DIGIT-ARC read-only archive · snapshot: July 23, 2026

3 OS in a laptop

32 posts · originally from https://geek.digit.in/community/threads/3-os-in-a-laptop.137242/

curioustechy
curioustechy Original post #1
Feb 26, 2011 at 4:42 PM
Hi friends,
I've been using vista home premium 32 bit on my "64 bit hp pavilion dv6 -1110ax laptop; 4gb ddr2, 320gb, 1gb radeon graphics, amd turionx2" for last one year. Now i desired a change over and removed vista and installed windows7 64bit ultimate and it works well and its good.. I now wanted to install windows xp 32bit and ubuntu 10.10 alongside win7 [i want 32 bit because many of my big and important softwares are 32bit]... i tried to install xp as well as ubuntu..... both failed...i tried 2 different copies of xp [one service pack 2 & another one SP3].. both were earlier tested successful as standalone installations... both failed after a few minutes into the installation.. A screen comes like this

"a problem has been detected and windows has been shut down to prevent damage to your computer.
if this is the first time you have seen this stop error screen, restart your computer. if this screen appears again, follow these steps:
check for viruses on your computer. remove any newly installed hard drives or hard drive controllers. check your hard drive to make sure it is properly configured and terminated. run chkdsk/f to check for hard drive corruption and then restart your computer.
technical information:
***stop: 0X0000007B (0XF78D2524, 0XC0000034, 0X00000000, 0X00000000)"


On the other hand when i tried to install the latest version of ubuntu downloaded from net, [i used the windows installer application which came along with the ubuntu site for installing ubuntu alongside windows].it goes fine till i reach the page which i asks for username and password...there the progress bar goes almost upto 85%. then it stuck there...

Please tell me how to use the 3os in my laptop
pauldmps
Feb 26, 2011 at 5:41 PM
Back up your data & then clean format your primary partition. Then divide it into two parts. Install Windows XP into one of the partitions. Then install Windows 7 into another partition.

Download the latest version of Ubuntu & burn it to a dvd or mount it using Deamon tools in XP. Launch the Wubi installer & select the option to install inside Windows. Let the procedure complete & reboot. In the OS selection screen, select Ubuntu & let the installation complete.

You're done!
curioustechy
Feb 27, 2011 at 2:46 AM
@pauldmps,
i did as u told & wasted my 3hours simply removing windows 7 and reinstalling it later with all accessories... when i tried to install windows xp after removing 7 and bifurcating primary partition, the process crash ended with the message i posted earlier... give some feasible solution please.
Vyom
Vyom #4
Feb 27, 2011 at 10:55 AM
So, u r saying u again got a blue screen?
If thats so, then it looks like a hardware problem dude :(
motobuntu
Feb 27, 2011 at 12:09 PM
It seems you are using SATA HDD and Windows XP is not recognizing it, try to change the SATA setting from the BIOS.

In BIOS you'll get some option like "RAID Auto/AHCI" change it to "RAID Auto/ATA" and then try.

Hope this helps.
gameranand
Feb 27, 2011 at 2:15 PM
It seems you are using SATA HDD and Windows XP is not recognizing it, try to change the SATA setting from the BIOS.

In BIOS you'll get some option like "RAID Auto/AHCI" change it to "RAID Auto/ATA" and then try.

Hope this helps.
Yeah thats right because I got this problem today itself on my friend's laptop. Then I had to go to BIOS and change the setting of SATA and disable native SATA and the problem was gone. He was also trying to install XP after formatting his computer and his previous OS was 7 too. So this should help you.
curioustechy
Mar 4, 2011 at 1:52 AM
I've nothing like that in my bios... what else can i do?:cry:
gameranand
Mar 4, 2011 at 6:38 AM
^^ There have to be something like that. You have to find that. Every BIOS I have seen have some kind of different name for that but related to SATA. Post all the options you get in BIOS related to SATA or post some screenshots here.
curioustechy
Mar 6, 2011 at 11:36 AM
^^ There have to be something like that. You have to find that. Every BIOS I have seen have some kind of different name for that but related to SATA. Post all the options you get in BIOS related to SATA or post some screenshots here.

There is no word 'SATA' in my entire bios

---------- Post added at 11:36 AM ---------- Previous post was at 11:28 AM ----------

Take out your CMOS battery and reinsert it. Bios reset might help.

if my pc were a desktop i would easly do what you said.. i know it how to do that... but mine is a laptop and i've never opened it... anyway i'll venture..
thetechfreak
Mar 6, 2011 at 11:52 AM
be carefull..I think taking out the normal battery for couple of hours should help.
pauldmps
pauldmps #12
Mar 6, 2011 at 1:12 PM
See this: Advanced troubleshooting for "Stop 0x0000007B" errors in Windows XP


But most probably the error points to the SATA problem above. Can you post screenshots of each of your BIOS page ?

