Boot.ini question

[Dave C.]

A line in my boot.ini is:

default=multi (0) disk (0) rdisk (0) partition (2) \WINDOWS...

I figured out (I think) that rdisk (0) is drive 0 or the C: drive.

Also partition (2) must be the second partition in the C: drive or drive 0.
(Dell-purchased computer that has the XP operation system on the second
partition of C: drive.)

Correct me if I am wrong and what do the other two items "multi (0)" and
"disk (0)' refer to?

Thanks

 

[Yousuf Khan]

A line in my boot.ini is:

default=multi (0) disk (0) rdisk (0) partition (2) \WINDOWS...

I figured out (I think) that rdisk (0) is drive 0 or the C: drive.

Also partition (2) must be the second partition in the C: drive or drive 0.
(Dell-purchased computer that has the XP operation system on the second
partition of C: drive.)

Correct me if I am wrong and what do the other two items "multi (0)" and
"disk (0)' refer to?

This is designed around SCSI notation, not all of it is used in IDE
drives. I believe that the multi refers to the controller number (0
being first, 1 being second, 2 being third, etc.). In IDE drives I don't
think the disk portion is used, so it's always 0.

Yousuf Khan

 

[Rod Speed]

A line in my boot.ini is:

default=multi (0) disk (0) rdisk (0) partition (2) \WINDOWS...

I figured out (I think) that rdisk (0) is drive 0 or the C: drive.

Also partition (2) must be the second partition in the C: drive or drive 0.
(Dell-purchased computer that has the XP operation system on the second
partition of C: drive.)

Correct me if I am wrong

No you arent.

and what do the other two items "multi (0)" and "disk (0)' refer to?

Multi refers to the number of the controller. Disk is always 0.

And to make things even more messy,
partition counts from 1, the others from 0.

http://www.microsoft.com/resources/...0/server/reskit/en-us/prork/prbd_std_ccef.asp

 

[Dave C.]

And I thank you for your replied, Rod and Yousuf.

(The MS Resource Kit is good to read through.)

 

[Antoine Leca]

In Dave C. va escriure:

A line in my boot.ini is:

default=multi (0) disk (0) rdisk (0) partition (2) \WINDOWS...

I figured out (I think) that rdisk (0) is drive 0 or the C: drive.

The former. More precisely, disk 0x80 as seen by BIOS.
Will become \Device\Harddisk0, unless you got the 0x7B bugcheck.

Also partition (2) must be the second partition in the C: drive or
drive 0.

The second partition of the drive 0. Which partition happens to be your C:
drive (a volume or drive or letter is a file system, so it lies inside a
partition).

Correct me if I am wrong and what do the other two items "multi (0)"
and "disk (0)' refer to?

Much more details at http://www.linux-mips.org/wiki/ARC,
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/102873 and also .../227704.

multi() refers to some kind of "multi-purpose" bus; I never saw any other
than one such bus, thus multi(0). For Windows NTLDR it really means it
should rely on BIOS (INT13h).

disk() refers to some disk subsystem on the bus; since BIOS only has only
one way to address disks, it is always disk(0).

rdisk(N) is the "real" disk number (as assigned by the BIOS - 0x80; and up
to 3 according to MS doc).


Antoine

 

[Timothy Daniels]

rdisk(N) is the "real" disk number (as assigned
by the BIOS - 0x80; and up to 3 according to MS doc).

You can also think of "rdisk()" as meaning the
"relative disk position", that is, relative to the head
of the BIOS's hard drive boot order. Since the
boot order can be adjusted manually by the user
via keyboard input to the BIOS, the hard drive
referred to by "rdisk(0)" can be changed at will.
Thus, "rdisk(0)" will refer to the top of the boot
order list, "rdisk(1)" will refer to the next in the list,
"rdisk(2)" will refer to the next after that, etc., but
which hard drive those arguments refer to only
depends on cabling and I/O channel in the default
case.

