How to list hard disks to choose one to boot from at the startup
I don't know if it is possible or not but want to clarify posting here and don't want to miss it unnecessarily if it could be accomplished.
I have 3 hard disks installed with 3 different operating systems (xp, vista and ubuntu-linux) one on each HD. When ever I want to boot from any HD, I should enter the BIOS setup (pressing F2 or DEL) and select the HD to boot from. I'm wondering if I would get the option listing hard disks to select one to boot from when I start the computer like listing operating system boot menu.
4 Answers
Install something like grub on the active HD. Grub can then take care of booting into different operating systems on different physical hard disks. Grub will offer you a menu if so-configured.
I imagine you can set this up easisest after booting into your Ubuntu installation.
Docs for Grub are here
A tutorial is here
Well, that is possible. It is a bios function. RTFM - sorry. Read the manual for your computer bios. F12 could be it - often - but then this varies and you dont even say what your motherboard is.
Or install a boot manager, so you always boot from one disc which then remaps the discs and boots the real boot sector.
At bootup time, look for a message like, "press F8 for BBS popup menu", which will allow you to pick your operating system. I have XP installed on C:, and Windows 7 on drive E: after the XP install, and that is what happens when I boot. I don't really know why.
0Your best option is to multiboot using the boot loader. Grub is one of the easier ways when one or more include *nix.
I suggest setting up all your Windows systems first, from the oldest OS version to the newest OS version. Then install your *nix system. Check out these two links.
Also keep in mind for the Windows systems... You need to install your programs in different unique paths from each other. Say XP is on C: and Vista is on D:. Install your XP apps into c:\program files\ and the Vista apss into d:\program files\
you may want to consider Xen or VMWare etc... that way you can run all three at the same time without rebooting.
Enjoy ps sorry about the first link. Since I'm new here they won't let me post more then one link.
