Best way to triple boot on 60GB

So I should be receiving my D430 in the next couple days.

It has a 60GB and I have benefited from the Vista downgrade so I have XP Pro installed but with no CD plus I have the license and CD for Vista Pro.

I'm wondering what's the best to go about triple booting XP, Vista and Ubuntu. What I'm thinking is this:
- When I receive the system, refuse all EULAs for bloatware and deinstall them
- Scandisk
- Apply all patches
- Defrag
- Boot with Knoppix and use Qparted and partimage to clone the XP partition to an external USB drive

I figured that much

In which order do I install the other OSs, Vista and Ubuntu?

Also, I need a 20 GB partition for my data, so I have 40 GB left.

What's the best way to slice those 40GB among XP, Vista and Ubuntu? (Use will be mostly business, OpenOffice and MS Office2007)

 

Vista is roughly 6 - 8 GB install,
XP varies sometimes depending on build, anywhere from 1 - 4 GB,
Ubuntu, I'm not sure it's been awhile since I used it, I got a live CD coming soon.

I'd install XP first, because installing XP over Vista becomes a quick pain to get it dual booting, need to install VistaBootPro and any service packs hot fixes and frameworks you may not have.

Install XP then Vista, Then Ubuntu, That way it's clean and less mucking around.

What ever OS you think you'll use the most or install the most programs on, give it the biggest storage amount, Vista can have 15GB, XP can have 15GB then the remaining 10 can go to Ubuntu.

That's how I'd do it.

Right now I got Vista with 40GB and XP dual boot with 10GB then the remaining space on my 80GB drive is a data storage partition.

Cheers

 

whats the point of running scandisk on your new drive? on a more serious note, remember you wont have 60gbs. first the drive will be around 55 total, then take 10 for the dell recovery partition you are left with 45. thats not much. i would never triple boot on a 60 dual at most. but imo, vista needs atleast 60gbs for it and all your programs.

 

I do scandisk's on a regular basis, starting the day I receive the system...

The point of cloning the XP partition is so as to fdisk the drive, remove all the Dell hidden partitions and start from scratch.

Make 4 partitions, 1 for each OS + 1 data partition, so I was thinking:

- XP partition primary active, NTFS, 13 GB
- Vista partition, NTFS, 20 GB
- Ubuntu partition, ext2, 7 GB
- Data partition, FAT32, 15-20 GB whatever is left

Would that work ?

 

What about a linux swap partition? Make partition #4 an extended partition and add your Data partition and linux swap to it.

Also, FAT32 is unnecessary. ntfs-3g under linux can read/write NTFS just fine. The driver isn't as fast as accessing a FAT32 volume, but if you're only accessing 15-20GB then that shouldn't be a problem.

 

Thanks guys for your contributions...

I think it's doable, I'll give it spin and hope that'll do

 

just so you know, my vista partition is using 30 gbs. i only have a few programs and 1 game (fear) and no music -- thats on another partition. you will really be pressed for space if you do this...unless you get a larger drive that is.

 

rats... I know...

especially that I need to install Office2007ProPlus both on XP and Vista...

that should be fun !

 

Why in heaven's name would you want to triple boot anyway...

 

Dual booting this sucker is gonna be tough, not to mention triple-booting. I would advice getting an external hard drive to install your ubuntu on it. It can be done. Also think about replacing that 60gb hard drive with something larger. Once you install XP and Vista and a bunch of program, there won't be enough free space and Windows will seriously slow to a crawl.

 

thanks for the feedback and the word of wisdom

what I'll do is run XP Pro for a while, see what kind of space I need and use, and hence what I can spare for the other OS's

 

yep, you guys are probably right...

I just finished to put all the updates and patches but not yet any major application and I'm down to approx. 10GB.

Now, I'm partimage'ing my XP partition and after that I'll install the applications.

You guys are definitively right, my outlook pst folder is almost 1 GB in size, I need to install OfficeProPlus2007 and a bunch of other crap, etc, I'll run out of space in a minute...

Can't wait for some affordable 128 GB SSD goodness...