Multiple Operating System Setup

“What now?” you may ask. “I want more than two OSes on my computer. It’s so cool!”. So how does one go about installing multiple (more than 2) OSes on 1 computer? With a 3rd party boot manager. I will be covering two boot managers in this next tutorial: V-Com’s System Commander 7™ and XOSL.

*IMPORTANT NOTE: It is possible to multi-boot with the Windows boot manager, however, you are greatly limited. You have to install in this order: DOS, Win9X/ME, Win 2000, Win XP. In other words, oldest OS to newest OS. And It is IMPOSSIBLE to install multiple copies of 9X/ME with the Windows boot manager. Refer to the Microsoft website for details.

First off, let me state that System Commander does cost a little bit, and XOSL is free. However, System Commander 7 comes with powerful tools to partition, move, delete, and copy partitions. XOSL does not. With XOSL, you pretty much have to have the partitions all laid out ahead of time. With System Commander, you can add partitions and OSes any time you want. The first part of this tutorial will cover the process of adding a new OS to an existing, single OS configuration using System Commander 7, followed by a quick XOSL installation guide.

If you’re like me, you get bored easily. You like your beer cold, and you like something different once in a while. Or, you may just want even MORE options when it comes to an OS. Let’s think about this logically. Most hard drives manufactured today are at least 20GB. Keeping that in mind, you could be running Windows 98, Windows ME, Windows 2000, and Windows XP all on one machine with only a small percentage of your drive (less than 15% with all 4 of the aforementioned OSes) actually being used by these OSes. Are you tired of formatting every year or twice a year? How about having a major system crash and not being able to back up years of data? Have no fear, System Commander 7 is here!

* IMPORTANT NOTE: The following tutorial is based upon 1 existing OS installed under 1 partition. The supported OSes are DOS, Novell, Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows 98SE, Windows ME, Windows 2000, Windows XP (Home and Pro), and any other OSes V-Com states in their compatible list. You should always backup important data before attempting a second OS install. While occurrences of failure are rare, backing up is a smart thing to do regularly.

* IMPORTANT NOTE: V-com had an update at the time this article was written, 7.03. If you want, you can download the maintenance release, and the VUI Graphic Files and follow their installation instructions. The following tutorial utilized the original 7.01 version.

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Botdra Lar’les
Hey, thanks for this great little guide.
I’m looking into running Vista and XP on a single computer, would that be possible? Also, what amount of space would it take up having two different OS’s? And lastly, will both OS’s use the same hardrive so I can save one type of file on XP and then access it later on Vista?

E. Williamson
I learned this on my A+ course for which I’m studying at the moment.
I used Partition magic to partition 50G of my 165G hard drive, then booted from an XP install disk and installed it on the new partition. I then rebooted with my Vista recovery disk in my DVD Rom and run the Repair function to repair boot up. I removed Vista disk and let my machine boot up Vista, then I downloaded and installed Easy BCD which allowed me to add my new operating system to the boot order.
Now when I turn on my machine I get the choice to boot up in Vista or XP. Am now trying to sort out a couple of devices that as yet are not working on XP, but hey its all part of learning!

Rick
I have the same problem with XP not working properly on a machine built for Vista. I have figured out that the sound card won’t install on XP and the video card doesnt work properly. The window leaves a trail behind it when moved and the pages wont scroll down smoothly. I don’t want to download and install the driver because i am scared that doing that will ruin the audio for Vista which all of my files are on, all of my music, and i use alot more than i would with XP. Also some other things like the controller BUS wont install correctly. I was also missing tons of dll files. But the thing is, is that I’m not running XP and Vista on the same HD. I’m running them on seperate HD’s. What do you think i should do? Thanks.

Petre
I want to install two OS’s, XP2 and Solaris, what is the way?
Best Regards,
Petre
MP
I’d like to install both Windows Vista OS (Microsoft), and OS-X (Apple) on my laptop. I already have Windows Vista. I know you need to “partition” the hard drive. No idea how that’s done. Ive seen people mention installing Windows 98, and XP in one computer…. or XP with Vista….. or Vista with 98, or 95 etc. etc, but I don’t need any of that.
How do I get Windows Vista and OS-X installed on one laptop? It would be helpfull because some programmes run only on OS-X, and not in any Windows, such as “Logic Studio 9″ in particular. Id rather just partition my hard drive and all that, than spend something like £1000 on a new laptop again.
Thanks

Moshean 11
dude thats so easy.I have XP and Fedora 8 on one HDD. just DOWNLOAD a software called partition magic and then partition your hard drive. install the second OS in another partition. After the restart you have OS CHOICES menu to choose from. Good LUCK

doug strande
hi I hav a apple lap top someone put a pc os on my computer now my computer does’nt work how can i fix it
Naim
hi ..thanx for the great tutorial.. could anyone help me with the information i would like to ask …that is … could i use Windows Vista 32bit edition and 64 bit edition in the same hard drive of my laptop without partitioning it?? what sort of problems would i face? i have a 32 bit vista installed in my laptop… could i install another 64 bit edition windows XP also?
Vinh
Hi. I recently bought a computer and installed windows XP Professional SP3 on it. Now i also want to install windows 7. i partitioned my 500GB WD Caviar Blue into two volumes each approx 250G. How would i go about installing windows 7 on the 2nd volume? do i just boot it up like i did with the XP? or do i need to do something extra? because i tried booting the windows 7 disk and errors keep on occurring. i also enable virtual machine on my BIOS.

Moshean 11
For cautions’ sake make another 3rd partition. Install the second OS in that partition. Restart the comp. Then you have OS choices menu to choose which os to boot from. then u r home and try. Enjoy

Dan Hobbs
I installed Windows Xp on my second partition after installing Windows 7 on Drive C (1st part)
I get the os boot menu with options for Win 7 or XP. Win 7 boots fine. XP will not boot says that a file is missing
/ntldr How do I get the system to see it?

samad kay
Would it be okay to install the Mac OS on my 2nd hard drive in my laptop? and also how many gb will the OS require?
andrey
Lol this is piece of cake for me.1 terra hard drive,no sweat.
jai
I recently forgot my password for my user logon, stupidly i installed vista again on my hard drive which is insanely low. Ive remembered my password for my first vista and want to delete the other vista, how do i go about that?
Brandon
hi, im running windows 7 now, and i want to put a second os on my computer. can i have both windows 7 and linux Ubuntu 9.04 on my computer?
tshown
its possible just have enough disk space and memory to run the 2 operating systems as well partition the harddisk.
Icatkh
I have win 7 on my laptop have my old HD as an exterrnal HD, I want to install win XP on it so I can restore my old data off my other external HD with back up. Back up was done in Perfect Image and can only be restored in original OS (XP pro) My old laptop motherboard crashed. HD was not able to reboot so it was reformatted. now if I load xp on old HD and restore it I will use it as a 2nd HD and OS. ???????