---------- Post added at 01:12 PM ---------- Previous post was at 12:55 PM ----------

Okay, I got a useful link: An Up to Date Guide to Reinstalling WinXP to DV6000T
gameranand
Mar 6, 2011 at 1:17 PM
thetechfreak said:
be carefull..I think taking out the normal battery for couple of hours should help.
No it doesn't. I Tried that on ma friend's Lappy for no use only change is tweaking SATA setting.
thetechfreak
Mar 6, 2011 at 2:46 PM
Can OP try updating BIoS?
gameranand
Mar 6, 2011 at 5:17 PM
^^ There have to be an option for SATA settings but OP is unable to find it. So updating BIOS won't help because its not going to change the interface eh.
choudang
choudang #16
Mar 7, 2011 at 1:04 PM
if i can remember correctly .. its unders HDD mode ... IDE and ATA .. XP installed on IDE mood, you must install third party SATA driver if you want sata.
curioustechy
Mar 8, 2011 at 2:28 AM
see this: advanced troubleshooting for "stop 0x0000007b" errors in windows xp


but most probably the error points to the sata problem above. Can you post screenshots of each of your bios page ?

---------- post added at 01:12 pm ---------- previous post was at 12:55 pm ----------

okay, i got a useful link: an up to date guide to reinstalling winxp to dv6000t

this is how my bios looks like
curioustechy
Mar 8, 2011 at 2:35 AM
See this: Advanced troubleshooting for "Stop 0x0000007B" errors in Windows XP


But most probably the error points to the SATA problem above. Can you post screenshots of each of your BIOS page ?

---------- Post added at 01:12 PM ---------- Previous post was at 12:55 PM ----------

Okay, I got a useful link: An Up to Date Guide to Reinstalling WinXP to DV6000T

my bios cont...
curioustechy
Mar 8, 2011 at 2:39 AM
See this: Advanced troubleshooting for "Stop 0x0000007B" errors in Windows XP


But most probably the error points to the SATA problem above. Can you post screenshots of each of your BIOS page ?

---------- Post added at 01:12 PM ---------- Previous post was at 12:55 PM ----------

Okay, I got a useful link: An Up to Date Guide to Reinstalling WinXP to DV6000T

my bios last part
pauldmps
pauldmps #20
Mar 8, 2011 at 7:39 AM
It seems that HP has removed this feature from the BIOS.

You need to find the right drivers for your HDD for XP to work.
thetechfreak
Mar 8, 2011 at 9:03 AM
Search Google and HP for drivers. You should be able to find them.
choudang
choudang #22
Mar 11, 2011 at 12:53 PM
you need third party raid driver so that you can install XP
curioustechy
Mar 18, 2011 at 12:52 AM
dear all...i fed up searching hp and amd site but couldnt find anything gud 4 me... somebody could help me please... then how to find the raid driver suitable for me?
curioustechy
Mar 24, 2011 at 11:16 PM
can i expect any more help from here
curioustechy
Mar 29, 2011 at 12:17 AM
I'm giving up my hope :-(...anyway thanx for everybody who gave new insights
Vyom
Vyom #26
Mar 29, 2011 at 12:38 AM
I am sorry my friend, that anyone is not able to help you much. There's not a lot which can be done, if you are not able to find any drivers for your RAID configuration.
Maybe you can use Win 7, with XP mode on top of it (or by Virual Machine), for working on legacy softwares.
curioustechy
Dec 16, 2011 at 12:14 PM
After a wild and exhaustive search for RAID driver I abandoned the hope of installing XP on my laptop. Now I got a second hand computer _ LENOVO think centre M57 6081AA7
Its having an 80GB sata hdd. It was a single partition & loaded with xp when it arrived.
Now I want to install win 7 x64 ultimate, win XP professional x86 s.p1 & Ubuntu 10.10.
After booting from my win 7 DVD, I deleted the single partition and divided into 3 partitions (all primary) -35,20,20 GBs respectively. Starting from the beginning a 100 Mb space was taken out automatically (I don't know why this happened) . I then went on and installed win 7 on 35GB partition successfully. Then I booted from win XP CD and installed that in the second partition (the above two OS in ntfs) . now when I boot from my hard disc I'm directly taken to XP and I'm not given an option to select the OS. I then proceeded with installation of Ubuntu. I split the other 20 GB partition into two - 17GB & 3GB. I formatted 17GB with ext3 & the remaining as swap. I started installing Ubuntu in the ext3 formatted disk. Mid way it crashed and so I came out. Now if I boot from my hdd I can go to XP only.

