Re: Boot.ini question

Timothy Daniels wrote:

"Gerhard Fiedler" wrote:
How would you then calculate the rdisk number out of the
"hard drive boot order" for disks that can't be booted?

"rdisk" is a parameter with meaning only to ntldr in the selection of
hard drives for booting.

Correct in that rdisk in boot.ini has meaning only to ntldr. Wrong in the
use of "booting": it's meaning is the selection of a hard drive for
starting Windows.


Why would someone want the "rdisk" value for hard drives that can't be
booted, i.e. drives that ntldr can't boot?

You don't understand the difference between "booting" and "starting
Windows".

"Booting" is when the BIOS loads ntldr into memory and starts it.

"Starting Windows" is after ntldr reads boot.ini, optionally displays the
selection menu and starts Windows from the controller, drive, partition and
directory indicated by the chosen entry. This controller, drive and
partition does not have to be bootable by the BIOS.

One of the purposes is to allow selection of an extended partition or a
drive that the BIOS can't boot to start Windows.


You've said that devices other than hard drives can be booted with
ntldr,

Can you cite me on that? I've never written anything like that. I wrote
that Windows can be started from disks that can't be booted from.

Gerhard
.

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