Quad Boot XP/Vista/OSX/Linux

On first look, this task seems quite daunting but it really isn't. Really and truly it only took me a few Howto's myself, and some tinkering to get this system up and running. Let's start off with my system specs, so you can get an idea of what you need:

Intel Pentium 4 HT 2.4ghz w/SSE2 Instructions
512mb DDR Ram
Gefore 62000 TC 256mb Ram
250gb + 80gb HD's
DVD Burner

Important things:
Ofcourse your system may vary dramatically, but the important thing, is to make sure you've got SSE2 or SSE3 instructions (for OSx86) on your processor. You can use 'cpu z' to check this in windows. Also, I would recommend having a reasonable sized hard drive, since you will have FOUR operating systems installed on your computer.

Software Needed:
Windows XP CD
I used Jas OS X 10.4.8 Intel AMD SSE2 SSE3 DVD
Windows Vista DVD
Any Linux Flavor!
Acronis Disk Director Suite, or just OS Selector

Step 1:
Lets get started! Partition things like so:
Create four (4) partitions with any partition application:
Two ntfs partitions
One Fat32 Extended
One Linux Swap (Mine is 2gb)
One Linux Partition (I used reiserfs, but ext2 or ext3 would be ok)
One Data Partition (Any format)

Notice, I didn't specify the size of these partitions, since you have to decide that based on the size of your HD. I would recommend making the Data Partition Fat32 since that format is readable by all four of the operating systems, but the choice is yours :).

Step 2:
Pop in your XP cd, and do a normal install on one of the free NTFS partitions. When it's done, install Acronis disk director suite, and activate the OS selector. Also, create a rescue CD. This is needed in case ANY OS writes over the OS Selector, you won't need to get back in XP to install OS selector again (VERY IMPORTANT!). Now reboot, and make sure the OS selector has loaded correctly. Right click your windows XP selection, and rename it TEMP XP.

Step 3:
Now boot into the OS X installation and let it start up. When you reach the screen asking you which volume to install it on, it should be empty, goto the toolbar at the top and click Utilities -> Disk Utility. Now format that Fat32 Extended Partition as a Mac OS X extended journaled partition. When it's done, quit Disk Utility and you'll see that volume available for install. Select it and continue, make sure you install all of the relevant patches that came on the DVD for your machine.

Step 4:
When you reboot, if your boot loader was messed up, pop in the acronis rescue CD, and let it re-install the OS selector. After it does that, you should have two OS's in the menu "Windows XP" and Unknown operating system (that's OSX). Now use the same rescue CD, or boot into XP, and start the Acronis Disk Director utility. Make sure you select 'manual mode' when it asks. Now right click your OSx86 partition and make it a primary partition. Reboot, and when the OS selector starts, right click your OSX partition, click on properties, check your OS X partition and make it active. Now you can boot into both XP and OS X! You may also rename "Unknown Operating System" to anything you'd like. Just right click it in the OS selector and hit rename.

Step 5:
Do a regular install of any linux distro on the linux partition you made, and use the swap partition you created earlier. Please be sure that the only partitions the installer formats are the linux and/or swap partitions. It should either be mounting the rest of the partitions or do nothing with them. The install will most likely install grub or lilo over the Acronis OS Selector, so use the rescue CD and reinstall the OS selector. Now you should have three Operating systems to boot from! ALMOST THERE!!

Step 6:
Installing Vista is not as straight forward as the other installations, since by default Acronis OS Selector doesn't know how to boot Vista. So, re-pop in you windows XP cd, and boot from it. Now, when it asks you about partitioning, choose to use the second NTFS partition you had made, you may reformat, but make sure it's NTFS. Let it copy all of the files needed from the CD onto that partition, when it asks to reboot, swap the XP cd with the vista DVD, and hit enter to reboot! Now install vista OVER that same ntfs partition, be sure not to format it, but install over it. The vista installer should tell you something about putting the old windows installation in Windows.Old, click okay and proceed.

Step 7:
Good, now Vista would have put it's ugly boot loader over OS selector, so, for the last time, pop back in that rescue disk, and re-install the OS selector. After that, you should have two Windows XP selections, one Linux and your OS X selection in the OS selector boot menu. Delete the TEMP XP selection, and rename the other XP selection to 'XP/Vista'. I did it this way, since the Vista Bootloader detects XP and calls it "Earlier Version of Windows".

So that's it!! You've got all four operating systems on your computer booting up nicely. You may want to give each a boot, to make sure they're all playing nice! And don't forget to utilize that Fat 32 Data partition that all four operating systems can see.

Let me know how it goes!