Installing more than 4 os

I just bought a new 500gb Seagate hard disk and would like to install more than 4 operating systems (would like to study these operating systems and see which is the best among them for my needs).

I would like to keep my windows xp sp2 as the master boot while keeping the other os as secondary,which includes Linux,open bsd,windows server 2003 and 2008 and some modded versions of xp like micro and tiny xp for games.

As xp does not allow more than 4 partitions how can i get around this restriction and install these operating system without any problems.
How am I supposed to keep the boot order.Do I have to use some kind of boot manager.If yes then which is the best for a person who has always been on windows system for long time.

I don't want these operating systems in virtual environment,so virtual machines are out of the question (don't have enough ram,I have seen my virtual machines as well as the system lag,begging for extra memory,am planning to buy it but it would take some time)

This is the first time I am going for a multi booting system.I hope the Gurus here would shed some light on the matter.Thanks in advance

 

devaj,

You can have 200 OS if you want.

Basically there are two ways to do this. Install 3 OS in primary partitions and the rest in logical volumes inside an Extended Partition. Or use BING to allow more than 4 primary partitions and install all OS in primary partitions. I prefer the latter method as it's much easier.

This web site describes the first method.

http://www.goodells.net/multiboot/index.htm

This is the BING site.

http://www.terabyteunlimited.com/bootit-next-generation-ss.htm

 

IMHO you would be better off buying several second hand drives in the 20-40 gig range and installing each op sys in their own drives that you plug/unplug as needed.

 

Yep, I took this approach and have had different OS's on separate drives. Keeps things clean, and it's easy to choose the boot drive from BIOS etc. If more than 2 are desired then like you say, plug and unplug as needed.... It's a slight hassle, but it does keep each OS clean as far as bootloaders and so on.

 

Kerodo,

Multiple HDs become impractical when you have 15 bootable partitions, as I have. The BING boot manager is installed in an 8 MB FAT partition and is quite separate from the independent OS. Being independent, OS can be deleted or added at will without affecting the remainder. It really is a simple setup.

 

Ok, sounds cool... Does it handle Linux as well? I would assume it does....

 

Thank you all for replying especially Brian K,never thought of get this many replies.Brian K even I would like to know whether installing linux and unix poses some problem on BING or do you have to tweak the the system files.(I am off to work would be back after 10 hrs.)

 

If this is it: http://www.terabyteunlimited.com/bootit-next-generation.htm

Then it would appear that it's Win only. No Linux. They do appear to also make a Linux imaging app as well. I didn't read much, but perhaps Brian K has more on this..

 

Sorry, that's not quite right...do a little search within the KB
for starters: http://www.terabyteunlimited.com/kb/category.php?id=20

The power and useability of the Terabyte tools is as suggested "unlimited".
I think I had 3 Xp installs and 5 Linux installs.
Problem for me was I sort of kept losing track of where I was while I was distro experimenting and moved to VMWare to learn not withstanding some of the limitations of the VMs.

This will make your hair curl:
http://www.justlinux.com/forum/showthread.php?threadid=147959

Whilke I regard BING as a great tool: there are some other options:
GAG
http://gag.sourceforge.net/

 

I don't use Linux but BING does support booting Linux partitions. My Linux exposure is using Image for Linux, booting from the HD. See the Boot Menu in this page. It included Linux ...

http://www.terabyteunlimited.com/bootit-next-generation-ss.htm

The TeraByte BING Newsgroup has a few keen Linux users if you would like to ask some questions.

http://www.terabyteunlimited.com/webnews.htm

 

PS: BrianK is a genuine Terabyte guru:
A quick caveat:
When you investigate Terabyte you WILL want some of their goodies :

The Versions 2.+ of IFW imaging utilities are not backwards compatible with BING v1.+ imaging, and as a corollary: BING v1.+ images are not forward compatible with the IFW v2.+

BING v1.+ will do imaging, boot mgt, partition mgt/formating/resizing on its' own and is fully compatible with IFW v1.+ (but v2.+ of IFW has extra some extra functions.)

 

Ok, I stand corrected, thanks Longboard.....

 

Hello,
The only limitations you might have are that certain OSs do not like being installed on non-primary partitions.

So I suggest:

XP and Windows flavors first, XP on primary, others into extended if possible.
OpenBSD next.
Linux flavors.

Mrk

 

Thank you for your time and support,however I would also like to have your take on free boot managers that could help me on my exploration.

 

Thank you for GAG.I would be much obliged if you could share some of your experience on using other boot managers,preferably free ones.I did check the GAG site but failed to find any documentations regarding the use of this application.How are you supposed to go about installing more than one os using this utility.Any information would be appreciated.

 

If your gonna work with Vista and like to boot into Linux, Mac OS X or BSD etc. take a look at EasyBCD

http://neosmart.net/dl.php?id=1


Bing. Ofcourse !

Nice one !

 

I know not free, but:The terabyte tools are good value for what you get.

Some useful links:
http://sourceforge.net/forum/?group_id=67836
http://users.bigpond.net.au/hermanzone/p12.htm

Could check here: Some apps I haven't tried
http://www.osloader.com/
http://www.zbmsoft.com/

Useful list:
http://www.thefreecountry.com/utilities/multi-boot-managers.shtml
scroll down

HAve to go to work just now: more later

 

Thank you for all the links,gave me quite an idea about the working of gag.Some of the people have had problems with gag,have you ever faced any problems with it.I would also like to know if you have ever used grub or lilo,have heard they are quiet hard to configure.I am seriously thinking about BING,but would like to explore some available option before I go for the kill.Once again thank you for your time and support.

 

devaj,

I guess you know there is a one month trial period with BING and other TeraByte products. Certainly long enough to see if it suits you.

I haven't used GAG.