[Help/Suggestions] Multi-Booting 7 OS's in one PC

[KREATOR]

Hello guys, I have a somewhat ambitious project. I want to multi-boot 7 operating systems in one PC. I've already multi-booted 4 OS's in my PC. Now I want to multi-boot 7 OS's:

• Windows 7 64-bit
• Windows Vista 64-bit
• Windows XP 64-bit
• Windows Server 2008
• Windows Server 2003
• Windows Server 2000
• Linux Ubuntu 8.04.3 64-bit

I just want to ask if someone knows of any problem running this number of operating systems... I was looking for problems when booting many systems and I didn't find any. So if you have any advice or suggestion please post

 

[yjlasher22]

i'll simply say that what yoiu are doing is pointless. do a triple boot. win 7, ubuntu and windows server. win server 2008,2003 and 2000 should more or less fufil the same things. win 7 can do whatever you want vista and xp to do. there's always xp mode. ubuntu. well, yeah. if you still need other os, use virtualisation.

 

[Rishwin]

Install a new OS on each hard drive individually, then plug them all in and boot up. Magic, you can have as many OS's as you have SATA ports. What's the problem?

Also that will significantly increase boot time.

 

[omen]

If you are going to use separate hard drives, might as well use vmware workstation or virtual box. Faster deployment near native speed and snapshot features will prevent you from trashing entire setup.

 

[KREATOR]

i'll simply say that what yoiu are doing is pointless. do a triple boot. win 7, ubuntu and windows server. win server 2008,2003 and 2000 should more or less fufil the same things. win 7 can do whatever you want vista and xp to do. there's always xp mode. ubuntu. well, yeah. if you still need other os, use virtualisation.

Well its for testing purposes... Some of the server side files I'm planning to use are not fully compatible with some OS's.

Install a new OS on each hard drive individually, then plug them all in and boot up. Magic, you can have as many OS's as you have SATA ports. What's the problem?

Also that will significantly increase boot time.

I booted 4 OS with only 2 partitioned hard drives.. I guess I can get 2 more and partition them to get my 7 OS's working... :
Correct me if its wrong...

If you are going to use separate hard drives, might as well use vmware workstation or virtual box. Faster deployment near native speed and snapshot features will prevent you from trashing entire setup.

I really want to actually boot the OS from a physical PC not from virtual ones thanks for the advice anyway

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I was just wondering if multi booting would damage hardware or something....?

 

[yjlasher22]

1 drive can get you 4 partitions, just that you need the space though

EDIT: four primary partitions.

 

[KREATOR]

yeah... I already have two 500gb hard drives... I think I will get another one so that it remains as filestore drive and the other two (partitioned in 4 parts each) would work for the OS's hard drives.

I think I have forgotten about my PC specs: :

Intel 2Quad Core 2.4ghz
8GB DDR2 RAM
2 x 500gb Seagate HDs
512mb GeForce NVIDIA graphics card


I guess one more hard drive would be enough for 7 OS's right?

 

[omen]

Well its for testing purposes... Some of the server side files I'm planning to use are not fully compatible with some OS's.


I booted 4 OS with only 2 partitioned hard drives.. I guess I can get 2 more and partition them to get my 7 OS's working... :
Correct me if its wrong...



I really want to actually boot the OS from a physical PC not from virtual ones thanks for the advice anyway

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I was just wondering if multi booting would damage hardware or something....?

jesus christ kids are retarded these days..

why in the world would you like to 7boot anything or even dual boot, when there is virtual computing..

please somebody tell me why ???


about hardware damage - unless you use different physical disk for each os, there will be excessive thrashing of hard disks.


kreator - if you ask for help and then ignore when 3 sane people tell you, do something else other than multiboot - you need to go find another hobby like painting, or clay sculpting or pigeon feeding, just not Ducking computing because you are retarded.

