How-To Geek

Does anyone see any flaws in the following triple-boot approach?

On my 64-bit laptop with 8GB of RAM I'm looking at running Windows 7 Pro, Windows 8 Pro and Ubuntu 12.04, all from the same 240GB SSD. I'll go with GPT partitioning, and I think this means I don't have to limit myself to four partitions, but I'm not positive this applies to triple-boot.

Step A: Partition disk (all NTFS) : Partition 1 - 40GB , Partition 2 - 40GB,
Partition 3 - 2GB, Partition 4 - 20GB, and Partition 5 - 138GB for file storage.

Step B: Install Win 7 Pro to a 40GB partition.
Step C: Install Win 8 Pro to a 40GB partition.
Step D: Create Linux swap on the 2GB partition .
Step E: Install Ubuntu 12.04 to the 20GB partition
Step F: Add GRUB-2 while Ubuntu live DVD is still installed, but only after I install Ubuntu.

Regards,
Jeff in Colorado

You can't install Ubuntu on NTFS partition. It must be ext3, ext4, btrfs or a couple other options. When you install Ubuntu (preferably after both Windows OSs, boot from the Live CD/USB and try ubuntu without installing. You can then use gparted to change the swap partition to linux-swap and the ubuntu partition to ext3 or ext4 . Then you can install ubuntu choosing the Something Else option. Highlight the ext4 partition and click Change. Set the parameters making sure you set the mount point as /

Then proceed with the install. If you aren't familiar with the Ubuntu install Ubuntu has some nice documentation pages. I would suggest reading to familiarize yourself with the installation process if you are unfamiliar with linux installations.

Thank you for all the help!! I meant to "Accept" all answers above, but didn't realize that accepting one answer prevents doing the same with others. Cheers.