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Placing 2 existing OS into dual boot

Posted: Wed Jun 25, 2014 5:03 pm
by DELTA624826
Probably covered already but here goes.
Two separate installations on 2 HD's.

I know how to resize them both to fit.
I know how to install BM (basics).
I know how to use the utility to create partitions.
I have successfully resized, imaged, restored single installations.
I vaguely understand DUAL BOOT.

I do NOT want to INSTALL a second OS, I want to place an existing OS (W7) AND another existing OS(Linux Mint Qiana) on to the same hard drive in a dual boot configuration. Continually swapping HD's is a pain.

Please direct me to an existing thread or page(s) in a manual.

Thank you

Re: Placing 2 existing OS into dual boot

Posted: Wed Jun 25, 2014 10:41 pm
by Brian K
DELTA624826,

I know you already have your two OS. See the BIBM section in...

http://www.terabyteunlimited.com/howto/index.htm

It explains how to setup the Boot Items, etc.

Re: Placing 2 existing OS into dual boot

Posted: Wed Jun 25, 2014 11:57 pm
by George
On 6/25/2014 11:03 AM, DELTA624826 wrote:
> Probably covered already but here goes.
> Two separate installations on 2 HD's.
>
> I know how to resize them both to fit.
> I know how to install BM (basics).
> I know how to use the utility to create partitions.
> I have successfully resized, imaged, restored single installations.
> I vaguely understand DUAL BOOT.
>
> I do NOT want to INSTALL a second OS, I want to place an existing OS (W7) AND another existing OS(Linux Mint Qiana) on to the same hard drive in a dual boot configuration. Continually swapping HD's is a pain.
>
> Please direct me to an existing thread or page(s) in a manual.
>
> Thank you
>
>
I use BootItBM as a boot manager for about six OSs including Windows
8.1, several flavors of Ubuntu, Mint 17 (Qiana), and Debian. These are
installed on three separate drives. (My Windows is on its own drive.
The Linux OSs and BIBM are on the other two drives.) My BIBM
installation is in a primary partition and I limit partitions to 4.
The one thing that you need to do is to install the /boot partition onto
the corresponding / (root) partition. IOW, if the root partition is on
sda3, then the boot partition should also be installed on sda3.
In all cases, I set the "Swap" field in the Boot Details section of the
Boot Edit->Edit Menu Item dialog. This ensures that the booting
partition is always mounted as HD0. (See the top of page 33 in the BIBM
1.27 manual and http://www.terabyteunlimited.com/kb/article.php?id=504
and http://www.terabyteunlimited.com/kb/article.php?id=506)
Just set your BIOS boot order such that the disk containing BIBM boots
first (in case you decide to use two hard drives.)
BTW, this works for partitions and volumes in extended partitions.

George
---
There are 10 kinds of people in the world.
Those who understand binary and
Those who don't.

Re: Placing 2 existing OS into dual boot

Posted: Fri Jun 27, 2014 2:49 am
by DELTA624826
George, I have one HD on a laptop. So far swapping HD's to swap an OS. I get W7 to the
Bootit menu and that's about it. The moving the boot record and formatting the main
partition 4 bytes is currently beyond my understanding.

I will go back to the book and try to make sense of it. HP has 4 partitions to start with.
There "ought" to be a way to get all the hp "partitons" into one extended partition and
go on with life.

Thank you for your assistance.
Dave

Re: Placing 2 existing OS into dual boot

Posted: Fri Jun 27, 2014 3:01 am
by mjnelson99
I imaged the manufacturer partition on my new Acer laptop after getting
the drivers I needed. I repartitioned so I had C & D partitions as well
so I would have needed drivers easily available.

THEN I did a clean install of Win 7 X64. No manufacturer junk.

HP is not as loose with drivers as Acer is, though.
Mary

On 6/26/2014 9:49 PM, DELTA624826 wrote:
> George, I have one HD on a laptop. So far swapping HD's to swap an OS. I get W7 to the
> Bootit menu and that's about it. The moving the boot record and formatting the main
> partition 4 bytes is currently beyond my understanding.
>
> I will go back to the book and try to make sense of it. HP has 4 partitions to start with.
> There "ought" to be a way to get all the hp "partitons" into one extended partition and
> go on with life.
>
> Thank you for your assistance.
> Dave
>
>

Re: Placing 2 existing OS into dual boot

Posted: Fri Jun 27, 2014 3:02 am
by mjnelson99
P.S. I had a Family Pack of Win 7 I could use.

On 6/26/2014 10:01 PM, MJNelson wrote:
> I imaged the manufacturer partition on my new Acer laptop after getting
> the drivers I needed. I repartitioned so I had C & D partitions as well
> so I would have needed drivers easily available.
>
> THEN I did a clean install of Win 7 X64. No manufacturer junk.
>
> HP is not as loose with drivers as Acer is, though.
> Mary
>
> On 6/26/2014 9:49 PM, DELTA624826 wrote:
>> George, I have one HD on a laptop. So far swapping HD's to swap an OS. I get W7 to the
>> Bootit menu and that's about it. The moving the boot record and formatting the main
>> partition 4 bytes is currently beyond my understanding.
>>
>> I will go back to the book and try to make sense of it. HP has 4 partitions to start with.
>> There "ought" to be a way to get all the hp "partitons" into one extended partition and
>> go on with life.
>>
>> Thank you for your assistance.
>> Dave
>>
>>
>
>

Re: Placing 2 existing OS into dual boot

Posted: Fri Jun 27, 2014 8:44 pm
by DrTeeth
On Thu, 26 Jun 2014 19:49:43 PDT, just as I was about to take a herb,
DELTA624826 disturbed my reverie and wrote:

>HP has 4 partitions to start with.
>There "ought" to be a way to get all the hp "partitons" into one extended partition and
>go on with life.

You have two options as I see it. Continue to limit primaries back up
partitions and delete one so you can create an extended partition then
move the partitions to the extended. Very messy.

The second option is to bite the bullet and go unlimited. For me
unlimited is the only way to go.
--
Cheers,

DrT

** You've never known happiness until you're married;
** but by then it is too late.

Re: Placing 2 existing OS into dual boot

Posted: Fri Jun 27, 2014 11:29 pm
by DELTA624826
Well guys, I REALLY did not want to do a clean W7 install (again). I am in the midst of resurrecting laptops partially destroyed (grandchildren). Since I did not have much on Linux, I opted for that.

FINALLY found Knowledge Base # 281, Linux installation Notes: Linux Mint. Three tries and I am in! It was fairly straightforward but very complicated. Whoever wrote it knows a lot of things about "a lot of things".

Thank you for your patience. Installing BootIt and Linux in the same week was trying. Please mark my problem solved.