Understanding multiboot
Do you need to create a multiboot setup to run more than one operating system on a single computer?
Not necessarily. There are a couple of options; first you could use a "Virtual computer"
to run as many operating systems as you like from within your current
one without all the hassle of partitioning your hard drive, the other way is to create a "Multiboot setup".
Multiboot means allowing you to select the operating system you want to use from
the boot menu. This can have some useful advantages for experimentation with
newer OS's like Windows Vista, which almost definitely will have some
compatibility issues. Creating a multiboot setup will also dedicate all the
system resources to the OS, where a virtual computer will share the system
resources.
To use a multiboot setup you will need to understand a few things
about operating systems first. Every OS needs to be installed on it's
own hard drive or partition (A single drive divided into parts), and
the drive or partition needs to be in a "file system" the OS can
understand. In order to partition your hard drive you will need a third party
program such as
Partition Magic (you could likely buy a small hard drive for the price of
this software). There are also considerations for which operating systems
you'll be wanting to install as they may not play nice together if
installed in the wrong order. As a general rule follow this order for
installing the operating systems:
- Unix based (Linux)
- MS Dos
- Windows 95, 98 or ME (only install one)
- Windows 2000
- Windows XP
- Windows Vista
File systems
The way an operating system stores it's data is called the "file system". Although not much thought is usually given to the file system, when creating a multiboot it should at least be understood because files written in the NTFS file system are not visible to a FAT 32 or FAT 16, but operating systems using NTFS can read and write to a FAT 32 file system.
- MS Dos and early versions of Windows 95 use FAT 16
- Windows 98 and ME use FAT 32
- Windows NT, 2000, XP, Vista all use NTFS by default
For example lets suppose you have Windows 98 installed to the C: drive and Windows XP installed on your D: drive. Windows 98 will not be able to see any files on the D: drive, but if you booted XP it would be able read and write files to the C: drive.
Setting up multiboot
- Always backup your data before making system changes.
- Decide what operating systems you want to install.
- Install an additional hard drive or partition your current one so that each OS will have it's own drive letter.
- Install the operating systems normally ensuring to select the appropriate partition. Follow the guides for each OS.