management, select the C:\ drive, right click it, change drive letter and paths, and change it to a letter besides C:\. Make sure you have a free partition in the Master Drive. Then you can run your other disks in order of oldest first. You can not put more than one OS on one partition - easily. Its easier just to make another partition or use another hard drive otherwise files interfere.
You could always run your recovery media first. Its easier that way. Then install other OS. It shouldn't therefor matter what order you install things as long as you finish with the newest OS.
With Windows 7, if you are using more than one other os, you will get problems accessing them. Windows tries to be helpful and displays a screen on boot to ask you what OS you want to use, but it will only give you the option of Windows 7 and Previous Operating System, so boot into Windows 7, download a free program called EasyBCD, and run it. Look under Edit Boot menu, there should be two entries (one Windows 7 and one Previous Version of Windows.) Click previous version of windows then click rename, then name it correctly. Ok the window, and now go to add entry, follow this through and select the drive that the os that is not recognised is on, name it again, and click save settings. Reboot.
- I haven't done this for a while so this may not be 100% correct but I remember the main pointers so just ask if you need help.
If I remember correctly, Linux uses GRUB boot loader, I do not know much about linux since I hate it and refuse to use it (I hate the UI), but I would probably recommend installing Linux last after installing all the Windows in Age order, or like I say, install them in whatever order then install 7 last and try EasyBCD again.
As for apple, I have no idea since doing so goes against the EULA...
Sorry about the lengthy answer but hope it helps. Once you get the hang of it, it is easy, but takes a looooooooooooooonnnnnnnnnnnngggggggg time.
EDIT: Windows has an option for setting default os. I turn it off but go into Windows 7, right click Computer, go to properties, advanced system settings, click settings under start up and recovery and it is all in there. Your Windows 7 should boot within 30 seconds automatically by default there anyway if it was the last to be installed.
I do not know how to duelboot windows 8 by the way, its different I think.
- And like I said, you will need to partition your 500gb hdd first if you want to run more than one os on it, otherwise it will just overwrite. Where I told you about disk management, just rightclick the blue box on your 500 hdd there when in an os, and just click shrink, type in 536870912000 for the size to shrink by, and click ok, wait... now double click the black box that appears and follow the wizard to format it. ALWAYS USE NTFS IF IT GIVES YOU THE OPTION OTHERWISE YOU WILL GET PROBLEMS READING THE HARDDRIVES IN DIFFERENT OS'S! If you are partitioning through windows setup, tell it to make a new partition on the 500gb hdd, and type in 536870912000 if it is in bytes, or half of whatever it says the full capacity is, confirm it and it will say the new partition and unused space, select unused space and just confirm it, do not touch it. (Unless you want to manually chose the sizes of all the partitions, and if so just type in the numbers, you can make I think 3 or 4 bootable partitions (that you can install os's on) on one HDD. They can not be extended partitions, just basic. Dont do what I did and convert the drives over from basic to dynamic either. That can screw things up.
Hope this helps
Sorry if the info is not 100% correct but its roughly what you do I think.
