OS Install order (XP, 7, Mint/Ubuntu)

Just running this by you guys to make sure my logic is sound.. I'm doing this when I get my laptop in a few months.. I tend to plan ahead a bit

5 partitions..


Step 1 - Install XP, partition uno (NTFS).. (I assume XP would freak out if it ran into a 7 install)

Step 2 - Install 7, partition 2 (NTFS) (Assuming again that 7 will install a boot loader capable of booting both 7/XP)

Step 3 - Install Mint OS to / - partition 3 (ext4), /home to partition 4 (ext4) and partition 5 for swap. GRUB will overwrite the 7 bootloader, and I can configure it for the existing XP / 7 partitions...

Did I miss anything, or has anyone else done this and maybe it doesn't really matter in what order I install?

Thanks..!

 

yes that sounds about right. make sure you install xp first, as if you install it later, it won't recognize its install partition as "C:" which can cause problems for you in the long run.

 

Thanks man! I thought about it for a bit and I couldn't come up with any other way that made sense, just thought I'd run it past some people. Thanks!

 

I'd make one extra partition for personal data that is used in all OS's; docs, music, pics, movies etc.
You can make it an NTFS partition which will work flawless with Mint/linux.
Whenever you decide to remove or replace OS's, the personal data partition can be left untouched.

 

So why are you installing XP again? I get XP + Vista, but why XP + 7?

 

Development testing.. I'll be coding and testing mainly in 7, but need to verify backwards compatibility to XP.

 

Thanks, that's what I'm doing for Linux, and mounting a separate ext4 partition to /home, but as far as Windows data I store most of it on my 1tb usb drive to move between computers.

 

Yes...been there.