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I'm planning to have 6 operating systems in my laptop. And wanted to have more in the future.

I want to install 2 versions of desktop OS in windows (7 and 8.1) and a server OS in windows (Windows Server 2012).
I also want to install 2 versions of Linux (Oracle and Fedora).
I also want to install 1 version of Unix (Oracle Solaris).
I wanted to use those OSes for my studying purposes.
I'll use Oracle Linux as my main OS for programming Java.

If that's possible, what would be the installation order?

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    The only real problem is going to be getting the Windows stuff to play nicely. windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/… Aside from that, this is just a bad idea. You really want to look into virtual machines. It's a much better way to get the same thing without rebooting each time you want to try a new OS.
    – krowe
    Commented Sep 7, 2014 at 23:31
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    You really should be using virtualization software at this point. Virtualization technology simulates a computer running on top of a computer, so you get much more control and flexibility. I personally use Client Hyper-V, which requires Windows 8.1 Pro. You can also look into VirtualBox.
    – bwDraco
    Commented Sep 8, 2014 at 0:01
  • Most important question : BIOS or UEFI?
    – Milind R
    Commented Sep 10, 2014 at 9:24

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Oh its doable, but its going to be kind of messy, and I'm not familiar with one of the OSes. Virtualisation is the smart option at this point, and you're basically going to end up splitting up your hard drive into very small partitions. With virtualisation, you can do neat things like sparse images (so your installs don't use up space that dosen't actually have data in it), snapshots (perfect for when you've goofed up) and running more than one OS at a time. With a reasonably modern system, this should be acceptably fast, though you have a slightly different set of constraints to worry about.

If you must do this on physical hardware

If you're going with gpt, ignore the next bit about primary and extended partitions.

For starters, plan your partitions first. You need one primary partition (use this for a windows install) and one extended partition at least, and one logical partition per OS. Install windows first then linux (or at the very least, the last os you install

Linux supports using a swap file, and as such I recommend it - manually partition when installing linux, have a single / partition, and no swap partition, and add a swap file later.

I'm unfamiliar with Oracle Unix - Solaris uses grub to boot,so treat it as any linux distro, right down to using a swap file

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  • "Oracle Unix": The OP meant Solaris.
    – bwDraco
    Commented Sep 8, 2014 at 0:05
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The first step would be to partition the disk into 3 primary partitions and then split the last partition into 4 logical partitions (3 OS and a swap). One of the Linux or Unix OS would be the best to partition the disk since it would support the different types of formats you need.

Since Windows wants to be the only OS on your disk, I would install them first and not worry about being able to boot to all of them until you get GRUB (or GRUB2) written into the boot sector.

I stand corrected:
Here is what Ubuntu recommends:

  1. Partition the disk
  2. Install Windows in the first partition - it includes cautions and problem fixes
  3. Install the next OS - it includes cautions and problem fixes
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  • Not really true if I recall correctly. At least one windows install needs to be on a primary partition, but I seem to think it worked fine if you had say, a secondary windows install on an extended partition. A citation would be nice for educational purposes.
    – Journeyman Geek ♦
    Commented Sep 8, 2014 at 0:02
  • @JourneymanGeek I thought that Windows bootloader looks for the 'Boot' flag on the partition to ensure that it is bootable. Do logical partitions have a 'Boot' flag?
    – LDC3
    Commented Sep 8, 2014 at 0:04
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    I was under the impression one partition could in total, and least with 7 onwards, windows prefers to have a 100mb, seperate boot partition
    – Journeyman Geek ♦
    Commented Sep 8, 2014 at 0:18
  • @JourneymanGeek I believe that the Windows bootloader ensures that only one partition has the 'Boot' flag set at any time, clearing the flag from the non-booting partitions.
    – LDC3
    Commented Sep 8, 2014 at 0:23
  • I doubt it, I have not observed any such behavior with my dual boot system, though rigorous testing should be done to really find out. Windows has become a lot less possessive about disk partitions these days.
    – Milind R
    Commented Sep 10, 2014 at 8:59

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