Hypothetical triple boot XP, Vista ,OS 10.5.1

[acdcfan]

I can just add a small thing here;

I live in Sweden.

This country has a few things that are really nice about the legal system. One thing is that an EULA is not considered a valid legal document, and, regardless of there being an "I agree" box to click or not, it's not going to magically transform into one.

Another thing is that I'm LEGALLY allowed to do whatever it takes (as in decrypting, hacking, converting, disassembling, I can't kill people for it even though it could be useful at times, lol) to get something I bought working on my equipment. So Apple have no say whatsoever if I decide to run Leopard on my computer as long as I buy the OS. It's the same thing that makes it entirely LEGAL for me to rip a CD and use it in my mp3 player, or convert a movie to play it on my PS3. You can't sign away your legal rights in this country, just opt to not enforce them...

good country to live in....

 

[johngalt]

I can say this - I have found that disconnecting other drives and manually changing the boot order in the BIOS when booting works even
better,

This part right here is what I don't understand. I know how to change boot order, how to boot form CD,. Do you mean, that I need to find out which drive (drive number) my OS X is and change boot order to boot form it.

Yes, you'll need to note which HD is which number so you'll know which OS is installed on it, nd when booting you'll manually select which one. Again, though, this is only one (and not necessarily the most convenient) way to do this.

as then I don't have to worry about boot managers and the like. Finally, I can *suppose* that if you find a way to triple boot Vista XP and any form of Linux, then the differences between that tutorial and using Leopard in place of the Linux listed should be *minimal*.

So far I have installed SATA controller and new hard drive. Both are seen in device manager and disk management. I have left new hard drive unformatted for the time being. It did my head in for about 2 hours. After initial hardware install I couldn't see hard drive in BIOS or any of disk management. Searched high and low to find out the cause but it turned out I didn't plugged the controller properly. How silly.....:D All is good

Honestly, for sake of ease, I'd go with the boot manager - search for tutorials on triple booting Vista XP and Linux and follow those. Just remember that OS-X may have some surprises in store for you, so be careful what and how you do it.

 

[acdcfan]

Honestly, for sake of ease, I'd go with the boot manager - search for tutorials on triple booting Vista XP and Linux and follow those. Just remember that OS-X may have some surprises in store for you, so be careful what and how you do it.

I found this forum.... Mac OS X - NeoSmart Technologies Wiki with couple of statements which are very encouraging

1. Install OS X to a primary partition on your PC. Assuming you have the legitimate Dev Preview kit with the official OS X x86 DVD, just stick it in the drive and follow the on-screen prompts.
2. Once OS X has finished installing, the Darwin bootloader should load up OS X for the first time. It should give you an "Other" option to boot into Windows Vista.
3. Select "Other" and start Windows Vista.
4. Fire-up EasyBCD, and go to the "Bootloader Management" screen.
5. Follow the instructions here to re-install the Vista bootloader.
6. Read the next section for info on how to add OS X to the Vista bootloader.
   

If these are true, my hypothetical will be smooth sailing, or I can even use Darwin bootloader

 

[acdcfan]

Anyone please

 

[Barman58]

hypothetically speaking what I would do is disconnect the drives other than the new one.

install your OS onto the new drive as an independant system. when all is ok with the new install reconnect the other drives and set the vista drive as the default drive.

once in vista you can use BCDedit to setup the bootloader from there following part 2 of the guide you quote.

at least doing it this way you can always disconnect the new drive and get back to where you started from. and should be able to use the bios switch method if all else fails.

must add that this is not something I have any direct experience of but this way is as safe a way as I can think of

 

[acdcfan]

hypothetically speaking what I would do is disconnect the drives other than the new one.

install your OS onto the new drive as an independant system. when all is ok with the new install reconnect the other drives and set the vista drive as the default drive.

How do I do that part?... In Vistas disk management vistas drive is shown as disk1....

once in vista you can use BCDedit to setup the bootloader from there following part 2 of the guide you quote.

Thanks

 

[Barman58]

If you physically disconnect the data cable and power to the two existing drives the new install will only see one drive, the new one, so whatever happens with the new install the existing systems are safe.

You should be able to set your BIOS to boot from any of the drives available once you have re-connected all three if you set your vista drive to boot first the result is the same as just having the vista drive in the computer. if you set it to boot from the mac drive then the same applies. it's what happens when the drive boots that is affected by the multiboot setup.

the link included above is the wikipedia entry for bios and goes from very basic to (via links) as advanced as you could ever want.
If the above is too basic I apologise

your Motherboard manual should give you all you need to achive a manual multiboot system look under boot order or something similar. if you haven't got a manual goto the M/B manufacturers site and download one.


