Dual boot/Triple boot/Quad Boot

[old_swede_dave]

i'd suggest starting a separate thread and linking it to the info you have given here

Thanks for the god advice. Iam going to do that.

after a quick glance, looks to me like the way to go, or easiest is install xp first, then 7 followed by mint,

just guessing tho without specifics or other possible unknown factors that may be relevant

easiest in terms of possible to accomplish without learning you mean?

You couldnt know, but for me it is not easy much less easily acceptable to rebuild two established OS. If it was for the fun of exploring systems only, ok, but i actually use this things for getting (some) things done. So, reestablishing two atm fully opperational systems to get a third running does not look like the lazy way to me...

there may also be a quick fix to your current setup

i really hope to find it, even though it would not need to bee too quick either
I still think there is some sollution. Might try and use grub instead of grub2. The documentation seems to be much better.

[jonyo]

So, reestablishing two atm fully opperational systems to get a third running does not look like the lazy way to me...

aah, now i'm clear on the 'what' part, or what is relevant, as i understand it, the main issue with what you have is getting mint to boot up with the rest, without resorting supergrub, as one solution

very important to start out establishing the issue(s), one of the probs with linux can be that there are typically many options in terms of the 'how' to go about it, from the initial plan, to fixing something somewhere in between

one of the probs with installing xp after later vers of win's already installed, is that it automatically loads its own (or xp) mbr, and wipes out whatever was there prior, and won't then boot into the newer stuff without some fixing

whereas when xp is installed first, you can then install vista or 7 with no (new) boot issues,

then you can have stuff out there that is well established , then grub 2 can come into the picture

i've not used grub2, and not sure at this point how you could easily get xp booting up with what you have,

doesn't sound like a huge issue tho, as 2 systems are booting fine,

i don't try new stuff on or unless important things are fully backed up first

("cannot find ang0/neogrub/autoneogrub on all drives")

sounds like maybe neogrub needs to be on the second drive as far as the easybcd setup goes..

they could prob sort it out quick and good bet there is a grub option/solution also that folks here could sort out

[old_swede_dave]

i've not used grub2, and not sure at this point how you could easily get xp booting up with what you have

I managed to solve the issue by still using grub2 and without having to touch the working OSs win7 on sda1 and Mint11 on sda5.

I finally realized, that the error must be in the xp system, so i tried booting it as single OS by unplugging the first hd.
With same "missing Bootmgr....." message as before.

What i did:
- I kept the first hd unplugged and did a clean xp install on the remaining hds first primary partition which i recreated before install.
- plugged my first hd in again and, booting to Mint i run

sudo update-grub

- became very satisfied when realising that grub2 finally could detect xp on sdb1 during os-probe.

That was it! I now have all three OSs in the grub2 menu. I dont now what to say except thank you jonyo for encouraging me and sorry ooleyguy for entering your thread in this bad-manner-way.

I feel unsure about making this issue a new thread though. Think it could be helpful, but it might as well be confusing... If someone forum-experienced reads this and feels for it: please go ahead and make it so (or contact me if i am the one who has to do it... see i'm green for two, hehe)