Windows 7 Multiboot OS

[BrentR678]

Hello, I'm trying to install multiple operating systems on my laptop. Right now the primary OS is Windows 7 x64 with a second OS installed of Windows 8. I'm trying to install Windows Server 2008 as a third OS to boot to. I'm getting an error message saying the dick already contains the maximum allowable partitions. Right now I have a single hard drive set up as a basic disk type. There are a total of 5 partitions on it. 2 that I cant get ride of for some reason. Windows 7, 8, and 50GB of allocated space that i plan to use for Server 2008. Any idea why it wont let me install? Thanks in advance!

 

[cliffordcooley]

You can only have 4 primary partitions. This is a rule that goes way back for ages. Primary partition are the only partitions, you can flag as active. The booting process looks for active partitions to continue the boot process to. However you only really need one primary partition if you plan on using a single boot manager.

I'm not absolutely positive but you should be able to install Windows to a logical partition as long as the boot manager is kept or can be placed on a primary partition.

 

[Joe S]

Another possible workaround if you have Windows 7 Ultimate or Enterprise is creating a bootable virtual hard disk.
Joe

 

[BrentR678]

Well the issue im having is that it wont even let me create a logical partition. For the time being i worked it by deleting the OEM partition and installing it on that. But still i would like to know how to create more if possible.

 

[cliffordcooley]

One of the 4 primary partitions must be sacrificed for use as the extended partition. Then you can have a dozen or more logical partitions within the extended partition.

This explains it better than I could - (Primary, Extended, and Logical Partitions).