All the above is of course hypothetical

 

[acdcfan]

If you physically disconnect the data cable and power to the two existing drives the new install will only see one drive, the new one, so whatever happens with the new install the existing systems are safe.

You should be able to set your BIOS to boot from any of the drives available once you have re-connected all three if you set your vista drive to boot first the result is the same as just having the vista drive in the computer. if you set it to boot from the mac drive then the same applies. it's what happens when the drive boots that is affected by the multiboot setup.

the link included above is the wikipedia entry for bios and goes from very basic to (via links) as advanced as you could ever want.
If the above is too basic I apologise

your Motherboard manual should give you all you need to achive a manual multiboot system look under boot order or something similar. if you haven't got a manual goto the M/B manufacturers site and download one.


All the above is of course hypothetical

I know, and I have seen what you are writing about but I could not see it in my MB manual...
If I was to provide you with the link of my motherboard model and manual, woudl you be able to look at it and advice where I need to go to achieve above?

 

[Barman58]

if you post or PM me the link I'll Have a look.

first thing to do in bios is turn off the BOOT LOGO ( if enabled) so you can see the boot process

 

[acdcfan]

if you post or PM me the link I'll Have a look.

first thing to do in bios is turn off the BOOT LOGO ( if enabled) so you can see the boot process

Man
I owe a lot to you....
Here is a link MSI -- MICRO-STAR INT'L CO., LTD.

I know how to turn off boot logo...........:huh: I think

 

[Barman58]

OK here goes...

This is the safest method I can think of to achive what you want but I cannot garauntee that this will work.

Power-up your PC and press DEL to enter set-up

first you need to go to Advanced BIOS Features and switch off the FULL SCREEN LOGO DISPLAY and it's probably worth switching off the QUICK BOOTING option too ( you can switch this back on when everthing is working)

In the Standard CMOS Features Screen you should see your SATA disks just check here to see that all three are visible

To disable your current drives you should ( with the power off of course), open the case and physically disconnect the Data Line, (and power cable to be totally safe)' to the two drives that have your existing OS's on them.

This will leave you with a Single drive PC with a blank disk, you should now follow the instructions to load your new OS ( sorry can't help with this bit ).

once this is complete you should now be able to go into your new OS and use it as a single OS machine. (a reboot will take you back into this OS )

Now what you need to do is re-connect the power and data cables to your other drives and power up the machine. Which ever OS is on the PRIMARY HDD in the bios will Boot. If this is vista then proceed to setup your bootloader

otherwise

You now need to set the PRIMARY HDD to boot which ever OS will run the bootloader program ( asume VISTA running BCDedit )

This is where the manual is unclear.

you need to go to the Advanced BIOS Features menu and then select the Boot Sequence Submenu

Hopefully in the menu you will see your three HDD and can set the one with vista to boot first.

If only SATA is displayed then you will have to change the Motherboard port that the disks are connected by trial and error ( poweroff - phisically change configuration - reboot ), untill you get the correct result (would assume it would boot in port order but don't know)

may also be worth setting the boot from other device option

Once you have the correct drive booting you can then set up your multi-boot from within the OS

I know this is a quite involved way of setting things up but by using this method you can revert to a working system at any time by phisically disconnecting the New drive , Reconnecting the Original drives, and re-booting.

Hope this helps and is clear

 

[acdcfan]

Thank you Barman58
I will do exactly as per your post...

My 3rd hdd is connected via RAID/SATA controller and I can see it in disk management but I can not clearly see it in BIOS maybe because there is no OS on it just yet. My boot sequence looks something like this...

1 XP ( first drive that had OS installed) guessing here
2 Vista (guessing)
3 CD/DVD rom ( dual layer DVD bruner)

Boot form other devices NO

As I said above, while I can not clearly see my 3rd hard drive, when I press enter on my 3rd boot option I can see it then and only then... 3rd hdd is seen in disk management as disk2, XP is disk0 and Vista is disk1

So, if i do exactly as you said, and wright down my boot sequence and boot in Vista I can then use Easy BCD to add entry to it without fear of destroying Vistas boot loader? Because I intend to have 3rd hdd as a 3rd option in boot sequence...

Please advice

 

[Barman58]

Hi acdcfan

It looks like it works as I Thought [hoped? ] it would. Its just showing the first three available drives

the order I would choose myself is ...

