How? GPT GUID Partitions Multi OS: Clone, Move, Resize, Boot

How? GPT GUID Partitions Multi OS: Clone, Move, Resize, Boot

Machine: X61T

CURRENT:

PRIMARY HDD: 100 GB 7200 rpm - Win 7 64 bit - Primary OS

SECONDARY HDD: Experimental Multi-Boot Scenarios

I want to try out other OS and some Linux options.
Once I get more familiar, comfy and enjoy working on them, I want to integrate into a single HDD.

FUTURE:

SINGLE HDD: 750GB 7200 RPM

I want to be able to CLONE the WORKING OSes from the above mentioned HDDs INTO a single HDD.

I would definitely be going with a GPT/GUID multi partition scenario.

Also, I have access to multiple Partition Management tools: Acronis, Paragon, Easus etc. Server/ Enterprise Editions of several of them.

I also have several such tools for the other OS

LIMITATIONS & SCENARIOS:

I know all the above tools wont do all the things I may want to do in terms of
- Cloning certain types of Partitions
- Resizing / Moving them

e.g. I may begin to start using other OS a lot more and hence want more SPACE for it and decide to increase its PARTITION SPACE..
e.g. Maybe have a SL and a Lion partition share a singular HFS DATA partition?
Stuff like that.

- Booting them.. without issues

But I know the individual tools by themselves can do several of them.

WHAT I NEED:
- What I need is to ensure that I understand, how the Partitions are STORED
- How Boot Managers such as Chameleon work in Multi OS Boot Scenarios and..

- How one can force Chameleon (and/or another Multi-OS Boot Manager) to "refresh" and boot OSes, once their Partitions have been rehashed - moved, cloned etc on the MAIN INTEGRATED GPT/GUID Disk?

- How & where can I go to read and understand this stuff as I play with it on the SECONDARY HARD DISK -
- BEFORE MOVING TO THE INTEGRATED BIG DISK PROJECT.

PAST EXPERIENCE:
I've done Partition Manipulation and Multi Boot in the good old days of Parition Magic, Norton Ghost and System Commander (Boot Manager) when I've run these off 3.5" Bootable FDDs all running on shining new Pentium 1/2 processor.

The good old day of Master Boot Recrods (MBRs), Primary/Secondary HDDs, Logical/ Extended Partitions etc.

 

In terms of what you want to do with your partitions, gparted on an ubuntu livecd or liveusb will copy and resize your partitions.

If you want to move a windows installation by file transfer (instead of the entire partition), all you need to do is mount the drive on another host OS and copy the folders. Then on the target disk, boot with a windows install CD and do a boot repair. From there you can add any bootloader you want.

If you want to copy a linux install via file transfer, you just need to use cp -av source-dir/ target-dir/ or rsync -av --progress source-dir/ target-dir/

I have done this countless times when moving installations between partitions or drives. In each scenario you just need to reinstall your bootloader, whether that's running a grub-install /dev/hdX command followed by update-grub from a livecd or whatever other bootloader you want. I rarely bother to image a partition unless I have a very good reason for needing one - such as creating a full backup for a machine. These days the only things I bother to image are recovery partitions and factory windows installs.