how do i triple boot ubuntu, seven, and eight on two hard drives

**jared8783** · October 21st, 2011, 10:32 PM

ok so i have one drive that has both ubuntu and windows seven on it
i use the grub boot loader for that
and i have a second drive that i have been pondering what to do with
since my mobo doesnt support RAID i decided to throw eight on it and check it out

now when ever i have the drive plugged in that has the eight on it it always boots into eight. but when i unplug it i have the option of ubuntu or windows seven
i have tried reinstalling the grub but that doesnt work
in fact since i installed eight whenever the eight drive is plugged in the ubuntu live disc cant even get past the configure network DCHP step.

does anyone know i can set up a boot loader that will let me keep both drives plugged in with and give me the option to choose from the three systems?

**RicheemxX** · October 21st, 2011, 10:59 PM

You can try something like EasyBCD - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia or if the bios supports its you should be able to hit f8 prior to booting (even before you'd hit safe mode) and select the hard drive you want for boot priority.

**Nude_Lewd_Man** · October 23rd, 2011, 02:27 AM

Yeah, generally the M$ Operating Systems will overwrite your bootloader which will bork your *nix loader... At least it should enable you to have the option of whether to load the latest OSTENSIBLY you installed or one of the other M$ OSes you've got...

I haven't looked at W8 yet, but you *should* be able to do that...at least then you'd have the option of whether to boot into W7 or W8; it may also then enable you to select the *nix OSES too - but I wouldn't get your hopes up too much...

A new *nix compatible bootloader should (as mentioned above) sort the issue out for you though...

**jared8783** · October 24th, 2011, 05:35 PM

ok so i basically did what richeem said about getting into the boot menu from the bios screed
first i repaired grub and so whenever i turned on the pc it would give me the option of windows 7 or ubuntu

it worked well for a day maybe
its been one heck of a nightmare ever since
windows seven freezing up and stuff. ethernet driver disapearing. i reinstalled it a couple of times (both the driver and windows seven) and when i was redoing the win7 os and installing avg and chrome ect. it was being really dumb and freezing up and crap. my pc never acted so dang dumb before

finally i said forget and used gparted live to completely erase both hard drives and now have just the one installed. i have failed to reinstall windows seven several times now. i keep getting error codes like 0x80070057 and another one or two but i forget what they were. it would just never get past the copying windows files step then i cleared my cmos and now it gives me error codes during the expanding windows files step

im really lost as to what to do now
maybe i should use gparted to format the partition i want to use for windows seven? idk

any tips would be really appreciated
thanks jared

oh and forget that pre-beta 8 pos whatever
i already snapped that disc in half
its a dumb os anywho
so if you are thinking about checking out windows eight
dont do it

**jared8783** · October 24th, 2011, 05:39 PM

i forget were i saw it at now but i think i found a thread on a google search somewhere where someone was experiencing similar problems.
he said he removed his hard drives from 2 of his pc's and installed new ones for windows 8

then when he removed the windows 8 drives and put back in the old ones he said it wouldn't boot

anyways good news my expanding files step is now up to 65% so i think it will work now (fingers crossed)

**jared8783** · October 24th, 2011, 05:45 PM

ok so the expanding windows files step completed and it restarted itself and wont even boot now. it says "A disk read error occured, Press Ctrl+Alt+Del to restart"

could this have messed up one or both of my hard drives? they are both seriously less than a month old. one a seagate and the other wd both 500gb sata

**RicheemxX** · October 24th, 2011, 05:58 PM

Odd situation, just having an OS sitting on another disk shouldn't have any affect on an already working install that is on another drive. A quick google on the stop code you listed mentioned something with sata drivers. So the addition of the 2nd drive might have borked something there but it shouldn't have any negative affect on trying to do a format and re-install.

I'd say completely remove the 2nd drive and do a full format thensee how it works. After the install is done add the 2nd drive back in and maybe try another sata port or something.

**jared8783** · October 24th, 2011, 06:10 PM

yeah i have been trying to completely reinstall on just the one drive. but i have only been partitioning off 170gb for it. when you say full format do you mean format the entire drive as a single partition?

oh and since my last post i hit the restart and was going to swap the windows disc with the ubuntu real quick like and just go to installing ubuntu for now. but i was not quick enough it actually started up and then it said that windows could not set up on my computers hardware configuration. wtf. this is just so frustrating

im going to keep trying seven and format the entire drive this time
but im just so dang confused and frustrated
i just cant make sense of this
installing on a small partition should work
im pissed
last time i try some pre-beta os from ms.
why do they call it pre-beta anyways
wouldn't that be alpha?

**RicheemxX** · October 24th, 2011, 06:21 PM

Full format - I mean if you aren't doing the full format, rather than just a "quick format" You want to make sure you are completely erasing everything. Then you can partition it however you want and basically start fresh.

Sine you cleared the cmos have you checked your settings to make sure you made any changes that might be needed.

**jared8783** · October 24th, 2011, 06:26 PM

no i did not check the settings though i did load optimized defaults right after clearing the cmos as per the manual that came with the motherboard (gigabyte p43-es3g)

i don't think the windows install disc gives me the option between quick format and full format
maybe i will use gparted live to reformat the entire hdd. both of them while i am at it

**jared8783** · October 25th, 2011, 04:34 AM

well last night i got windows seven to install on the hard drive that i had eight on
i then used that to do a full format of my original drive
then on the first try i got seven to successfully install on that
i have shrunk the partition on that from 465 to 167 and am using that to do a full format on the other drive

there probably was a bootable disc partitioner out there that could have done a full format idk
i probably got it done the hard way but i got it done
now i am going to use that second drive for backups and iso's of my drive

if this is my last post in this thread you can assume everything was stable

and remember
friends dont let friends install pre-beta windows 8