CD/DVD ROM Drive
DISK 1 [Vista]
DISK 0 [XP]

Boot from other devices Yes

the reason for this is if there is a [Bootable] CD or DVD in the drive such as a repair disk or live cd etc. then this will boot. if no bootable disk is in the drive then it will boot into the vista drive [and the bootloader]. If there is any problem with the vista drive it will boot into XP. If there is any problem with this then you will boot into OS10 or a bootable PEN Drive [if inserted].

you may not want to put the CD Drive 1st as it can be a pain if you forget to remove a CD when you shut down and find it booting into a setup.
if this is the case just stick to Drive 1 then 0, then 2 which will work too.

the only thing to remember when working with the bootloader is the the first drive is Drive 0 you'd be suprised how may people that one's caught out [ including me in the past ]

good luck with the hypothetical project

 

[acdcfan]

Hi acdcfan

It looks like it works as I Thought [hoped? ] it would. Its just showing the first three available drives

the order I would choose myself is ...

CD/DVD ROM Drive
DISK 1 [Vista]
DISK 0 [XP]

Boot from other devices Yes

the reason for this is if there is a [Bootable] CD or DVD in the drive such as a repair disk or live cd etc. then this will boot. if no bootable disk is in the drive then it will boot into the vista drive [and the bootloader]. If there is any problem with the vista drive it will boot into XP. If there is any problem with this then you will boot into OS10 or a bootable PEN Drive [if inserted].

you may not want to put the CD Drive 1st as it can be a pain if you forget to remove a CD when you shut down and find it booting into a setup.
if this is the case just stick to Drive 1 then 0, then 2 which will work too.

the only thing to remember when working with the bootloader is the the first drive is Drive 0 you'd be suprised how may people that one's caught out [ including me in the past ]

good luck with the hypothetical project

After carefully reading your instruction I have decided to go like this.

1 unplug 2 hard drives
2 start the machine
3 change BIOS to boot form CD
4 install
5 finish installing and other things that need dooing
5 shut down
6 reconnect two hard drive
7 reapply original boot sequence
8 use EasyBCD to add Mac to bootloader
9 my happy then

Barman58
I will change boot from other device to yes, but I have disabled logo and quick boot.

Will 3rd hard drive show as boot option after OS is on it? and why there are only 3 boot options....

I though that drive0 would be bootable drive after looking in disk management under Vista and Xp and it showed me same result. XP drive was disk0

 

[Barman58]

drive should show when it has os loaded as a bootable drive, BIOS juat looks for Bootable state dosn't care about what OS it is ...

the only other thing I would say is don't rush the job, set yourself a good few hours to get everthing right. make sure new os is is stable and fully functional before you worry about bootloader If you need to run Vista to check online or anything you can always reconnect the drive and the change boot order from the bios.

good luck

 

[acdcfan]

drive should show when it has os loaded as a bootable drive, BIOS juat looks for Bootable state dosn't care about what OS it is ...

the only other thing I would say is don't rush the job, set yourself a good few hours to get everthing right. make sure new os is is stable and fully functional before you worry about bootloader If you need to run Vista to check online or anything you can always reconnect the drive and the change boot order from the bios.

good luck

That is exactly what I intend to do..... This coming weekend.

Mods please keep this thread open. I will post step by step installation guid if allowed to go with my hypothetical.

Barman58,
Because of people like you, prepared to do some hard yakka (Aussie slang for hard work) and thinking for other users venturing into waters never ventured before, these forums exist....
I thank you for the bottom of my heart.

If you ever in OZ, let me know I owe one big thank you..... :D

 

[acdcfan]

Hi all
keeping you posted....
I haven't finished my hypothetical yet but I managed to install Ubuntu so now I have tipple boot machine. Reason for this sudden change is powerful GRUB boot loader, which is Linux based same as mackintosh....
Also I have found that I can press F11 and chose which drive to boot from, which makes things a lot easier now....
Still a one big thank you for Barman58 for helping and I mean helping a lot....

 

[acdcfan]

It seems that I can not get the disc to boot into firs screen...
After it boots of DVD it is loading Darwin loader and after it finishes it restarts whole computer and here we go again...
Anyone know a reason why....?

 

[johngalt]

Perhaps it is looking for a MAC formatted HD?

 

[Barman58]

Hi acdcfan,

As I said in my original post sometime ago can't help with the hypothetical part of project. you probably need more specialized help. Not sure if you've looked Here but they should be able to give more help :D