Dual/Triple Booting?

Hey guys,
So I just today placed my order on a DeLL XPS M1530
basically maxed out minus the 300 dollar extra price tag for the 2.6 processor =]
But I wanted to get an idea of what I need to do in order to dual or triple boot the laptop while using factory settings
I'm really to lazy to reformat it. cause ive had to do that enough with my stupid desktop so i'd like a stable Dual boot at the least
With the option of switching around what the 3rd OS would be
Im curious as to if attempting a triple will cause me to have to reformat alot or if it can be done rather easily
I'd also like to figure out how to split my HDD so that i can have a mutual section of the HDD for all 2/3 OS's to be used to access music and school work
I've tried this with my desktop but it didnt work out
On linux it said i needed a password and on windows it wasnt even there =\
So i guess i just wanna figure everything out before i get the laptop so i can install Linux fast
so i dont have to deal with Vista much
Only for gaming and some school work
I'll prolly use Ubuntu much more than Vista =]
And id also like to test out PCLinux (Thomas's Version of course)
So any tips or walkthroughs or anything that can help me out will be greatly appreciated
thanks guys!

 

Doing what you're wanting to do (without reformatting the OS that comes with it [Vista], is going to be alot more work than just reformatting. It'd take you less time and it'd be cleaner if you just reformatted.

That being said, you didn't say what the other OS would be. It does matter and I'm not sure about the changing what OS is the 3rd one randomly. See My signature. I have XP Pro, Vista Ultimate x64, and Ubuntu installed, but at no time to I expect to be able to re-install any of the Windows OS's without causing me some pretty good trouble. I always keep my OS's pretty clean for the most part so I dont run into alot of junk/malware/spyware/etc.... and I do not need to reload my OS hardly ever. In fact, the only reason I do reload my OS except for right when I get it, is to simply see what I can and can't do (like triple-booting it). Someone else in another thread asked about Server 2003, so this weekend I'm going to try. We'll see how my system likes XP, 2003, Vista, and Ubuntu.

Out of curiousity, what specs did you get. Except for the Solid State drive and the 2.6ghz CPU, yeah.. mines pretty much loaded to the gills. I also didn't opt for the Wireless USB card as that technology is too new to bother adopting yet. ;-)

 

Third would be a random linux that i feel like i enjoyed using after testing the live CD version
first one would be PCLinux White =]

My XPS has teh 2.5, is black, 4 gigs, 320 HDD, extreme hidef audio card, Intel Wireless card, 8600m GT, normal disc drive, and a 6 cell battery
so i guess not fully maxed out but close enough for me to be really happy =]

 

Do it like this, vista is preinstalled, install ubuntu, install my distro (allthough, you may want to wait, I'm thinking of moving to a PCLOS 2007 base, with KDE).
Everything should be easy to get, but you'll have to have the nVidia driver.

 

If your laptop comes with one huge partition and Vista installed, the partition is going to be NTFS-formatted. You can't install Linux on an NTFS file system, it needs its own, like Ext3, or Reiser. And since only one file system type is allowed per partition, and you only have 1 of them (drive C , you can't install Linux without repartitioning and reformatting. (Well technically there are ways, but those are a LOT tougher than a simple reformat.)

Anyway, I'm pretty sure Ubuntu's Installer could take care of this though, without ruining your Windows, too. Get the latest Ubuntu Live CD, boot it, choose the Install To HDD option, and follow instructions. I think the built-in partitioner will let you keep Windows and will create a new partition for Linux.

 

It will, and it works great, and I know he has installed linux before, so I trust him

 

Yeah i have installed linux like 10 times now =]
so im not a complete idiot
but what type of partition do i make that all 2 or all 3 os's will be able to access for music and schoolwork?

 

NTFS or FAT32 will both work fine. FAT32 is pretty old and fragile though, and can't hold files larger than 2GB in size (DVD ISOs can't be kept on FAT32.)

Use NTFS. Thank God Linux can write flawlessly to NTFS these days.

 

Yes, it's easiest to set aside a partition in Vista for linux to go on, then during the Linux install format it to EXT3 (for compatibility, Hans Reiser is in the Slam on Murder One charges ATM and may be taking a stroll to old sparky)

 

basically shrink the vista partition in computer management. then create 2 new partitions with any format you want. get the 2 linux iso's ready and install them one after the other- u only need to install the boot loader for the last one u install. follow this guide to make your vista partition readable in linux:
http://www.debianadmin.com/mount-your-widows-partitions-and-make-it-readwritable-in-ubuntu.html
and use this tool to make your linux file systems readable in windows:
Explore2fs
hope this helped

 

jisaac, does explore2fs work with reiser or ext3?

 

Ext3 I think.

 

I just split my main HDD (200 GB for Vista, 100 GB for Ubuntu) and then used my 2nd HDD as the media, iso, documents drive for both OS's.

Since you have 1 320 GB drive I would reccomend

120 GB for Vista, 40 GB for 1st Linux, 40 GB for 2nd Linux and the last 100 GB for Media