I have Windows 7 and Xp, and also want ubuntu. All on seperate hd's.

Okay so I used to only have Windows 7 (64 bit) but really wanted to film an obscure nostalgic game that only worked on xp. I mainly use 7 but now and xp is not supported anymore. So a time back my poor dad went through all kinds of trouble to dual boot xp, since you gotta install xp first or something. I then got a windows 7 and xp dual boot , both os's are installed on seperate hard drives. Fast forward to now, and I'd like to either replace xp with Ubuntu, or install ubuntu to a third drive. My dad says it might be a hassle to remove xp so I could just install ubuntu on the third hard drive and have a triple boot. How do I safely do this?


Info:

-Drives
The first drive has windows 7 with the c partition for the os stuff and the f partition for pretty much all my files. the drive is 1tb.

The second drive has windows xp with two partitions, D and E. The drive is 500 gb

The last drive's the largest, where I store my big music collection and record to for gaming videos. This one is 2TB and has no OS.

-Status:
In the drive maneger in Windows 7, the ones listed as active are:
System reservation(small part of the first drive)
Windows xp D on the second drive.

Windows 7 C on the first drive has (I'm translating this from Dutch) boot, swap file, and crashdump.

All drives have the primary partition in status.

Oh, and I just bought a new external hard drive to which I am now backing my system up. It's making images for all drives, so I will have a back up.

You can install the third OS on another hard drive. Just unplug the others so that it all gets put on the target hard drive. Then afterwards plug everything back in, set preferred OS hard drive to boot first in BIOS, trigger the others to boot using BIOS Boot Menu key.

If you don't like this method then you can install EasyBCD to Windows 7 to add the other two OS's to a Windows Boot Menu. This will not create any dependency that doesn't already exist, which none should if you install each OS with the other drives unplugged.

Might be best to see a screenshot of Disk Mgmt first. Use Snippping tool, attach using Paper Clip icon in reply box.

It's in Dutch , but here you go :3. Thanks for the response!

edit: Whoopsie, the status wasn't visible, updated.

If the XP partition becomes labeled System when it is booted, then both OS's are now independently bootable. You can also test this by unplugging the other drive.

gregrocker said:

If the XP partition becomes labeled System when it is booted, then both OS's are now independently bootable. You can also test this by unplugging the other drive.

So I should boot up Windows XP, open the Disk Manager and see if the XP Partition gets labeled system?
btw, at the moment the only partition that seems to be labeled system is the by system reserved one 0.o

Yes, that is because you are booted into it at the time. If you boot into XP and its partition is now labeled System then the drives are independently bootable as you want. This is achieved by having the other drives unplugged during install.

Unplug all other hard drives except XP. Boot into XP repair console to Enter Windows XP Recovery Console.

Using Command Line type fixmbr, hit Enter.

Exit and reboot PC.

If that fails you may need to run an XP Repair Install.

Or you can rescue your files from XP using Copy & Paste - in Windows Recovery Console then delete the XP partition to install another OS or format for data in Disk Mgmt.

gregrocker said:

Unplug all other hard drives except XP. Boot into XP repair console to Enter Windows XP Recovery Console.

Using Command Line type fixmbr, hit Enter.

Exit and reboot PC.

If that fails you may need to run an XP Repair Install.

Or you can rescue your files from XP using Copy & Paste - in Windows Recovery Console then delete the XP partition to install another OS or format for data in Disk Mgmt.

There's no content on the XP Disk I'd like to save anymore, and since XP is not supported anymore I'm not going to use it. Do I have to save XP just to see the disk manger or not? Should I just format in Disk Mgmt or will I get problems booting?

Unplug the XP drive to test that Win7 will boot without it. It should since System Reserved is marked System Active.

If so then when you plug XP drive back in you can mark it's partition Inactive following Partition - Mark as Inactive - Windows 7 Forums which should allow it to be deleted in Disk Mgmt. Create and format a new partition there for data in Disk Mgmt or during another OS install.

Any other questions?