another multi boot question

Discussion in 'Windows 7' started by spacednow, Sep 27, 2009.

  1. spacednow

    spacednow MDL Member

    Aug 26, 2009
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    Ok, XP32 on first partition, win7x64 on second. I just let win7 put its boot loader in, then modified it slightly with BCD. I'm wanting to try Ubuntu but I have absolutely no experience with it. I've been trying to gather info from the forums, but read something about chameleon 3 only working with 64 bit OS, and some people are having issues with a Grub loader and not being able to boot back into windows. Can't I just install Ubuntu on a third partition (already partitioned and swap file on separate drive) and then add it with BCD? Or will it try to put in its own loader, missing XP and 7? I can't afford for this puter to go down, as my other one doesn't have SATA connectors (no external cases or PCI adapters locally) and there is critical info on this puter (yes backed up to another drive on same computer). Suggestions please.
     
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  2. sebus

    sebus MDL Guru

    Jul 23, 2008
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    NO problem at all here, install Ubuntu & you can use its loader for both versions of Windows
    Or you can later reinstall Win7 Bootloader & add Ubuntu to it

    Experiment, it is fun
    You could (read should) of course have a working image backup in case something goes wrong (Win7 Ultimate does it nicely natively)
     
  3. spacednow

    spacednow MDL Member

    Aug 26, 2009
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    Ok, just wanted to be sure- I back both partitions up weekly with Acronis, but I had to deal with corrupted boot sectors before, its no fun.
     
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