 

[KREATOR]

why would it be retarded to boot instead of using virtual pc... yjlasher22 advised me to do a triple boot and Rishwin said: "you can have as many OS's as you have SATA ports. What's the problem?" They are actually posting what I asked for. I dont see them telling me to do something else than multibooting..

I asked for suggestions about multibooting not asking which one is better multibooting or virtual pc

Why multibooting? Here are some good reasons


Quote from

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First things first: why would you even want to multiboot? Here’s a short list
 of the reasons you might consider, starting from the most practical to the most
 outrageous.

1. Data security

Remember the time when you had to get to that important document and Windows simply
 wouldn’t start? It’s times like this that having one more operating system installed
 can be helpful. Thanks to the variety of sizes and shapes in which operating systems
 now come, it is possible to fit a “rescue” operating system in less than a gigabyte
 (at current hard disk capacities that would be less than 1% of your storage space)


2. Software testing

If you’re a software developer, developing for multiple platforms, it would be 
essential to have multiple operating systems installed to test your software on.
 Unfortunately, the number of such multi-platform developers are rather few and far
 between. But having multiple OSes is also helpful if you’re a web developer. Even
 cross-platform browsers like Opera and Firefox are known to render pages slightly
 differently in Linux, BSD and Windows.  To make sure that your pages look good in
 all contexts, it would be a good idea to have different operating systems at the
 ready. (Of course, in this particular case using virtualization might be more
 productive than actually multibooting, [u][b]but that’s a different matter
 altogether.[/b][/u]

3. You want to know what makes your computer tick

Certainly a reason for the more technophilic type, but not a bad one at all. 
Installing and using different operating systems will give you an idea of what makes
 them work individually and how they are different from each other.Of course that is
 only going to happen if you pick the right operating systems and take an active
 interest in learning about what’s going on. not for the faint of heart


4. You’ve got time to kill and nothing better to do

For many of us, that would be all the reason we need.

Tomorrow: Getting the Multibooting tools

I dont like to insult... so I'll just ignore the offensive words ^^

Some more reasons...

Having multiple versions of Windows available can be helpful in many ways for
 home as well for business use. For example, you prefer working with Windows NT 4,
 but other family members prefer Windows 98 and Windows 95. Or maybe you mainly use 
Windows ME but you have a game [u](you wouldn't fully enjoy the game using virtualization)[/u] 
that only runs in Windows 98. 
You could be a software engineer who needs to test some code in different operating systems. 
Perhaps you are a QA tester and need to put an application through its paces in several 
operating systems.

Whatever the reason may be, unless you have multiple PCs and plenty of desk space 
available to you, a computer with a multi-boot environment is the optimal setup. A PC
 with a multi-boot setup allows you to switch between different versions of Windows 
by simply restarting the PC and selecting the desired operating system.

 

[omen]

the article is 3 years old - and if they didnt use virtualization than its their loss.

for any server/development work multiboot is unjustifiable.

 

[Negata]

I don't find a valid reason to do it, either. As for the reasons in the article:

1. Data security

Not a reason for 7 OS's, because a simple live-CD can accomplish this. (Or just a second OS)

2. Software testing

You're not developing for 7 different OS's, and even if you were, even the article states virtualization would be a better choice.

3. You want to know what makes your computer tick

This one kind of applies, but after you've installed and confirmed it to work, that's all the benefit you're going to get. I highly doubt you're about to really study each and every one of the systems.

4. You’ve got time to kill and nothing better to do

This. Go for it. I just find it silly.

 

[KREATOR]

I highly doubt you're about to really study each and every one of the systems.

Well you highly doubt it; nonetheless, I am. I am a computer science student... ^^

 

[omen]

Well you highly doubt it; nonetheless, I am. I am a computer science student... ^^

so a failure then ?


if you havent grasped the concept of efficiency by now no amount of studying is going to help.

 

[KREATOR]

I know that multibooting will decrease efficiency... It is not a problem...

ANyone else has more suggestions?