Advice on Multiboot install of WinXP, SUSE and Xandros

[snjbrian]

I am a Linux noob.

I have Windows XP installed. I use Acronis Disk Director 9 to manage my multiboot systems and Acronis True Image for image backups to protect the OSes.

I had XP running fine. I installed Xandros 3 Business Edition successfully, then installed Suse 9.3. After I installed Suse 9.3, I cannot get Xandros to boot.

I have XP on a 40GB primary partition, Xandros on a 20GB Primary partition and Suse on a 25GB partition with a 1GB SWAP partition.

I was going to install each fully into it's own partition but I got a little creative with Suse after reading some tips and tricks.

I don't think I need to divide a Linux install onto different partitions for protection since I am using Acronis True Image for Linux. I imagine each on it's own Primary partition would be fine. Plus I am trying to learn Linux so I don't care about tweaking things out yet.

I don't understand what went wrong and why Xandros cannot boot. I have decided to just reinstall Xandros and Suse to their own individual partitions. Nothing fancy.

Is this recommended and will this prevent Suse and Xandros from interferring with eachother?

[sdousley]

What i did to get to my current setup (Gentoo/SuSE/Win2K):

Initially i had Win 2K installed, and eventually got the Dual-boot working with SuSE. Had this for numerous years, then decided to tri-boot with gentoo.

In order to do this, i installed gentoo, but DIDN'T install a boot loader eg grub or lilo.

Then this gave me a successful install of Win 2K/SuSE/Gentoo.

However, gentoo wouldn't boot from Grub, because i hadn't configured it, so i booted SuSE, and added the relevent code to boot gentoo and hey presto, tri-boot system

[budman7]

snjbrian, I have never worked with Acronis before. But, should'nt you just be able to reinstall the Acronis program and put the 3 entries that you need back in.

[cheetahman]

Try and see if my tutorial works

Here is the tutorial I made with the info I got from budman7

How to Triboot a Computer with Windows XP,Fedora Core and SuSE

Things to do Before You Start

Backup Computer
Run Defraging tools
Scan for Spyware
Scan for Viruses

2 and 3 are for Windows users who are resizeing it if you are resizing a Linux partition you can ignore these.

Download A Copy of Slax

This is very important because this is what we are going to use to Triboot.

Here is the site you can get it from incase you don't have it

http://slax.linux-live.org/download.php

Then download the basic one

Additional software for SLAX is provided in the form of compressed modules. The usage is very simple, just add your downloaded module to /modules/ directory on the CD to include it in SLAX permanently, or use "uselivemod" command in SLAX to activate the module on the fly, while running SLAX.

Download these modules and follow the instructions above or If you are a windows user download MySLAX Creator at

http://myslax.bonsonno.org/download.php

Ntfsprogs-http://slax.linux-live.org/modules.php?id=284 
QTParted-http://slax.linux-live.org/modules.php?id=298

Step 1:Bootup the Custom Slax Cd you have made make sure the computer can bootup the cd first before the hardrive this can be changed in the bios of the computer

Step 2:Once you have logged into Slax you must now Unmount all partitions by going into My Computer and you will se all of the drives you must now right click one it will give you an option to unmount it

You must do this for all of the drives or else the computer can't be partitioned

Step 3:Click on the KDE logo then go to run application and type qtparted in lowercase then hit run

Step 4:This will startup QTparted,now you must choose which program you want QTParted to use for resizing ntfs this guide uses ntfsprogs

Step 5:Now we begin the process of resizeing the hard drive

1.Select the /dev/hda for IDE or /dev/sda for a SCSI drive on the left, then you should see its info on the right

2.Select the Windows partition and right-click on it, then select Resize.

3.Next you'll see the Resize Partition dialog.

4.Enter the size you want for your existing Windows XP partition and click OK.

This can be done in Gigabytes or Megabytes

5.After clicking OK you'll see an updated view of your partitions. Note that nothing has actually changed yet; you must select File then Commit to apply the changes.

6.Just click Yes on the confirmation dialog.

7.You'll see the progress dialog and when it's done click the OK button

8.Now Select File then Quit to exit QTParted

9.You should now boot into Windows XP it will then detect the partition that you have made.

Now boot back into QTParted the way you did before and Delete Fedora Core and the Swap Partition by right clicking it and hitting delete

Now you should have Windows and a bunch of free space.

Step 6:Out of the free space create 2 partitions.

Both Should be Unformatted

1 Partition for SuSE
1 Partiition for Fedora Core

Unformatted means that no file system is currently on it.

A file system is on it whenever you install an Operating System to it.

Some examples of filesystems include

Windows
NTFS
FAT

Linux
Ext2
Ext3
ReiserFS

Step 7:Now Install Fedora Core by Booting the install cd as if you were going to boot Slax

Step 8:Install Suse 9.3 using swap already created from installing Fedora Core and putting Grub on the MBR

Grub can be put anywhere but for this tutorial we are going to be put on the MBR so SuSE becomes the bootloader.

Suse should make an entry in GRUB for both Windows and Fedora Core.

The computer should now be restarted I you will be shown the SuSE Grub Bootloader which contains Windows,SuSE and Fedora Core.

The computer can now Triboot

Make sure you don't put Swap for SuSE on the partition where you are going to install SuSE to. By default SuSE should make a Swap partition or detect a Swap that is on the computer and mount it.

For Installing new linux distros install to the partition so SuSE Grub doesn't get overwritten

A Big Thanks to budman7 for supplying the info and if you want a picture guide of using QTparted this site is very good even though its mainly used for Ubuntu but can work on any distro.
http://ca.geocities.com/zachandloric...windowsxp.html