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There's similar questions but nothing quite exactly what i'm looking for

I have a laptop that currently dualboots XP and Ubuntu, with XP chainloaded by grub. I'd like to get windows 7 in the mix, need to upgrade my version of ubuntu anyway, and adjust the partitions quite a bit so my current plan is to wipe out the ubuntu partition and shrink XP, split what i have in 2, install 7 (so BCD will boot windows XP) then install ubuntu so that grub will chainload BCD

I have 2 questions 1) will BCD/windows 7 detect and chainload the XP system 2) will grub2 on the latest ubuntu LTS chainload BCD

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Why BCD, you should be able to configure grub to choose Ubuntu, win7 and winxp without bcd? – jer.salamon Aug 2 '10 at 10:39
cause grub will have to chainload BCD, BCD should, in theory chainload grub – Journeyman Geek Aug 3 '10 at 11:03

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I found a forum post which says he got it working two ways.

It notes that if you install GRUB to the MBR, the GRUB menu will have a single item for the BCD. Then, the BCD contains entries for "earlier versions" (XP) and 7 (you can set BCD labels with easyBCD). I think this is what you want.

The same post notes that he rejected that solution because he was mostly booting to Windows. It gives a explanation in which he installs Windows first (letting it keep the MBR), then installs GRUB to the Ubuntu partition. The result is that the BCD menu comes first, giving three options, 7, XP, and Ubuntu. The Ubuntu menu really goes to GRUB, which you can tell to instantly boot Ubuntu.

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that's a comprehensive enough answer, enough that i'll take the risk. I do have grub on my MBR right now, so i'm a bit unsure – Journeyman Geek Aug 3 '10 at 11:03
EasyBCD 2.0 is your man, like Matt says. – Mahmoud Al-Qudsi Aug 4 '10 at 20:15

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