*TimDaniels*

 

[Rod Speed]

Antoine Leca wrote

You can also think of "rdisk()" as meaning the
"relative disk position", that is, relative to the head of the BIOS's
hard drive boot order.

No you cant.

Since the boot order can be adjusted manually by the user via keyboard
input to the BIOS, the hard drive referred to by "rdisk(0)" can be
changed at will.

No it cant. The boot order setting doesnt
change the N in the rdisk entry.

Thus, "rdisk(0)" will refer to the top of the boot
order list, "rdisk(1)" will refer to the next in the list, "rdisk(2)"
will refer to the next after that, etc.,

No it doesnt. It has nothing to do with the boot order list at all.

It JUST refers to the physical order.

but which hard drive those arguments refer to only
depends on cabling and I/O channel in the default case.

In all cases, actually. The boot order in the bios is irrelevant to that.

 

[Timothy Daniels]

Timothy Daniels wrote


No you cant.


No it cant. The boot order setting doesnt
change the N in the rdisk entry.


No it doesnt. It has nothing to do with the boot order
list at all.

It JUST refers to the physical order.


In all cases, actually. The boot order in the bios is
irrelevant to that.

I stand by my claim, Rod. You can check if you want,
and you can make all the denials you want, but it is true,
and anyone can check that out - the "rdisk()" parameter
is relative to the top of the hard drive boot order, and it
only relates to physical position, i.e. cable position or
IDE channel number, in the default case. In the DEFAULT
case, the hard drive boot order is:

Master, IDE channel 0,
Slave, IDE channel 0,
Master, IDE channel 1,
Slave, IDE channel 1.

But when this order is changed in the BIOS, the
meaning of "rdisk()" changes physically, but it retains
its logical meaning as a reference to the boot order.
That means that "rdisk(0)" will ALWAYS refer to the
head of the boot order, regardless of which physical
hard drive is put at the head of the boot order, and
"rdisk(1)" will ALWAYS refer to the next one in the list.

Accordingly, I code boot.ini files to implement
switching between up to 7 or 8 clone OSes which are
resident simultaneously on 3 hard drives in my computer,
and the "rdisk()" parameter has always meant what I've
described above. I base this on the behavior of my
Dell Dimension XPS system which is about as common
as a PC can get.

*TimDaniels*

 

[Rod Speed]

Rod Speed wrote

I stand by my claim, Rod.

You can stand anywhere you like,
it changes absolutely nothing at all.

You can check if you want, and you can make all the denials you want, but
it is true, and anyone can check that out - the "rdisk()" parameter is
relative to the top of the hard drive boot order, and it only relates to
physical position, i.e. cable position or IDE channel number, in the
default case. In the DEFAULT case, the hard drive boot order is:

Thats just repeating your earlier assertion.

You can keep repeating that till you go blue
in the face if you like, changes nothing.

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.

Master, IDE channel 0,
Slave, IDE channel 0,
Master, IDE channel 1,
Slave, IDE channel 1.

But when this order is changed in the BIOS, the
meaning of "rdisk()" changes physically, but it retains
its logical meaning as a reference to the boot order.
That means that "rdisk(0)" will ALWAYS refer to the
head of the boot order, regardless of which physical
hard drive is put at the head of the boot order, and
"rdisk(1)" will ALWAYS refer to the next one in the list.

Again, that is just repeating original assertion and its
completely trivial to prove that its just plain wrong.

Accordingly, I code boot.ini files to implement
switching between up to 7 or 8 clone OSes which are
resident simultaneously on 3 hard drives in my computer,
and the "rdisk()" parameter has always meant what I've
described above. I base this on the behavior of my
Dell Dimension XPS system which is about as common
as a PC can get.

Doesnt explain the test I listed that proves you are just plain wrong.

 

[Eric Gisin]

rdisk(N) refers to Int13 drive 80h+N, simple as that.
How Int13 drives are ordered is completely up to the BIOS.
"fdisk /status" from DOS tells you, Disk Manager does NOT.

