Ultra Boot Loader?

[toconnor90]

Hello all,

I have a question about boot-loading. I have retail versions of windows xp, win 7 ultimate, win 8 pro, and osx10.8, 10.7, 10.6. I have made individual usb boot-loaders for all of them from time to time with my machines that have no optical drive. I wondered if I could make an ultra bootloader with an external harddrive or large usb with 6 partitions. Im tired of the discs and want all my operating systems on one media. Would each bios I enter be able to prompt me through my options? I was just curious if anyone had an answer before I dedicate a decent amount of time trying this out.

Thank you

 

[Going Bald]

Hello all,

I have a question about boot-loading. I have retail versions of windows xp, win 7 ultimate, win 8 pro, and osx10.8, 10.7, 10.6.

Im tired of the discs and want all my operating systems on one media.

Thank you

Not entirely sure exactly what you want - a single bootloader to boot all different systems on a single USB drive or all of the OS's on a single drive or what? I'll take a stab at answering anyway.

If I understand correctly you have a drive for every OS. This is good. I highly recommend you keep this arrangement.
For one thing, WinXP will only install on a HDD with MBR partition tables. It will not install on a GUID partition table drive with a hybrid MBR partition. So, since OS X can only install on a GUID partition table HDD, they are incompatible to be on the same HDD together.
Win7 or Win8, OTOH, will happily share space on the same HDD with OS X any version.
10.6, 10.7, 10.8 can all be installed on the same HDD.
Win7 and Win8 will share a HDD, but they will also insist on sharing the boot sector, so what happens is this - say you instaled Win7 first, then Win8. Win 8 re-writes the Win7 boot sector to add itself. From now on, you have to boot Win7, then select Win8 from the Win7 bootloader list of OS's to boot.

Win XP, OTOH, doesn't want to share. Its indexing is outmoded and totally incompatible with the indexing of Win7 or Win8 to the point that Win7 or Win8 will destroy XP indexing and recovery points. Never open files on a WinXP drive from Win7 or Win8 Windows Explorer. I cannot emphasize this enough if you ever want to use the restore points to recover your WinXP from a bad install of an app or something.

My best advice is to do what I did. Put the drives in your desk drawer and one of these in an optical drive bay in your computer case:
http://www.amazon.com/KingWin-Multi-Function-Components-Other-KF-253-BK/dp/B00856XFUS/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1365721439&sr=8-2&keywords=kingwin+hot+swap

it doesn't have to be this exact same model - I use it because it is a single bay device with a tray for both 2.5" and 3.5" drives.

With this in the bay, just insert the drive for the OS you want to boot and boot it up. All your SATA ports on the mainboard can now be used for storage drives and the drives can be shared between OSs.

 

[RehabMan]

Win7 and Win8 will share a HDD, but they will also insist on sharing the boot sector, so what happens is this - say you instaled Win7 first, then Win8. Win 8 re-writes the Win7 boot sector to add itself. From now on, you have to boot Win7, then select Win8 from the Win7 bootloader list of OS's to boot.

Just an FYI... I worked around this issue in my multi-boot guide (Win7, OSX, Win8, Ubuntu) on my blog (link in signature). It is a simple matter of copying the boot files around and fixing the BCD store(s) so they are separate and independent.

 

[theadventuresofanidealist]

KF-253-BK support?

Hi, have a question about the KF-253-BK.

Can you see the HDD's when booted up on osx ,mountain lion? do i have to install any particular driver for it from multibeast?

Thank you,
theid

 

[Going Bald]

Hi, have a question about the KF-253-BK.

Can you see the HDD's when booted up on osx ,mountain lion? do i have to install any particular driver for it from multibeast?

Thank you,
theid

No drivers required, it is a pass through connection to the SATA ports on the mainboard from the connector in the tray via a SATA cable.

 

[Going Bald]

Just an FYI... I worked around this issue in my multi-boot guide (Win7, OSX, Win8, Ubuntu) on my blog (link in signature). It is a simple matter of copying the boot files around and fixing the BCD store(s) so they are separate and independent.

Yes, it is easy to do if you are familiar with command/terminal and can code. Not so easy for most users who just want plug-n-play.

 

[RehabMan]

Yes, it is easy to do if you are familiar with command/terminal and can code. Not so easy for most users who just want plug-n-play.

Of course...

I said it was a "simple matter." The fact is it is fairly "simple" that the BCD info/partition boot loader binaries must be separate to boot directly from a boot manager that works like Chimera.

I didn't say it was "easy" for people with no skills. Sorry if I came across as stating that. My intention was just to point out the solution to the problem you portrayed as insurmountable.

My guide is written in such a way that even people with minimal skills can follow, if they are careful and detail oriented. But yes, for people used to just clicking on things, definitely not "easy."

You said Windows "insists on sharing the boot sector." Win7 or Win8 don't really insist on this at all. But the Win7/Win8 installer does set up things this way under the assumption that 1) you're installing Windows, so you want the Windows boot loader, 2) you have more than one version of Windows installed, so you want to select which one to run when you start the computer. I don't think either of these two actions are unreasonable for the Windows installer. Certainly one could argue that the Windows installer could have allowed for advanced options to let the user change some of these assumptions (for alternate boot loader use), but I'm almost certain such options would be used by less than 0.1% of the Windows installed base.