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A 256GB SSD has Windows-10 and 16.04 installed. BIOS not UEFI. A charity I work with requires me to use Quickbooks Desktop on Windows. The plan is to ghost the existing system to a 512GB or larger SSD and create a third bootable Windows 7 partition for performing charity activities.

  • Is this possible to have a third partition?
  • Is there a good example you have used as a guide?
  • Is triple booting with two Windows partitions different from 2 Linux partitions?

If you have done this before (3 bootable partitions with GRUB) please indicate this in your response: lessons-learned are appreciated. Thank you

gatorback
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  • I have not, but issue is UEFI or BIOS. And Windows 7 DVD default install is BIOS only. You can copy to flash drive and move a few files around to make it UEFI bootable. Windows 7 or later uses BCD as menu for multiple booting. If system is BIOS best to have all Windows installs in primary partitions and Ubuntu in logical partitions. BIOS install: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1271600 – oldfred Jan 06 '17 at 23:38
  • See also: http://askubuntu.com/questions/860729/is-it-possible-to-install-windows-7-alongside-with-ubuntu-and-windows-10-dualboo?noredirect=1#comment1327830_860729 – oldfred Jan 06 '17 at 23:44

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Yes, that's possible. I've had at least 5 operating system in parallel, at a time.

If you install Windows, it will not care about existing Linux installations. It will make your PC only boot Windows.

But fear not! You can boot into a live session, chroot into your existing Ubuntu installation, and update grub: How do I run update-grub from a LiveCD? This will make your PC boot all installed operating systems, again.

Because you intend to use more than one hard drive: Make sure to have your bios boot from the hard drive your Ubuntu installation is on with higher priority (further up) than the other hard drive.

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