how many OS can be loaded on single partioning on hard disk 1

[mandar1607]

i just want to load 4 os on my xp operating system with only one partioning drive....how to do that

 

[smah]

You'll need to use some virtualization software like VirtualPC or VMware

 

[mandar1607]

without using virtualization is that possible on windows xp ?

 

[G0AOZ]

Which operating systems are you wanting to put all on the same drive?

You've said you only want one partition, but it would be easy if you partitioned the drive into four...

ROGER - G0AOZ.

 

[smah]

Not really....... but, you haven't specified with OS's you want to use. There are really only 2 choices* for installed OS's: vitualization or multiboot.

Additionally, you keep referring to Windows XP. If you intend to multi-boot different OS's (without virtualization), then the existing XP doesn't matter. If you are trying to mult-boot, is there a reason that you don't want to use multiple partitions?

[small]*There are some other possibilities: OS's that are not permanantly installed, commonly known as Live CD's, most of which are linux based. And there is one linux OS (Ubuntu) which includes wubi, which isn't really a Virtual Machine and could probably be used with other linux distros.[/small]

 

[BadBigBen]

Smah - what about a parallel installation, or is that also considered multiboot?

Ben
"If it works don't fix it! If it doesn't use a sledgehammer..."
How to ask a question, when posting them to a professional forum.
Only ask questions with yes/no answers if you want "yes" or "no"

 

[Lemon13]

http://www.damnsmalllinux.org/index_de.html

M. Knorr

MCSE, MCTS, MCSA, CCNA

 

[mandar1607]

i want to install windows server 2003 ,xp media center edition windows 2008 and vista ,but as i have compar8530 laptop it has only one drive and cant partition it.

 

[ll60630]

As long as you have enough disk space I think you should be able to install them. Just make sure you install the oldest OS first and install the newest last that way the newest OS installs its boot loader and recognizes the older OS's.

Jeff
_______________________________________
Visual SourceSafe | IBM Rational ClearQuest | Hardware

 

[mandar1607]

could you plz sent me step by step giude for that

 

[BadBigBen]

i want to install windows server 2003 ,xp media center edition windows 2008 and vista

Requirements on minimal HDD partition size:

W2k3 - 5 GB of available hard disk space

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/829711

XPMC - At least 1.5 gigabytes (GB) of available space on the hard disk

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/314865

W2k8 R2 - 32 GB or greater

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsserver2008/en/us/system-requirements.aspx

Vista - 40-GB hard disk that has 15 GB of free hard disk space

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/919183

Those are the MINIMUM disk sizes, which means that you can not do ANYTHING besides installing and basic stuff (nothing fancy)...

and as to not being able to partition the drive, that can be accomplished with the XP SETUP... alternatively you always could use GPARTED from the PartedMagic Live CD...



Ben
"If it works don't fix it! If it doesn't use a sledgehammer..."
How to ask a question, when posting them to a professional forum.
Only ask questions with yes/no answers if you want "yes" or "no"

 

[smah]

BadBigBen, Yes parallel installs can be done as long as the OS's are all Windows-based or all linux-based (which we didn't know initially) but I still would strongly recommend against it for Windows because when something goes wrong with one OS, it has a way of affecting the others, especially when the systemroots of such a configuration are likely to be named C:\Windows, C:\Windows1, C:\Windows2, etc. Windows applications are better than they used to be, but I would still worry about apps that try to access c:\windows when they should be accessing %SystemRoot%. Multiple partitions is far safer.

mandar1607, why do you think that you can not resize the existing partition? There are many tools available to do just that (as BadBigBen posted). A single physical drive can have many partitions. However, be very careful if your system has a hidden recovery partition - resizing partitions might affect your ability to restore in an emergency.

Will your system boot from an external USB drive? This might be the best and safest solution. You could add multiple partitions on a large external USB drive with the additional operating systems you could ever want. I haven't tried this setup, but I bet it would work fine. The only additional piece that might be needed would be a third-party boot manager.

 

[smah]

I forgot to add to BadBigBen that yes, I would still call parrallel installs in that all Windows scenario 'multiboot' because each OS would have an entry in the bootloader and only 1 would be running at a given time.

 

[smah]

One further thought (I wish we could edit)....

Rather than 'all Windows-based' or 'all Linux-based', I should have said 'all using the same filesystem' which is actually more accurate and better defines the limitation of parallel installations.

 

[ll60630]

With all Windows based installs, you need to make sure each OS is installed in its own directory as well. You can't make them all C:\Windows

Jeff
_______________________________________
Visual SourceSafe | IBM Rational ClearQuest | Hardware

 

[BadBigBen]

ll60630 - not quite, that only applies if they all reside on the same drive and same partition...

e.g. I have one PC, that is multibooted to four (4) OS, three of which are Windows (XP Prof., Vista Ultimate, and W7 Ultimate RTM) and all of the windows installs are to "C:/Windows" (and they are not all on different drives, but different partitions)...


Smah - forgot to say thanks for the clear up there, about the parallel install, though I already knew the answer as soon as I hit the "Submit Post" button...

Ben
"If it works don't fix it! If it doesn't use a sledgehammer..."
How to ask a question, when posting them to a professional forum.
Only ask questions with yes/no answers if you want "yes" or "no"

 

[ll60630]

Very true BigBadBen. mandar1607 did say he wanted to install on one partitioned drive.

Jeff
_______________________________________
Visual SourceSafe | IBM Rational ClearQuest | Hardware

 

[mandar1607]

you meean to say on one drive only i continue installing all os but my concern when i install new os it format all drive first then start with installation ......

 

[wolluf]

mandar1607 - why you'd want to put those 4 o/s on a laptop I don't know - but you have been given enough information above. However, to recap. You need to install the o/s from oldest to newest. Also, personally I would create 4 primary partitions, so after installing first o/s (XPMC) onto single partition created during the install process, I would then create 3 more primary partitions using XP's disk management. Then install 2k3 into partition 2, vista into 3 and 2k8 into 4. Each install should create a boot menu for it and the previous install(s), so at the end you should have menu for all 4. This presumes (as mentioned above) you have large enough drive to create 4 partitions each with sufficient space for its own o/s. This process will wipe all existing stuff off the laptop, so obviously if necessary you should back you stuff up and I'd also make sure I had complete set of drivers available for each o/s.

smah mentioned virtualisation - you would IMO be much better served running XP on the laptop and using virtual PC (or VMWARE or whatever) to create virtual instances of the other o/s. But you haven't said why you want to do this, so I can't really comment sensibly.

 

[gbaughma]

it has only one drive and cant partition

Ummm... why can't you partition?


Just my 2¢

"What the captain doesn't realize is that we've secretly replaced his Dilithium Crystals with new Folger's Crystals."

--Greg

http://parallel.tzo.com