Multi-booting

Page issues

GRUB, with entries for Ubuntu and Windows Vista, an

example of dual booting

Multi-booting is the act of installing

multiple operating systems on a computer,
and being able to choose which one to
boot. The term dual-booting refers to the
common configuration of specifically two
operating systems. Multi-booting may
require a custom boot loader.

Usage
Multi-booting allows more than one
operating system to reside on one
computer, for example if you have a
primary operating system and an alternate
system that you use less frequently.
Another reason for multi-booting can be to
investigate or test a new operating system
without switching completely. Multi-
booting allows a new operating system to
configure all applications needed, and
migrate data before removing the old
operating system, if desired. A possible
alternative to multi-booting is
virtualization, where a hypervisor is used
to host one or more virtual machines
running guest operating systems. Multi-
booting is also useful in situations where
different software applications require
different operating systems. A multi-boot
configuration allows a user to use all of
this software on one computer. This is
often accomplished by using a boot loader
such as NTLDR, LILO, or GRUB which can
boot more than one operating system.
Multi-booting is also used by software
developers when multiple operating
systems are required for development or
testing purposes. Having these systems
on one machine is a way to reduce
hardware costs.

Technical issues
Number of operating systems
per storage device

In a multi-boot computer each of the

multiple operating systems can reside on
its own storage device, or some storage
devices might contain more than one
operating system in different partitions.
An example of a computer with one
operating system per storage device is a
dual-booting computer that stores
Windows on one disk drive and Linux on
another disk drive. In this case a multi-
booting boot loader is not strictly
necessary because the user can choose to
enter BIOS configuration immediately after
power-up and make the desired drive first
in the boot-order list. However, it is more
convenient to have a multi-booting boot
loader on one of the drives, set BIOS once
to always start booting from (i.e., load the
boot loader from) that drive, and then
allow the user to choose an operating
system from that boot loader's menu. No
special disk partitioning is necessary when
each operating system has its own
dedicated disk drive.

An example of a computer with multiple

operating systems per storage device is a
dual-booting computer that stores both
Windows and Linux on the same disk drive
but where the bios in the system does not
let the user boot individual
drives/partitions. In this case a multi-
booting boot loader is necessary. Also, the
disk must be partitioned to give each
operating system its own partition on the
disk drive. This is necessary because each
system has its own set of files and
operating instructions. Also, when a
completely separate operating system are
used partitions may need to be formatted
to a different format. For example, if you
intend to install Windows and Linux, the
Windows partition will be most likely
formatted in the NTFS format and Linux
Partition will most likely be formatted in
the ext4 file format as Windows can't run
off of ext4 and Linux can't run on NTFS.
However, for example if a user intends to
dual boot two versions of Windows(ie.
Windows 7 and Windows Vista) or two
versions of Linux(ie. Linux Mint and
Ubuntu Linux), the same file system(ie.
NTFS or ext4) can be used across both
drives/partitions.

Partitioning

The basic concept involves partitioning a

disk to accommodate each planned
installation, usually including separate
partitions for boot, root, data storage and
backups.

Windows XP/2000

Vista's partitioners may not be compatible

with XP/2000 (see Logical disk
manager#Compatibility problems). If you
use Windows 2000/XP, probably the safest
approach (for disks under 2 TiB) is to use
a CHS partition table alignment that is
chosen by Windows XP/2000 (not Vista or
Windows 7). If starting with a disk with
nothing important on it, delete all
partitions, unplug the disk or reboot, create
at least one partition with Windows
XP/2000 Disk Management or the
XP/2000 installer, and format all FAT
partitions. The alignment can be checked
with Ranish Partition Manager: All
partitions (including EBR extended
partitions—type 05) should start at the
beginning of a head, and end at the end of
a cylinder. If nothing is shown in red (with
error messages when you highlight them)
you probably have a disk with a standard
CHS partition table alignment. If you wish
to edit the partition table with Linux, first
run sfdisk with "--show-geometry" and "--
show-pt-geometry".[1] If these return the
same geometry, it should be safe to use
GParted, so long as it is set to round to
cylinders, and you only add partitions to
the end of the partition table. If you add a
partition to the middle of the extended
partition table, GParted will not put them in
the order they are on the disk (so that
hda7 will follow hda9 instead of hda6).
The order can be fixed with a Linux fdisk
advanced function. Most Linux
partitioners that don't use parted, may not
end EBR extended partitions (type 05) on
the same sector as their logical drives.
When GParted or parted edit these
"nonstandard" partition tables, they will
"fix" all these EBRs, so that the extended
partitions end on the same sector as their
logical drives. The partitioner then may
show these partitions as having no
"errors". This can also be checked using
(for example) sfdisk -l -x -us /dev/hda.[1]

Windows and Linux

One popular multi-boot configuration is to

dual-boot Linux and Windows operating
systems, each contained within its own
partition. Windows does not facilitate or
support multi-boot systems, other than
allowing for partition-specific installations,
and no choice of boot loader is offered.
However, most current Linux installers
accommodate dual-booting (although
some knowledge of partitions is
desirable). Commonly installations
proceed without incident but upon restart,
the boot loader will recognize only one of
the two operating systems.[2]

