A salvage shop combined with aging personal inventory yields the opportunity, I hope, to build a fairly capable and flexible desktop work station with PLEX home network media server system within a minimalist budget. (It may not be the latest-greatest architecture, but neither am I.). It includes a Gigabyte GA-Q77M-D2H LGA1155 socket motherboard; an Intel Core i5 3470 quad-core CPU; 16 gb DDR3 RAM; >12 tb storage (3 or 4 SSD's, several internal and external HDD's), NVIDIA Quadro K620 GPU. BIOS is updated, set to UEFI; USB 3.0 works.
Goal: multi-boot system; Win7 Pro, Win10 Pro, Mac High Sierra, Linux Mint. (PLEX will run on Windows, my everyday OS.) Getting there needs to be an evolving staged development over months, as time becomes available while maintaining everyday usability.
SSD1 contains W7 OS partition C: with some programs, partition D: with most of programs; (this dinged-up configuration is muddled and corrupted over the years, but contains several hundred programs, many I will install fresh on W10). SSD2 contains clean/activated W10, gained from MS upgrade program, based on OEM tag from motherboard. SSD3 will contain High Sierra; SSD4, Mint (unless I decide to add it to an existing SSD).
My question is how to make all these OS's on separate SSD's boot correctly while maintaining a common identification among the various logical drives. (I tried EasyBCD, but haven't got it quite working, yet.) My reading suggests that a boot manager like rEFInd might be my easiest option, but I'm looking here for experienced counsel for best software and configuration process to make this all purr smoothly.
So far I get SSD1 and SSD2 to boot independently, but they don't always like to be connected at the same time. They were each initially installed solo, with no other drives attached. I'm using W7 as my current everyday, but I'd like to get both W7 and W10 dual-booting and coexisting, so I can access and copy files from one drive to the other as I gradually develop/transition to my W10 system. One problem I remember is that both of these independent installs see their OS on logical drive C: Do I just change the labels within the two configurations to avoid conflict? Perhaps label W10's C: to E: while running off W7's C: & D:, and label W7's C: to F: when running off W10's C:? Or is there a way to change W10's registry, et. al. from C: to reference E: all the time?
While I have backups of both drives, I'd like to avoid any reinstalls of W7 or W10. W7 over the years is so jury-rigged, I'm lucky it still works, and I need it to remain dependable until I'm totally transitioned to W10. My W10 was installed from the MS upgrade program (which has now expired), so it doesn't have a stand-alone DVD--or is there a way around this?)
I'm thinking it's wise to get W7 and W10 to coexist first, before proceeding to Sierra and Mint. Can I use the same multi-boot manager for just those two (as I will for the four)? Can each additional OS simply be added to its configuration, one-at-a-time, or does the boot manager need to be uninstalled and reinstalled each time? Does the boot manager software get installed on only one drive or in each OS? What other advice is important for this project?
My apologies for my naiveté. I've built numerous single OS Windows machines over the years, but this is certainly a new level of challenge. I've studied tons of web articles and forums on multi-booting with these OS's, including tonymacx86, but couldn't answer these particular questions. Your considerate guidance is appreciated.
Goal: multi-boot system; Win7 Pro, Win10 Pro, Mac High Sierra, Linux Mint. (PLEX will run on Windows, my everyday OS.) Getting there needs to be an evolving staged development over months, as time becomes available while maintaining everyday usability.
SSD1 contains W7 OS partition C: with some programs, partition D: with most of programs; (this dinged-up configuration is muddled and corrupted over the years, but contains several hundred programs, many I will install fresh on W10). SSD2 contains clean/activated W10, gained from MS upgrade program, based on OEM tag from motherboard. SSD3 will contain High Sierra; SSD4, Mint (unless I decide to add it to an existing SSD).
My question is how to make all these OS's on separate SSD's boot correctly while maintaining a common identification among the various logical drives. (I tried EasyBCD, but haven't got it quite working, yet.) My reading suggests that a boot manager like rEFInd might be my easiest option, but I'm looking here for experienced counsel for best software and configuration process to make this all purr smoothly.
So far I get SSD1 and SSD2 to boot independently, but they don't always like to be connected at the same time. They were each initially installed solo, with no other drives attached. I'm using W7 as my current everyday, but I'd like to get both W7 and W10 dual-booting and coexisting, so I can access and copy files from one drive to the other as I gradually develop/transition to my W10 system. One problem I remember is that both of these independent installs see their OS on logical drive C: Do I just change the labels within the two configurations to avoid conflict? Perhaps label W10's C: to E: while running off W7's C: & D:, and label W7's C: to F: when running off W10's C:? Or is there a way to change W10's registry, et. al. from C: to reference E: all the time?
While I have backups of both drives, I'd like to avoid any reinstalls of W7 or W10. W7 over the years is so jury-rigged, I'm lucky it still works, and I need it to remain dependable until I'm totally transitioned to W10. My W10 was installed from the MS upgrade program (which has now expired), so it doesn't have a stand-alone DVD--or is there a way around this?)
I'm thinking it's wise to get W7 and W10 to coexist first, before proceeding to Sierra and Mint. Can I use the same multi-boot manager for just those two (as I will for the four)? Can each additional OS simply be added to its configuration, one-at-a-time, or does the boot manager need to be uninstalled and reinstalled each time? Does the boot manager software get installed on only one drive or in each OS? What other advice is important for this project?
My apologies for my naiveté. I've built numerous single OS Windows machines over the years, but this is certainly a new level of challenge. I've studied tons of web articles and forums on multi-booting with these OS's, including tonymacx86, but couldn't answer these particular questions. Your considerate guidance is appreciated.
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