Linux, Vista and XP

saffyre · 18 Jul 2007 at 22:09

I recently bought a laptop which came pre-installed with Vista and i have partitioned it and installed linux. I know need windows XP on their for a programming suite and I was wondering if I can create a new partition and install XP on it and then be able to restore grub and still boot all three operaing systems. Previouisly I have only installed Vista->XP->Linux as vista seems to take over XP's boot loader meaning that you have to get grub to load Vistas boot loader and in turn boot XP. I was wondering if installing XP last and then repairing grub will work.

SiriusB · 18 Jul 2007 at 23:09

You shouldn't have any problems. Just install XP as usual and, as said, reconfigure GRUB so it gives you Windows XP as one of the options.

Job done

whitecrook · 18 Jul 2007 at 23:49

consider running XP in a virtual machine either under vista or Linux

saffyre · 19 Jul 2007 at 00:51

That could be an idea, although im not finding the performance of vista for gaming to be great so i might just do a full install of XP. How easy is it to setup a VM? Which is the best one to use?

dbmzk1 · 19 Jul 2007 at 01:06

saffyre said:
That could be an idea, although im not finding the performance of vista for gaming to be great so i might just do a full install of XP. How easy is it to setup a VM? Which is the best one to use?

It's really easy. Takes about 2 mins!

You could use MS Virtual PC 2007 as it works great and is now totally free

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/products/winfamily/virtualpc/default.mspx

saffyre · 19 Jul 2007 at 01:29

Doesnt look like it works on vista, might have to run it in a linux virtual macine.

edit: vista home is what I meant

.

GarethDW · 19 Jul 2007 at 16:26

I've always found VMWare better than Virtual PC - and, no, it's not just because VMWare is not a MS product

Rhys · 19 Jul 2007 at 16:39

Why do you need 3 OS's?

richardbirks · 19 Jul 2007 at 17:14

saffyre said:
That could be an idea, although im not finding the performance of vista for gaming to be great so i might just do a full install of XP. How easy is it to setup a VM? Which is the best one to use?

VMWare Server is in the repositories for Feisty, so it's just a matter of selecting it from Add/Remove under the application menu (after getting a free install key from the VMWare site of course).

Of course, you might not be running Ubuntu...

--
Richard.

saffyre · 19 Jul 2007 at 22:42

I did a full install of XP and it stopped vista from booting. This is because it placed its boot files on the vista partition as it is the active partition and installed an older boot manager to the MBR or some such thing. I found a fix here:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/919529

This allowed me to boot vista again, I then used VistaBootPro to add an entry to allow me to boot windows XP. This helped as vista home didnt seem to have the tool needed to modify this. Repaired grub after that and all is good.