3 Operating Systems on T43?

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spikex34 · #1 Post by **spikex34** » Sat Dec 16, 2006 4:14 am

I have 4 partitions on my OEM harddrive on my T43. 1 has ubuntu linux, one has a swap for linux, one has OSX, and one is empty. I want to install XP on the 4th partition, but XP tells me that the maximum number of partitions have been used. My question is, wtf? Why would it say this? Is it drive specific or XP specific. I'm guessing its something with XP.

tom lightbody · #2 Post by **tom lightbody** » Sat Dec 16, 2006 4:18 am

the usual rule, when installing a mix of OSes including one from
Microsoft, is *install*the*Microsoft*OS*first*

spikex34 · #3 Post by **spikex34** » Sat Dec 16, 2006 5:07 am

Christ it took so long to get this far though... friggin' a.

#4 Post by **carbon_unit** » Sat Dec 16, 2006 7:49 am

That's what happens when you use Microsoft products. They have to be installed first or they complain.

#5 Post by **GomJabbar** » Sat Dec 16, 2006 8:24 am

I was going to say you could try System Commander, but after looking at the Wikipedia site regarding it: "System Commander requires either 32-bit DOS or Microsoft Windows (95/98/Me/2000/XP/2003/Vista) to install." So it doesn't solve your immediate problem. I suppose you could delete one of your partitions, install Windows, then add the partition later. System Commander does support all PC based OS's.

http://www.v-com.com/product/System_Commander_Home.html

Here is a site that sells if for $20 less.
VCOM System Commander 8

Here is more info on it.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/System_Commander

I have no personal experience with this software - I've only heard about it.

spikex34 · #6 Post by **spikex34** » Sun Dec 17, 2006 3:33 am

I'm trying the "delete everything but OSX since it's the hardest to get working, then install XP since there is only one used partition and free space, then change partition size to make room for linux, then install linux, then pray" route.

Yes it seems long, but the only real redundancy is reinstalling linux, so a few extra hours.

If that fails, after I shoot myself in frustration I will definitely be looking into the above, even if I have to wipe all and install XP first.

#7 Post by **carbon_unit** » Sun Dec 17, 2006 7:44 am

You can pre-partition your drive and then install XP. Just make sure you install XP into the first partition and it must be a primary partition marked active. The rest can go in a second primary partition with extended partitions within it.
Maybe windows is complaining about too many primary partitions. It only wants to see 4 or less primary partitions.

Read the section named "Disk Partitioning Tips" here:
http://www.quepublishing.com/articles/a ... Num=2&rl=1

You may be able to move things around and save your OS X iinstall, install XP, then Ubuntu and use Ubuntu's grub bootloader.

spikex34 · #8 Post by **spikex34** » Tue Dec 19, 2006 12:10 am

^^MBR only takes 4, but I only had 4 installed, which was strange. I originally had the OSX one marked active to fix the "b0" error; XP told me just before it installed that it needed to be marked active and would unmark whatever was currently marked as active. So considerate..

I ended up wiping linux, installing XP on a small partition, then installing linux again on the remaining free space. The nice thing about grub is that you can throw practically anything at it and still boot...

3 Operating Systems on T43?

3 Operating Systems on T43?

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