[<<]Message[>>]    [<<]Author[>>]    [<<]Subject        [<<]Thread[>>]

Number   :  4527
Date     :  2003-05-04
Author   :  james sadler
Subject  :  Re: Fdisk
Size(KB) :  5


 I can think of three programs that will let you
easily multiboot. Xosl, Grub and Lilo.
--- meirman@e... wrote:
> At 08:52 AM 5/2/03 +0100, Bob Weir wrote:
> >Using Fdisk to set an active partition requires
> each disk (i.e.
> >#1 and #2) to be done separately. If it is
> possible to have four
> >active partitions on two disks, will the (auto)
> boot selection
> >sequence then be: -
> 
> Is it possible to have more than one active
> partition on a given disk? I
> didn't think so. You phrase it conditionally and so
> I don't know if you
> are asking, or politely saying that it is so.
> 
> >Disk 1 PRY, Disk1 EXT, Disk2 PRY, Disk2 EXT?
> >or: -
> >Disk1 PRY,Disk2 PRY Disk1 EXT, Disk2 EXT?
> 
> There was aiui a time when no one put more than one
> primary partition on a
> disk, maybe it was impossible, but now there can be
> 4. Some people iiuc
> consider an extended partition to be a primary
> partition, and I don't know
> if there is a firm rule, but at any rate there can
> also be 3 (other?)
> primary partitions and one extended partition. 
> 
> As to the auto boot selection sequence, I think it
> is first determined by
> the CMOS setting and then by reality. The CMOS
> setting determines the order
> in which physical devices will be checked for
> bootable partitions. 
> 
> For example, if the CMOS allows booting from the
> second harddrive, and the
> CMOS is set to boot from the second harddrive, the
> system will look at the
> second harddrive for an active partition. There
> will aiui be no more than
> one. If there is one, it will boot from that. If
> there is no active
> partition, it will go to the second item listed in
> the CMOS list in effect,
> and look for an active partition there (or if it is
> a CD, look for a
> bootable CD; of if it is a floppy, for a bootable
> floppy). When it finds
> something bootable, it will boot. If not it will
> continue through the list
> of devices. It's possible no bootable partition or
> floppy or CD will be
> found and it will not boot.
> 
> I don't think an Extended Partition can be an active
> partition. I don't
> think a logical partition (a partition within an
> extended one) can be an
> active partition. Maybe I'm wrong or someone has
> figured out how to get
> around these limitations. Please let me know.
> 
> 
> 
> Multiboot may or may not affect what I said above.
> 
> My multiboot experience has been limited to the use
> of System Commander, a
> program I would wish on no one but my worst enemy,
> for various reasons.**
> Other programs might do things entirely differently.
> I hope so. In SC I
> think all the info, including the hidden system
> files for the OSes in the
> other partitions, is stored on the first primary
> partition of the first
> harddrive, and that it starts at that point and is
> somehow redirected to
> the partition that has the OS one chooses. If so,
> this means uninstalling
> SC might be complicated, and require use of their
> uninstall procedure, and
> might require keeping track of this first partition
> even when moving to a
> new physical drive and even when abandoning the OS
> on the first partition,
> in my case win3.1. I don't know. As long as you
> never use SC, you need
> not worry about specifically SC questions.
> 
> At any rate, if I changed to booting from the second
> harddrive, I'm pretty
> sure it would ignore System Commander which I think
> is entirely on the
> first HD. Changing the CMOS to change where one
> boots from is
> substantially more inconvenient that just scrolling
> a line or two in a
> boot-up table and pressing enter, which is way
> System Commander works when
> one finally gets it working and before it breaks
> again. I'm looking
> forward to eventually using Boot Magic or XP
> multiboot, or anything other
> than SC.
> 
> **For one thing they admitted to me on the phone
> that it didn't do
> everything it said it did on the box. For another
> thing certain changes
> users are certain to do sometimes are barely
> documented (maybe one clause
> of 6 words whose import is totaly invisible) and
> they keep it from booting
> at all. There's about one line hidden in the middle
> of a paragraph which
> said what to do, but it wasn't clear when one was
> supposed to do it. It's
> really scarey when it won't boot at all. It happened
> about 5 times before I
> could take it without being scared for more than a
> second or two. Other
> changes take away the multiboot function, and I
> forget how to get that
> back, and it's not intuitive. (That's scarey too.)
> So I haven't been able
> to get into Dos6/w3.1 since I installed the new
> bigger hd. 
> 
> Last I talked to them, years ago, the help desk guy
> tried to sell me the
> new version. When I asked if the new version would
> solve any of the 3
> problems, that I had been asking him about, he said
> No. So why would I
> give them more money?
> 
> 
> >As a mere cloner I would welcome, as a complement
> to XXCOPY and
> >Kan's multi-boot scheme, a "Boldly Extended" FDISK
> (XFDISK?) that
> >makes it possible to set two (or up to four)
> partitions as
> >active.
> >Of course, I've no idea how much work that would
> entail for what
> >is only an occasional - but necessary - task.
> >
> >Thanks for the "hidden" fdisk /cmbr 2 tip, another
> plus for this
> >group!
> >
> >Becoming less useful as disks and partitions grow
> larger (and
> >probably common
> >knowledge) is the "hidden"
> >FORMAT /Z : n switch which sets the cluster
> size to n times
> >512 bytes rather than the FDISK defaults.
> 
> Didn't know this one either, when it might have
> helped me.
> 
> >Bob
> 
> Meir 
> 
> meirman@e... Baltimore, MD, USA
> 


__________________________________
Do you Yahoo!?
The New Yahoo! Search - Faster. Easier. Bingo.
http://search.yahoo.com



This message if part of XXCOPY's message Archive.
The archive contains all the messages posted at Yahoo!Groups: XXCOPY.