Another Ghost Question: 2 Bootable drives

[jeff]

Question,

If one backs up their "C" drive to another internal drive as a clone which
is bootable, what happens during the startup procedure?

Should the bootable clone be kept separate from the PC?

TIA<

Jeff

 

[Peter]

Question,

If one backs up their "C" drive to another internal drive as a clone which
is bootable, what happens during the startup procedure?

First, BIOS setting; second boot manager procedure.
For WinXP here is some info:
http://www.compphix.com/xpbootprocess.html

Should the bootable clone be kept separate from the PC?

Yes, it should, otherwise you might experience something hard
to explain.
BTW, cloning process should be done when PC boots up
from media other than your source disk, or at least does not
cause files open. If not, use cloning software utilizing
"shadow copy".

 

[Rod Speed]

If one backs up their "C" drive to another internal drive as a clone which is
bootable, what happens during the startup procedure?

If you JUST make a clone, and never boot it, nothing changes,
it will continue to boot off the original until you change that by
say changing which drive to boot off in the bios.

Should the bootable clone be kept separate from the PC?

Nope, just dont boot it with the original visible to the OS at boot time.

 

[Rod Speed]

First, BIOS setting; second boot manager procedure.
For WinXP here is some info:
http://www.compphix.com/xpbootprocess.html

Thats a bit garbled.

The BIOS then reads the MBR (Master Boot Record)
which is in the first sector of the first hard disk

it actually reads the MBR which is the first sector
of the hard disk specified to boot from in the bios.

and transfers control to the code in the
MBR which is created by the XP Setup.

thats not necessarily true either.

Yes, it should, otherwise you might
experience something hard to explain.

Not if you dont boot the clone.

BTW, cloning process should be done when PC boots up from
media other than your source disk, or at least does not cause
files open. If not, use cloning software utilizing "shadow copy".

Thats not necessarily a bad thing.

 

[jeff]

Rod...

I have come across a sittuation in my trials and tribulations with
experimentinfg that upon bootup, a dos window comes up asking you which
partition to boot.

Isn't by default a drive specified in the bios that yo usaid, why would a
window pop up after booting asking which partition to boot from?

Thanks......I'm learning and fasinated.

jeff

 

[Rod Speed]

I have come across a sittuation in my trials and tribulations with
experimentinfg that upon bootup, a dos window comes up asking you which
partition to boot.

Thats not dos, its more likely to be the bios.

It can be XP tho, and it still isnt dos.

Isn't by default a drive specified in the bios that you said,

Yes, but if you specified a particular physical drive to boot
and that isnt in fact bootable, some bios will show you a
list of what drives are bootable for you to select.

Basically thats considered to be more useful than having
to go into the bios and specify the boot priority again.

why would a window pop up after booting asking which partition to boot from?

Normally because what you have specified in the
bios isnt bootable anymore for some reason.

XP has its own B&W full screen where you specify what
to boot, but thats normally the boot.ini giving you a choice
of the boots specified in the boot.ini and its hard to get
that showing up for the first time by accidental copying.

XP will produce the same thing on boot failure,
but thats got more than just actually listing which
partition to boot, its asking which type of boot to
do with the specified partition, safe mode etc.

Thanks......I'm learning and fasinated.

No problem thats what these technical newsgroups are about.

 

[jeff]

Thats not dos, its more likely to be the bios.

It can be XP tho, and it still isnt dos.


Yes, but if you specified a particular physical drive to boot
and that isnt in fact bootable, some bios will show you a
list of what drives are bootable for you to select.

Basically thats considered to be more useful than having
to go into the bios and specify the boot priority again.


Normally because what you have specified in the
bios isnt bootable anymore for some reason.

XP has its own B&W full screen where you specify what
to boot, but thats normally the boot.ini giving you a choice
of the boots specified in the boot.ini and its hard to get
that showing up for the first time by accidental copying.

XP will produce the same thing on boot failure,
but thats got more than just actually listing which
partition to boot, its asking which type of boot to
do with the specified partition, safe mode etc.


No problem thats what these technical newsgroups are about.

Wow Rod.....I learned alot, thnx again

jeff