ARC boot path question SATA vs IDE boot order

  • Thread starter Thread starter - Bobb -
  • Start date Start date
B

- Bobb -

One question about the ARC Path Naming Conventions :
I have a SATA and just added a temporary bootable IDE drive (old drive
that I used here prior to sata purchase). I see that in the boot.ini of
each drive that the path is the same - it depends on the order that I
setup the ASUS ( phoenix) BIOS which boots first. So if I set SATA
first, then I get ITS boot menu - and it works fine. If I make the IDE
drive first in BIOS boot order, I get the IDE boot menu.
With both in there, other than changing BIOS , any way to specify which
drive to boot ?? I would THINK that they'd be a variable to set path of
IDE channel 0 or 1 and/or SATA channel 0 or 1 ? I'd like to leave them
both in for now to use old XP partitions for Vista x32 and x64 installs,
but don't want to have to toggle BIOS. ( yes I would reformat old
partitions)

Old IDE drive:
[boot loader]
timeout=5
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP
Professional" /fastdetect /NoExecute=OptIn
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Windows XP Professional x64
Edition" /fastdetect

New SATA Drive
[boot loader]
timeout=5
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP
Professional" /NOEXECUTE=OPTIN /FASTDETECT
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS="Old XP Pro on E:"
/FASTDETECT /NOEXECUTE=OPTIN
 
You're interested in what value to set the rdisk() argument.
Here's background:

In just an IDE environment, "rdisk(x)" refers to the disk that
is at position "x" relative to the start of the HD boot order.
The *default* HD boot order is:

Master, IDE ch. 0,
Slave, IDE ch.0,
Master, IDE ch. 1,
Slave, IDE ch. 1.

In this default HD boot order, assuming that all IDE ch. positions
are occupied by a HD, rdisk(0) refers to the Master on IDE ch. 0,
rdisk(1) refers to the Slave on IDE ch. 0, etc. If there is no HD
with an MBR at a particular position, rdisk() just refers to the next
HD in the HD boot order.

Many, if not most, BIOSes allow the user to reset the HD boot
order via keyboard during the POST phase of the boot process.
But the meaning of "rdisk(x)" continues to follow whatever HD
boot order that the user sets up. This can be used to change
which HD controls booting merely by resetting the HD boot order,
and it can be used as a crude (but effective) method of multi-
booting. The only thing it lacks is partition selection to find the OS.

A crude way of selecting the partition to control booting is to
set which Primary partition on a HD is "active" before restarting
the PC. Once a HD is selected for booting, the MBR of that HD
hands off control to the boot sector of the "active" partition, where
ntldr and boot.ini and ntdetect.com are expected to be found.
In WinXP, the "active" setting can be manually controlled with
Disk Management - rt-clk a partition in the GUI, and if "Mark
Partition as Active" is greyed out, it's already "active".

But, of course, the most convenient way of multi-booting is to
use the menu information contained in the entries of the boot.ini
file. There, "rdisk(x)" refers to the HD relative to its position x in
the HD boot order, starting with "0", and "partition()" refers to the
position of the partition within the HD, starting with "1". The
partitions are no'd starting with the Primary partitions, then the
Local Drives on the Extended partition if there is one. Thus, the
OS can be in any partition on any HD in the system. There can
even be more than one OS in each partition since the file name
containing the OS must be given, too, which the installer usually
chooses to be "WINDOWS" unless there is already a "WINDOWS"
folder present. (I don't recommend more than one OS in a
partition, though.)

Now, as you have found, when the SATA HD boot order is
selected, "rdidk(0)" refers to the 1st SATA HD in the HD boot
order, *probably* SATA ch. 0. "rdisk(1)" would *probably* refer
to the 2nd SATA HD in the default SATA HD boot order -
*probably* SATA ch. 1.

