Triboot system
Alright. Just need some suggestions or someone to give me a virtual slap and tell me to get a hold of myself. I am currently doing a build (primarily gaming rig but need some added functionality as well).
Alright. Just need some suggestions or someone to give me a virtual slap and tell me to get a hold of myself. I am currently doing a build (primarily gaming rig but need some added functionality as well). I have (2) legal copies of WinXP Pro and WinXP Pro x64. I want to eventually upgrade to Vista Ultimate when it and third-party drivers mature a bit. So my plan is to create 3 partitions and install each of the copies of Windows I currently own. Then, in a couple of months I want to upgrade one WinXP Pro to Vista Ultimate. First question, do I install the regular Pro versions (renaming the Windows directory on the second installation) then install x64? Second, is there really a reason to even install x64 with Vista in the upgrade pipeline? My only real reason for that is to see how 64-bit gaming is (the inqusitive part of me wants to know). Another option would be to only load 1 Pro version and the x64 then upgrade x64 to Vista so I still have the stable version of WinXP Pro on the computer. I pretty much want to install one version of WinXP Pro so that I know I have an OS that works. The x64 is really to experiment and the second XP Pro is to later upgrade to Vista. Any suggestions/comments are appreciated (and as I said before you can tell me to come back from Saturn if that is where this plan really is).
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Well, since I do a quad-boot, I suppose I can weigh in on how I did it myself
Basically if you have either multiple partitions or HDD's then the process is simple.
Start with installing XP Pro (32-bit) and install on the first seen partition/hdd.
Then install XP Pro (64-bit) on the second partition/hdd.
Then when you get Vista, 32 or 64 bit, install that to the third partition/hdd.
No renaming neccessary as each of these OS's is their own install and what's nice is a brand new Boot Menu that will look something like the following:
Microsoft Windows XP Pro
Microsoft Windows XP Pro
You will notice a count down time, default of 30 seconds.
Well, just edit the boot.ini file on the first partition/hdd and adjust to your liking, including the name. Below is how I label my os's.
Microsoft Windows XP Pro (32-bit)
Microsoft Windows XP Pro (64-bit)
Now this is what it looks like before you install Vista. After installing Vista the Boot Menu changes to something like the following:
Older version of Microsoft Windows
Microsoft Windows Vista
And again a nice countdown timer and if you choose the older version of windows boot option, you will be presented with your older Windows XP Boot Menu once again to select either your 32 or 64 bit version of XP Pro.
It may seem confusing at first but the boot manager seems to do most of the work for you on this one
Basically if you have either multiple partitions or HDD's then the process is simple.
Start with installing XP Pro (32-bit) and install on the first seen partition/hdd.
Then install XP Pro (64-bit) on the second partition/hdd.
Then when you get Vista, 32 or 64 bit, install that to the third partition/hdd.
No renaming neccessary as each of these OS's is their own install and what's nice is a brand new Boot Menu that will look something like the following:
Microsoft Windows XP Pro
Microsoft Windows XP Pro
You will notice a count down time, default of 30 seconds.
Well, just edit the boot.ini file on the first partition/hdd and adjust to your liking, including the name. Below is how I label my os's.
Microsoft Windows XP Pro (32-bit)
Microsoft Windows XP Pro (64-bit)
Now this is what it looks like before you install Vista. After installing Vista the Boot Menu changes to something like the following:
Older version of Microsoft Windows
Microsoft Windows Vista
And again a nice countdown timer and if you choose the older version of windows boot option, you will be presented with your older Windows XP Boot Menu once again to select either your 32 or 64 bit version of XP Pro.
It may seem confusing at first but the boot manager seems to do most of the work for you on this one
Quad boot? What OSes? As far as hardware, I will have two Raptor X's in a striped RAID array divided into 3 partitions. I plan on making these partitions during the initial install of WinXP Pro. I had seen in the past where you should start with the oldest OS install first because as each OS comes out, its boot loader becomes more sophisticated (which is how I planned to do it). I will most likely get the Vista Ultimate upgrade vice the full version which is why I was going to install the second WinXP Pro. Does that make sense or will I just be able to do a clean install since I will have a COA/Key for each OS? And thanks for the input.
