Member Avatar for rithish

hii iam having 3gb ram and 160gb harddisk and currently iam using windows 7.now i want to use windows sever as second operating system and next i want to install linux in my pc is it possible??
and how to install multiple operating systems in single pc. i have to run threee opearting systems in single pc please help

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  • Latest Post Latest Post by Xlphos

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Short answer: yes — you can have Windows 7, a Windows Server edition, and a Linux distro on one PC, but plan carefully given 3 GB of RAM and a dual-core CPU. Running all three at once in virtual machines will be tight; running one OS at a time (multi‑boot) uses less RAM but changes disk layout and the bootloader, so make a full image backup first.

A safe, practical checklist to follow:

  • Image the disk before you touch partitions (Clonezilla is a reliable free tool).
  • Decide whether to use separate physical disks (simplest to switch via BIOS) or separate partitions on the same disk.
  • Install Windows versions first, then install Linux last so its bootloader (GRUB) can detect the Windows installs. If boot problems occur, the GRUB manual and the Windows recovery environment can help repair boot entries (GNU GRUB manual).
  • Test Linux from a live USB before installing to confirm hardware support and driver availability.

Memory, disk and licensing notes:

  • With 3 GB RAM, prefer multi‑boot or very lightweight VMs. A server OS can run without a GUI (server/core installs) which reduces RAM needs.
  • Snapshots are useful if you use virtualization; if you go that route, allocate RAM conservatively and suspend resource‑heavy services.
  • Confirm your Windows key type: OEM keys are typically tied to the original hardware, retail keys can usually be transferred, and volume/MAK keys follow different rules — check your license terms before reinstalling.

References and quick resources: use a disk‑imaging tool before any partitioning changes, read the GRUB docs for bootloader behavior, and if you try virtualization, read your VM product’s docs for memory and snapshot guidance (official VirtualBox and VMware manuals are a good start). This plan ties together points raised by , , and while adding practical, low‑risk steps for moving forward.

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Member Avatar for rithish

and my processor is dual core

Member Avatar for dij_0983

Is it ubuntu?, there's an alongside windows installer
(you can check the ubuntu site for more info about this)
other than that I think you can partition the hard drive

Member Avatar for JorgeM

I would suggest that you do not multi-boot the system because backing-out of the changes will basically result in you having to reload the OSs from scratch. My suggestion is to install a VM product (VirtualBox, VMWare, or Virtual PC) on your Windows 7 host computer and create guest VMs that you can easily load and delete when you are done without modifying your host operating system at all.

Member Avatar for Xlphos

May I ask why you are using windows server?

You should be able to install all these OSes on one machine or virtual machines, not that I imagine having 3 operating systems being to useful.

Why are you after installing all these operating systems on one computer?

Member Avatar for skilly

i like to have multple OS's because of compatiblity & stability. if one goes down boot the other. plus then i can advise ppl better if i have the OS they are using at my fingertips.
you have to be very careful that you do not waste your Windows 7 key, if it is a retail key, do not worry about it, if it is a MAK(multiple activation),be careful, you don't want to waste the activations.
if you want to transfer your retail key to another machine, you must first deactivate it on the old machine.

as mentioned, start by creating partitions

another method is having multiple hard drives and then using the BIOS to boot from different hard drives.

Member Avatar for Xlphos

I like to dual boot too, but server??? why?

AS far as trying different flavours of OSes I find virtual machines much more convenient.

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