Re: Boot.ini question

En news:449ntsF14imaU1@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx, Rod Speed va escriure:
> Antoine Leca <root@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote
>> Rod Speed wrote
>
>>> But NOT when you JUST change the boot order sequence.
>
>> Correct, assuming the generally used meaning for
>> "boot order sequence" ("order inside the IPL table",
>> also known as "IPL Priority", according to the standard.)
>
> Where exactly are you getting that from ?

Compaq-Phoenix-Intel, BIOS Boot Specification Version 1.01, 1996, 46 p.
http://www.phoenix.com/NR/rdonlyres/56E38DE2-3E6F-4743-835F-B4A53726ABED/0/specsbbs101.pdf

Would you have read/meant anything else?


> ALL he is saying to you now is that its only the hard drives
> with an MBR that matter in the bios boot order list, as
> opposed to all entrys in that list including optical drives etc.

I did not read it this way, but if he said that, it would be very wrong.

Also, the fact there is or not a MBR should not come into play. You can
perfectly boot a computer with a device whose sector LBA0 ends in 55AAh but
lacking a MBR.
Perhaps you'll have to disable the advanced "features" like "virus
protection", though.


> And its completely trivial to prove that it doesnt with the test
> I posted.

You meant:
] The obvious problem with your claim is trivial to prove.
] Setup a test config where the boot.ini comes off the
] first drive in the boot list in the bios, with an entry to
] boot off a different physical drive. When you move
] that later physical drive in the boot order in the bios,
] that doesnt make any difference to which drive gets
] booted when you select that entry in the boot.ini at
] boot time. The N value changes according to you
] because you have moved it in the bios boot sequence
] list. XP still boots the same physical drive regardless.

The problem with this test is that it does not work in general.

Assume you have two controlers: say two IDE drives and a RAID array.
According to your hypothesis, we will assume that the booting ("system" in
MS parlance) drive would be the first IDE, so 0x80, the second would have
number 0x81, and the array will get the next position, 0x82.
We also assume that Windows is on the RAID array, so BOOT.INI reads
something as
  multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(2)partition(1)\WINDOWS

Now, if you change the "Hard disk drive sequence" in the BIOS, how could
that ever work?
Changing the sequence will assign 0x80 to the array, so it boots from it; we
should first assume the BOOT.INI had be moved accordingly; but to boot
successfully you also need to correct its content also, here to rdisk(0).
The IDE drives will get 0x81 and 0x82, but they are irrelevant as far as
your scheme is concerned.


Basically, I feel that the NTLDR scheme is dependant upon _both_ the
identification of the system device (the one where BOOT.INI is) and the boot
device a.k.a. where Windows kernel is (indicated by the ARCpath). Moving any
of those results usually in impossibility to boot and need to mess with the
location and content of BOOT.INI (there is hope the new BootMgr scheme will
solve part of these problems, but I am not sure).


>> And I understand neither you do...
>
> Wrong again.

Sorry about the double negative, I thought it could be understood.
I wrote it was my impression you did _not_ know about some BIOS that allows
to _change_ the order the various drives on a single controller/device are
getting assigned.

If I was wrong and you do know about it, please elaborate.


Antoine

.

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