Setting up a triple-boot from scratch - Win7, Win8 and Ubuntu

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I'm getting a replacement laptop tomorrow so I get to set it up from scratch. I want to triple-boot Win7, Win8 and Ubuntu (all 64-bit) and I can see several answers about this already, but I was wondering what the best install order is. I'm assuming it will be:

  1. Windows 7
  2. Windows 8
  3. Ubuntu 12.10

Has anyone tried this? Any reason I should change the order?

The other option would be to run Windows 8 from a VHD (see Scott Hanselman's blog post) but now it's been released I don't see much advantage to this.

Update: I tried this but ran into problems because MBR only supports a maximum of 4 primary partitions. If you're worried about this convert the drive to GPT before installing Windows 7.

parsley72

Posted 2012-10-16T19:38:39.407

Reputation: 940

2actually, mbr supports 4 primary partitions. You can format one as an extended, and nest as many logical partitions as needed inside it. – Journeyman Geek – 2012-10-22T01:23:21.033

Fair point, but unfortunately my laptop already has 4 primary partitions: Win7, Win8, HP_TOOLS (FAT32, 5GB) and System Reserved (100MB, NTFS). I don't think I can convert any of these. – parsley72 – 2012-10-22T01:31:34.173

Answers

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Yes, if it comes with Windows 7, then install Windows 8, which will update your boot loader to allow you to access both partitions. Then install Ubuntu which will create a new boot loader with the ability to select Windows 8 or Earlier version of Windows (Or something close). I did this on my EEE pc and it worked fine (except XP instead of 7, but that should work fine).

Now, a warning. NEVER, install ubuntu before Windows 8, if you install Windows 8 after Ubuntu it will change the boot loader and will only allow you to boot to Windows 7 and 8. You will have to reinstall the grub on Ubuntu in order to access it.

Josiah

Posted 2012-10-16T19:38:39.407

Reputation: 1 674

Asked: 2012-10-16T19:38:39.407

Viewed: 623 times

Active: 2014-01-04T00:25:08.377