Also please suggest whether I should start this in a new thread.
Vyom
Vyom #28
Dec 16, 2011 at 2:37 PM
Wow.. it took you loooong to came to that conclusion. :lol:

Well, the order of installation should have been XP, then Win 7 and then Ubuntu.
Since you installed XP after win7, XP have overwritten the bootloader of 7.

You have two options now. Use a tool like, Easy BCD to fix that, or simply, reinstall Win 7 again (since you have XP preinstalled).

New thread creation is not necessary, since you are still stuck with same problem, "3 OS in a computer"! :)
reniarahim1
Dec 16, 2011 at 3:50 PM
You could have downloaded the SATA driver and Slipstreamed the driver into the Windows Xp Installation Media using Nlite and Use the Slipstreamed CD for Installation. This will recogonize the SATA hard disk.

Faced the same issue while installing Xp on my friend's Dell inspiron machine and this method solved the issue.
curioustechy
Dec 16, 2011 at 8:14 PM
You could have downloaded the SATA driver and Slipstreamed the driver into the Windows Xp Installation Media using Nlite and Use the Slipstreamed CD for Installation. This will recogonize the SATA hard disk.

Faced the same issue while installing Xp on my friend's Dell inspiron machine and this method solved the issue.

I did do as u told.... i spoke with hp personnel and he sent me the sata driver and slipstreamed it using nlite....but it didnt work.... i doubt the hp guy had fooled me....
meetdilip
meetdilip #31
Dec 17, 2011 at 10:54 AM
The order should be

XP > W7 > Ubuntu

You can change boot options too, but beginning from scratch and following the order above will be more easy.
doomgiver
doomgiver #32
Dec 17, 2011 at 6:19 PM
STEP 1
download :
*dl.dropbox.com/u/10573557/pmagic-4.5.iso < get parted magic
Using Parted Magic an Introduction < parted magic help
GParted partitioning software - Full tutorial < gparted help.
i assume you have a working dvd/cd writer and a blank disc, and i hope you can burn that file to the disc and use it to boot.


STEP 2

1. burn and boot from parted magic live disk
2. run "gparted"
3. make the following partitions :

DELETE ALL PARTITIONS (make the whole disk as one unallocated space)

/dev/xda1Primary - Windows 7 - NTFS (15-20 GB 7 installed here)
/dev/xda2Primary - XP - NTFS (5-10 GB XP intalled here)

/dev/xda3Extended (all the partitions below are a part of this extended partition)
/dev/xda4Logical - / - ext4 (5-10 GB, linux files here)
/dev/xda5Logical - /home - ext4 (as much as you want, keep your linux stuff, like packages, stuff, not really required, but it helps sometimes)
/dev/xda6Logical - swap-space - linux-swap (keep it twice as much as your RAM)
/dev/xda7Logical - shared - NTFS (as much as you want, it will be shared between all the OS's)

*www.thinkdigit.com/forum/1381647-post13.html <-- understanding different types of partitions


things to note :
  • GPARTED wont save anyhting until you click apply or the tick sign. so this means that you can safely poke around a bit with the options. if you happen to do something bad, DONT PANIC, just reboot or choose undo.
  • GPARTED notations of partitions are a bit different.
it uses /dev/xda(number) to show partitions. where x can be 's' or 'h' depending on type of drive.
PRIMARY partitions have numbers 1-3.
EXTENDED can be 2-4.
LOGICAL numbers start from EXTENDED+1, and can go on and on (the most i've seen is 118, this guy had a lot of distros running)



STEP 3
1. boot from xp cd and choose install.
2. now, install XP on the 2nd partition (the XP) one. MAKE SURE ITS NOT THE 1ST ONE


STEP 4
1. boot from parted magic cd.
2. remove boot flag from XP partition (right click > flags)
3. go to gparted and HIDE the XP partition (dont delete, just hide) (rclick > hide, at least, thats how u hide, afaik. check the tutorial to make sure)


STEP 5
install windows 7 to FIRST PARTITION


STEP 6
1. boot to live disc of partition magic.
2. in gparted, unhide the XP partition
3. install linux to the extended partition.
select manually partition discs
in this part,
/dev/xda4a this will be / (or root)
/dev/xda5 /home
/dev/xda6 swap-space

now, when it asks for where to place bootloader (GRUB) tell it to install to MBR.

EDIT :

slipstreaming is a tedious process, i couldnt find the hdd drivers myself, and you have to know *exactly* what you are doing, meaning the hp guys were at their wit's end, so couldnt help :) lol

also, my method involves DELETING ALL DATA ON THE HDD. SO BACKUP ANY IMPORTANT STUFF ON THE HDD.

edit 2

take help/pointers for stuff from these threads :

*www.thinkdigit.com/forum/open-source/147525-dual-boot-windows-7-ubuntu-10-10-a.html

*www.thinkdigit.com/forum/software-q/139435-boot-problem.html