Mis-adventures with Tri-booting Windows 7, Windows XP and Kubuntu
Just spent 1 entire day of my holiday reinstalling my OS. :| My old OS HDD sounds like it's gonna die soon, so got a new HDD. Since Windows 7 is out, I thought of installing Windows 7, Windows XP as backup, and transferring my old Kubuntu WUBI install into a dedicated partition. (Instead of running off inside my old XP as a virtual OS). Think it's easy? Hardly.
Part 1: Windows 7 + Windows XP
I decided to Install Windows 7 first then Windows XP as
1. Windows 7 is meant to be main OS, XP as backup only. If no longer needed, I can remove the XP partition.
2. 1 of my friends has Vista installed on an existing PC and is trying to dual-boot XP, so I figured I can try it out as well to see if there is any potential issues.
3. Yes, I heard it is easier and more trivial if you installed XP 1st then install Windows 7/Vista, but hey, where is the challenge in that? :p
Attempt 1:
I used my old XP installation to partition my new HDD for Windows 7 and XP partitions. I then rebooted from Win 7 DVD and tried to install Win 7 on the pre-formatted partitions. No go. Win 7 won't install unless I delete the existing partitions and recreate it from scratch.
Attempt 2:
I removed all partitions and let Win7 DVD create a 200GB partition (via Advanced > New..) . Win 7 created the System Reserved partition (100MB) and and the OS partition. (Note that at this time there is no unallocated 1MB partition in front of the System Reserved Partition.) I then started Win XP CD, created a new partition 200GB partition using WinXP CD (text based menu) and started the installation there. Upon rebooting, I get the following message.
"Error Loading Operating System"
Using the Win 7 DVD startup repair tool does NOT resolve this issue. When I booted up using my backup OS on another drive, I noticed 1MB unallocated space in front of every partition on my new drive.
Attempt 3:
After reading the guide here, I restarted and assigned a drive letter to "System Reserved". Does not help. Same error and mysterious unallocated 1MB space appears before each partition after Win XP CD partitioning and formatting.
Attempt 4:
Stuck at the previous issue for several hours, I decided to try another approach. I deleted all partitions on my new drive. I started Win 7 DVD, and this time let WIn 7 OS partition take my whole 1TB drive. (emulate pre-install conditon) After WIn7 installation is done, I booted in Win 7, went to Disk Management and re-partitioned the drive to free up 800GB of unallocated space. I then rebooted and started my WinXP installation CD. Upon entering WIn XP CD text-based partitioning menu, I noticed a WInXP CD detected a 1MB unallocated space before my "System Reserved" partition which wasn't there in previous tries. I let XP take the remaining 800GB space and started XP installation. Upon rebooting, instead of "Error Loading Operating System", I get...
_
...(a blinking cursor.)
Sensing some hope, I put in my Win 7 Installation CD and ran startup repair tool. Upon reboot, my system was able to boot into Win 7 OS again.(But no dual boot menu).
From then on I just installed
EasyBCD, created a WinXP entry, and rebooted. This time the dual boot menu came up, I selected XP option and the XP install continued from there.Success!
Attempt 5:
I varied Attempt 4 by pre-creating the XP partition beforehand in WIn 7 Disk management Tool (as I couldn't resize the XP partition to the size I want after Attempt 4), loading Win XP CD, reformatted that partition (as I heard XP NTFS not truly compatible with Win7 NTFS), and installed XP into that partition. Re-run startup-repair tool, and the repeated the rest of the steps. This method also works. Seems like as long as the unallocated 1MB partition was created by Win 7 DIsk management tool, the startup repair tool works. However, If you use the Win 7 DVD (Advanced > New..) partitioning method, the unallocated 1MB space will not be created at the front of disk and Win 7 startup repair tool will fail.
So. The correct steps should be:
1. Install Windows 7 on entire partition
2. Assign a drive letter to System Reserved Partition. (Just in case)
3. Re-partition the HDD to the size you want in Windows 7. (And creating the unallocated 1MB space at the front of the partition.)
4. Run WinXP CD, reformat the selected partition and install XP on it.
5. Reboot, run Win 7 startup repair tool to restore Windows 7 OS.
6. Install EasyBCD, add entry for WinXP.
7. Reboot and complete WinXP installation.
8. Success!
Guides:
PRONetworks (they censored part of my post. :\)
SevenforumsAPCLifehackerPart 2: Enter Kubuntu
So Windows 7 and Windows XP is done. Kubuntu is next.
I previously wanted to try out Kubuntu from within Windows, so I used WUBI to install it into Windows (as a program) and ran if off there. I want to keep Kubuntu, but I do not want to go through the hassle of reinstalling linux drivers, re-configuring programs, etc. So I see if I can do a migration from WUBI to a dedicated install. Lo and behold, there is a program just for that!
LVPM.
LVPM is a tool to let you transfer your ubuntu WUBI install into a dedicated partition. (Or so they say)
Attempt 1:
Created partition in Windows XP for Kubuntu OS. Still in NTFS, but LVPM will handle it.
Went back to old OS, started Kubuntu, and installed LVPM. Ran LVPM, selected my new created partition (had to use KDE partition manager to get the correct name 1st), and ran the wizard.
Everything seemed to have ran smoothly, so I rebooted back to my new drive.
Success?
Well, sort of, but not really.
Attempt 2:
My Linux install was successfully transferred, BUT....
a. My Windows 7 Boot Manager has been overwritten by Linux GRUB Boot Manager
b. The generated Linux GRUB doesn't work. :\
Luckily the generated Windows entry still can work, so I spent the next few hours reading up on Linux GRUB, and editing the loader to point to the correct hard disk and partition through a terminal.
Command:
sudo gedit /boot/grub/menu.lstI shall spare the gory details, but after editing Kubuntu is able to boot thourgh Linux GRUB
Attempt 2b:
I prefer the Windows Boot Manager, so I tried the EasyBCD NEOGRUB method mentioned in
APCAnd guess what? It doesn't work. :\
Apparently NEOGRUB bootloader cannot read ext3 partition, no this method is no go despite several attempts to revive it.
I created a (Non-NeoGRUB) Linux entry in the Bootloader using EasyBCD. But it couldn't seem to work. After a while I realised that is because the Linux GRUB needs to be installed into the Linux partition rather than the MBR. (Which LVPM "conveniently" did without asking.) So I had to install the Linux GRUB into my Linux partition instead through the following steps.
1. Boot from Kubuntu LiveCD.
2. Open a terminal.
3. Type "sudo grub"
4. Type "find /boot/grub/stage1" Take note of the output. e.g (hd0,2)
1st number is the Hard disk number, 2nd number is the partition number.
This will be used in the next 2 steps.
5. Type "root [output]" e.g "root (hd0,2)"
6. Type "setup [output]" e.g. "setup (hd0,2)"
This will install GRUB into the linux partition.
7. Type "quit" and reboot PC.
Now that Linux GRUB has been installed into its own partition. Reboot into Windows and create a (non-NEOGRUB) Linux entry using EasyBCD, (if you have not done so earlier.)
Next, restore the Windows 7 bootloader using EasyBCD.
1. Choose "Manage Bootloader"
2. Select "Reintsall the Vista Bootloader"
3. Click "Write MBR"
Visual Guide
here After which, when you boot up, you should see a new option in Windows bootloader which starts up the Linux GRUB. From there you can load Kubuntu.
And that is it! Enjoy playing around with multiple OSes. ;)
Current Mood: 
accomplished 
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