2007-01-21 11:35:25 · 6 answers · asked by kok021580 1 in Computers & Internet ➔ Other - Computers
Each OS must be installed on a separate partition on your hard drive. Theoritically, you can have as many operating systems as partitions
2007-01-21 11:40:59 · answer #1 · answered by Mully D 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Theroretically you can install as many operating systems as you like based on the following requirements:
1. There must be a commom bootloader that supports all the OS's
2. Each OS must support installation across multiple partitions
3. Each OS must support installation to any portion of the hard disk.
For example, the boot portion for Windows NT had to be installed with in the first 7.4GB of the disk
2007-01-21 19:40:45 · answer #2 · answered by Shawn H 6 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Drive partitions can be assigned for every letter of the alphabet.
You might have these assigned in Microsoft:
A:\ (the floppy)
B:\ (a second floppy or, a logical floppy)
C:\the first hard drive partition
D:\ through Z:\ can be optical/removable/scsi/Firewire or USB drives.
One comment is that in the 500+ FREE OSes, such as http://pclinuxos.com do not switch drive letter assignments around, like Microsoft products can, if a USB device is connected, for instance, which can confuse the users.
Back to the question, with a proper menu system such as GRUB or Lilo, the limit to the number of drives/partitions can be in the hundreds. A user had 6 versions of Microsoft products, plus 47 versions of *BSD, GNU/Linux, and also FreeOS, and DR DOS, for a total of 126 drives/partitions. That was in the modding news in 2004. We use different conventions for partition naming, not drive letter assignment, in the Open Source OSes.
I have a dual Pentium Pro server on wheels that has 14 devices on each of four channels, so, with two partitions each, I can boot 115 OSes, on my SCSI system. Two are CDroms, one is floppy (Tom's Root N Boot can be run!), and can run any of some 310 LiveCDs of GNU/Linux or *BSD at http://livecdlist.com
Hey, it has four PSUs to power it all. You should start with mastering this:
2007-01-21 20:25:55 · answer #3 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
U can install all that is is out there. It really depends on the space on your hard drive and if new opearting systems will work well with your computer. I have 2 installed. XP and 98. 2000 On an external drive in the event my comp crashes on 98 & xp i can pull out my information instead of taking out the hard drive and putting it on another comp etc. Laterz.
2007-01-21 19:42:58 · answer #4 · answered by The Honourable 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Windows....and all the Linux OS's your little heart desires!
Actually it depends on how much space your hard drive has, and how much space each OS needs.
Plus your hard drive DOES need to be partitioned for each OS.
2007-01-21 19:40:49 · answer #5 · answered by Angie 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
AS far as windows is concerned you can have win98 + win2k+ win ME + winXP + Linux on the same hard disk on different partitions
2007-01-21 19:40:37 · answer #6 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