There are some advantages to installing a

Linux boot manager/loader (usually GRUB)
as the primary bootloader pointed to by
the master boot record. Windows
operating systems will be found by
properly installed Linux bootloaders, but
Windows boot managers do not recognize
Linux installations (nor does Windows deal
natively with Linux file systems). However,
in Vista, in order to install services packs
(or other Windows updates) it may be
necessary to restore the Vista boot loader
first. SP2 may fail to install if it does not
find certain files from the Vista boot
loader, in the MBR. Similar problems may
occur with SP1[3] or when there are cloned
disks or partitions.[4] The MBR boot code
can be backed up and restored with dd,
available on System Rescue CD.
It is often recommended that Windows be
installed to the first primary partition. The
boot loaders of both Windows and Linux
identify partitions with a number derived
by counting the partitions. (Note, both
Windows and Linux count the partitions
according to the ordering of the partitions
in the partition table, which may be
different from the order of the partitions
on the disk.) Adding or deleting a partition
at the end of a hard drive will have no
effect on any partitions prior to it.
However, if a partition is added or deleted
at the beginning or middle of a hard drive,
the numbering of subsequent partitions
may change. If the number of the system
partition changes, it requires boot loader
reconfiguration in order for an operating
system to boot and function properly.

Windows must be installed into a primary

partition (and in older systems this must
be the first partition). Linux can be
installed into a partition in any position on
the hard drive and can also be installed
into logical partitions (within the extended
partition). If Linux is installed into a logical
partition within the extended partition, it is
unaffected by changes in the primary
partitions.

Neutral MBR
An alternative to storing GRUB in the MBR
is keeping Windows' or other generic PC
boot code in the MBR, and installing GRUB
or another bootloader into a primary
partition other than that of Windows, thus
keeping the MBR neutral.[5] Operating
system selection at boot time
consequently depends on the bootloader
configured within the primary partition that
has the boot or "active" flag set on its
partition table entry, which could be a
bootloader of DOS, OS/2, eComStation,
Blue Lion[6] and/or BSD, in addition to
Linux and/or Windows.
With the boot flag set on the Windows
primary, the Windows Boot Manager can
be used to chainload another installed
bootloader by employing usage of a
program like EasyBCD.[7] This means the
active partition's boot manager will first
prompt the user for selection what OS to
boot, then load another if necessary, such
as GRUB, even a bootloader installed to a
logical partition, and then GRUB will load
the Linux kernel as it normally would were
GRUB installed to the MBR.

The active partition could also be one that

exists for no purpose other than choosing
an operating system to boot , such as the
Boot Manager that shipped with IBM's
OS/2 Warp and with eComStation.

Apple Boot Camp

Boot Camp allows owners of Intel-based

Apple Macintosh computers to install
Windows XP,Vista,7,8,and Windows10 on
their Macs. The software comes bundled
with Mac OS X since version 10.5
(Leopard). Previously the application was
available in beta version as a download
from Apple's website.

Boot Camp allows non-destructive disk

partitioning and resizing of HFS+
filesystems, boot menu options, and an
option to burn a CD with necessary device
drivers. Since Windows XP is incompatible
with Extensible Firmware Interface (the
successor to legacy BIOS), the firmware
on early Intel Macs needs to be updated to
support BIOS emulation first. BIOS
emulation is achieved with a compatibility
support module (CSM). Apple does not
support non-Windows partition formats or
drivers so therefore configuring other
operating systems is not directly possible
through Boot Camp itself. However, any
operating system which can utilize the
BIOS emulation of Intel Macintosh can be
made to work, including non-XP versions
of Windows. The Ubuntu Linux distribution
is particularly popular for this purpose
because they provide an option to use
proprietary device drivers along with open
source drivers.

See also
Booting
Comparison of boot loaders
GNU GRUB
Ext2Fsd support for ext2/3/4 under
Microsoft Windows
Multiboot Specification
Windows To Go
 NeoSmart Technologies' EasyBCD, a
free program to configure Multi-booting
on Windows
XOSL, a free, graphical, open source
boot loader
Virtualization

References
1. "sfdisk(8): Partition table manipulator for
- Linux man page" . linux.die.net. Retrieved
2 April 2018.
2. "Booting Problem of Linux in windows
boot loader - [Solved] - Open Source
Software" . Tom's Hardware. Retrieved
2 April 2018.
3.
http://blogs.sun.com/pomah/entry/installin
g_windows_vista_service_pack
4. Oiaga, Marius. "Vista SP2 Fails to Install
on PCs with Cloned Disks or Partitions" .
softpedia.com. Retrieved 2 April 2018.
5. "openSUSE Bugs/grub" . openSUSE
Bugs/grub. 28 January 2010. Retrieved
22 January 2017.
6. "ArcaOS" . Blue Lion, by Arca Noae. 13
November 2016. Retrieved 22 January
2017.
7. "How to add an entry for a Linux
distribution in Windows' boot menu" . Linux
BSD OS. 21 July 2012. Retrieved 10 July
2016.

External links
Multiboot Specification
Dual, Triple, Quad Boot a Macbook with
Mac OS X, Ubuntu Linux, Windows XP,
and Windows Vista
The definitive dual-booting guide:
Windows 7, Linux, Vista, XP: with
screenshots.
Installing Windows XP:Dual-Booting
Versus Single Booting
Retrieved from
"https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Multi-
booting&oldid=833693746"

Last edited 5 months ago by Sheriff…

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