tedrow
February 24th, 2009, 01:27 AM
2-month old Dell D630 laptop, 4GB mem, nVidia graphics.
Lots of multi-boot info here in the forums, but I don't see quite what I'm looking for (although I may have missed it in the 2+ hours I scanned the forums...)
Central IT loaded my laptop with XP-Pro and a boatload of applications, per corp standard. I had the IT guys partition the disk 3 ways, so C:\=XP-Pro (only), D:\=mydata, and E:\ =Ubuntu 8.04.2 (2.6.24-23) in an ext3 partition with no swap. Ubuntu was installed (by me, downloaded image) from boot-to-CD, like a snap with no problems, and I edited the grub file to allow unattended re-boot to default to XP. Everything is stable and A-OK.
Now (arrggghh) I need to test some apps under Vista. I have the Dell OEM disk to load it. Trashing and re-doing Ubuntu would not be painful, if it simplifies my goal, but re-doing XP would be *very* painful because of the significant apps-reload hassle. So, I want to keep XP stable whatever else I do. Backing up D:\mydata is also not difficult.
I found the 4-part vid to tri-boot XP, Vista and Ubuntu, and that tells me it'll work - but he started from blank disks and I already have XP and then loaded Ubuntu so grub is handing the boot process. Partition space is not an issue, but I do not plan to add any more partitions to accommodate Vista.
If I merely install Vista to D:\ without any other preps, will the boot-manager be hosed? (I believe yes, and that after the the Vista load, I'll see Vista and XP but no Ubuntu.) If so and I re-load Ubuntu after Vista, will it recover such that grub will manage all three OS'es? I'd prefer that an unattended boot defaults to XP after I'm done... All the partitions are on the same hard-drive, so I don't worry much about where the boot-loader is managed from -- if the drive blows out - it takes everything and I start over anyway.
So - is there an optimal way to approach this, or is it as simple as loading Vista as the machine sits? Many thanks in advance - I appreciate your time to help me before I do something destabilizing.
Lots of multi-boot info here in the forums, but I don't see quite what I'm looking for (although I may have missed it in the 2+ hours I scanned the forums...)
Central IT loaded my laptop with XP-Pro and a boatload of applications, per corp standard. I had the IT guys partition the disk 3 ways, so C:\=XP-Pro (only), D:\=mydata, and E:\ =Ubuntu 8.04.2 (2.6.24-23) in an ext3 partition with no swap. Ubuntu was installed (by me, downloaded image) from boot-to-CD, like a snap with no problems, and I edited the grub file to allow unattended re-boot to default to XP. Everything is stable and A-OK.
Now (arrggghh) I need to test some apps under Vista. I have the Dell OEM disk to load it. Trashing and re-doing Ubuntu would not be painful, if it simplifies my goal, but re-doing XP would be *very* painful because of the significant apps-reload hassle. So, I want to keep XP stable whatever else I do. Backing up D:\mydata is also not difficult.
I found the 4-part vid to tri-boot XP, Vista and Ubuntu, and that tells me it'll work - but he started from blank disks and I already have XP and then loaded Ubuntu so grub is handing the boot process. Partition space is not an issue, but I do not plan to add any more partitions to accommodate Vista.
If I merely install Vista to D:\ without any other preps, will the boot-manager be hosed? (I believe yes, and that after the the Vista load, I'll see Vista and XP but no Ubuntu.) If so and I re-load Ubuntu after Vista, will it recover such that grub will manage all three OS'es? I'd prefer that an unattended boot defaults to XP after I'm done... All the partitions are on the same hard-drive, so I don't worry much about where the boot-loader is managed from -- if the drive blows out - it takes everything and I start over anyway.
So - is there an optimal way to approach this, or is it as simple as loading Vista as the machine sits? Many thanks in advance - I appreciate your time to help me before I do something destabilizing.