 

[Timothy Daniels]

As far as non sequiturs go, yes. And the BIOS's
hard drive drive boot order defines the meaning
of "rdisk(N)" - regardless of what you and the other
hand puppet says.

*TimDaniels*

 

[Timothy Daniels]

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.

Say whaaa? Gibberish will get you nowhere, Rod.

*TimDaniels*

 

[Rod Speed]

Rod Speed wrote

Say whaaa? Gibberish will get you nowhere, Rod.

Never ever could bullshit its way out of a wet paper bag.

 

[Rod Speed]

As far as non sequiturs go, yes.

Never ever could bullshit its way out of a wet paper bag.

And the BIOS's hard drive drive boot order defines the meaning of
"rdisk(N)"

You can keep respewing that mindless pig ignorant drivel till the
cows come home if you like, changes absolutely nothing at all.

- regardless of what you and the other hand puppet says.

Never ever could bullshit its way out of a wet paper bag.

 

[Antoine Leca]

En news:[email protected], Rod Speed va escriure:
Yes, that's a interpretation (of course, the original meaning in 1992 was
neither real not relative).


Beware: that's not the "boot order" (another thing entirely), but the order
among the harddisks (int13h non removable devices).
I guess Rod and you are in a misunderstanding here.

No it cant.
No it doesnt.
It JUST refers to the physical order.

Rod, some BIOSes allow to freely change the numbers among IDE devices, while
others (most) do not.


Antoine

 

[Timothy Daniels]

Yes, that's a interpretation (of course, the original
meaning in 1992 was neither real not relative).


Beware: that's not the "boot order" (another thing entirely),
but the order among the harddisks (int13h non removable
devices).

Yes. I usually refer specifically to "hard drive boot order",
but twice in short sequence seemed a bit much, so I
shortened it to "boot order" in the next sentence, thinking
that the implied sub-phrase "hard drive" was understood.
You point out an important point, because the "x" in
"rdisk(x)" refers to position in the "hard drive boot order",
not simply to the "boot order" - which includes other
bootable devices besides hard drives.

*TimDaniels*

 

[Rod Speed]

Rod Speed wrote

Yes, that's a interpretation (of course, the original
meaning in 1992 was neither real not relative).

Beware: that's not the "boot order" (another thing entirely), but
the order among the harddisks (int13h non removable devices).
I guess Rod and you are in a misunderstanding here.

Rod, some BIOSes allow to freely change the numbers
among IDE devices, while others (most) do not.

But NOT when you JUST change the boot order sequence.

Thats what he claims and he's just plain wrong on that.

 

[Timothy Daniels]

Antoine Leca wrote

But NOT when you JUST change the boot order sequence.

Thats what he claims and he's just plain wrong on that.

The meaning of "rdisk(0)" is "the hard drive having an
MBR and nearest the head of the BIOS's hard drive boot
order". So when one changes the hard drive (having an
MBR) that is at the head of the hard drive boot order, one
changes the hard drive designated by "rdisk(0)". This
may easily be checked by anyone familiar with boot.ini
and the boot process.

*TimDaniels*

 

[Rod Speed]

Rod Speed wrote

The meaning of "rdisk(0)" is "the hard drive having an MBR and nearest
the head of the BIOS's hard drive boot order".

Wrong, it has absolutely NOTHING to do
with the bios's hard drive boot order at all.

And I told you how to prove that it has absolutely NOTHING
to do with the bios's hard drive boot order at all.

So when one changes the hard drive (having an MBR) that is at the head of
the hard drive boot order, one
changes the hard drive designated by "rdisk(0)".

You can keep respouting that drivel till the cows
come home, it changes absolutely nothing at all.

This may easily be checked by anyone familiar with boot.ini and the boot
process.

I told you how to prove that it has absolutely NOTHING
to do with the bios's hard drive boot order at all.

 

[Timothy Daniels]

Timothy Daniels wrote

I told you how to prove that it has absolutely NOTHING
to do with the bios's hard drive boot order at all.

It does in *my* PC, and my PC is a pretty near
generic Dell Dimension.

*TimDaniels*