easiest multiboot - refit, Grub, EasyBCD?

[GunsMadeAmericaFree]

For years I've wanted to set up a multiboot system, with perhaps DOS, Windows '95 or '98, XP, perhaps 7, and then maybe a version of Linux or two. More recently, I've discovered Dosbox, which allows me to play some old DOS games, so I no longer
feel that I would need to include DOS in the list. If there were something similar for running old Windows games under Win 10, I probably wouldn't feel a need to include multiple versions of Windows. But I digress.

Anyway, after a bit of searching, I've found that a number of folks considering setting up a multiboot system have used refit, Grub and EasyBCD.

Can anyone recommend one of these as better for someone who has not done this before? I presently have Windows 10, and would like to use some of the unpartitioned space on my HDD to at least have a few
versions of Linux. Something intuitive and easy to use would be nice.

Thanks for suggestions from anyone with experience doing this.

 

[JackMDS]

EasyBCD.- https://www.majorgeeks.com/files/details/easybcd.html

Only make sure that Win 10 installed first.

If you need to "play" with Partitions, this is very good too (in most cases the freeware will do).

https://www.partitionwizard.com/free-partition-manager.html

 

[mv2devnull]

UEFI.

EFI System Partition (ESP) has a folder for each vendor. Folder has bootloader of corresponding OS.

UEFI boot menu (stored on motherboard) has entries for each vendor/bootloader/OS.

Bootloader of one OS may support chainloading the other bootloaders/OS.

 

[mxnerd]

Running virtual machines using VirtualBox or VMware (Workstation / Player) is much easier in my opinion.

Dealing with partitions is absolutely a headache and can easily become a nightmare at some point.

 

[mv2devnull]

Virtualization is indeed a good option (and has improved over time).

Dealing with partitions is absolutely a headache and can easily become a nightmare at some point.

GPT-partitions are far less limited than the MBR partition table's possibilities. UEFI and GPT co-operate.

I tend to have dedicated partitions for VM's too.

Back in the day, a multi-boot between DOS, Windows, etc was a chore. The main hurdle was that all Microsoft OS's pretty much scan drives the same way and thus would find the same filesystem as "C:". That was not an option. A bootloader from Linux was able to remap and hide partitions before the OS saw them and thus the OSs did not see each other.

Yes, learning about partitions and filesystems will help.

 

[mxnerd]

Modern hardware & SSD or fast drive (with hardware or software RAID) can handle VM quite efficiently.

I have to say even a computer engineer doesn't necessarily fully understand how partitions are handled between different OS, boot managers, partition managers, utilities and it can easily become a disaster, in which case you probably can't boot anymore or even lose all of your partitions.

For beginners who wants to jump into multiple OS testing, VM is the way to go and you can use virtual disks that will expand only when it's necessary, which saves a lot of space. You can also easily create & delete a VM and use the main system all the time without reboot.