Your question is "How does one combine the "rdisk()" spaces
of the IDE and SATA HDs?" I don't know the answer to that,
but the answer is probably *very* BIOS-specific. Since your
ASUS is a Phoenix-based BIOS, it's probably a common
implementation, so the answer would be valuable to a lot of
PC users. Please favor us with an experiment:

Set the BIOS to use the IDE controller first.
In the boot.ini file of an "active" Primary partition of an IDE HD,
place an OS entry that has the "rdisk()" argument set to the
no. of IDE HDs in the system. That is, if there is one IDE HD,
use "rdisk(1)" in the new entry. See if it causes the SATA HD
to control booting. If it does, it would appear that the rdisk()
space of the IDE HD boot order spills over into the SATA HD
boot order. If "rdisk(1)" doesn't work, try "rdisk(5)".

I suspect, though, that the rdisk() spaces don't overlap since
the controllers are so different. But please let us know.

*TimDaniels*


- Bobb - said:
One question about the ARC Path Naming Conventions :
I have a SATA and just added a temporary bootable IDE drive
(old drive that I used here prior to sata purchase). I see that in
the boot.ini of each drive that the path is the same - it depends
on the order that I setup the ASUS ( phoenix) BIOS which boots
first. So if I set SATA first, then I get ITS boot menu - and it
works fine. If I make the IDE drive first in BIOS boot order, I get
the IDE boot menu. With both in there, other than changing BIOS ,
any way to specify which drive to boot ?? I would THINK that
they'd be a variable to set path of IDE channel 0 or 1 and/or
SATA channel 0 or 1 ? I'd like to leave them both in for now to
use old XP partitions for Vista x32 and x64 installs, but don't
want to have to toggle BIOS. ( yes I would reformat old partitions)

Old IDE drive:
[boot loader]
timeout=5
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS="Microsoft
Windows XP Professional" /fastdetect /NoExecute=OptIn
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Windows XP
Professional x64 Edition" /fastdetect

New SATA Drive
[boot loader]
timeout=5
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft
Windows XP Professional" /NOEXECUTE=OPTIN /FASTDETECT
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS="Old XP Pro
on E:" /FASTDETECT /NOEXECUTE=OPTIN
Click to expand...
 
So - with SATA as first boot - my boot.ini would be :

[boot loader]
timeout=5
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP
Professional" /NOEXECUTE=OPTIN /FASTDETECT
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP
Professional E:" /FASTDETECT /NOEXECUTE=OPTIN
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Windows XP Pro x64 "
/fastdetect ( This would be IDE drive #1 partition #1 ?)

I'll try it now.



Timothy Daniels said:
You're interested in what value to set the rdisk() argument.
Here's background:

In just an IDE environment, "rdisk(x)" refers to the disk that
is at position "x" relative to the start of the HD boot order.
The *default* HD boot order is:

Master, IDE ch. 0,
Slave, IDE ch.0,
Master, IDE ch. 1,
Slave, IDE ch. 1.

In this default HD boot order, assuming that all IDE ch. positions
are occupied by a HD, rdisk(0) refers to the Master on IDE ch. 0,
rdisk(1) refers to the Slave on IDE ch. 0, etc. If there is no HD
with an MBR at a particular position, rdisk() just refers to the next
HD in the HD boot order.

Many, if not most, BIOSes allow the user to reset the HD boot
order via keyboard during the POST phase of the boot process.
But the meaning of "rdisk(x)" continues to follow whatever HD
boot order that the user sets up. This can be used to change
which HD controls booting merely by resetting the HD boot order,
and it can be used as a crude (but effective) method of multi-
booting. The only thing it lacks is partition selection to find the
OS.

A crude way of selecting the partition to control booting is to
set which Primary partition on a HD is "active" before restarting
the PC. Once a HD is selected for booting, the MBR of that HD
hands off control to the boot sector of the "active" partition, where
ntldr and boot.ini and ntdetect.com are expected to be found.
In WinXP, the "active" setting can be manually controlled with
Disk Management - rt-clk a partition in the GUI, and if "Mark
Partition as Active" is greyed out, it's already "active".

But, of course, the most convenient way of multi-booting is to
use the menu information contained in the entries of the boot.ini
file. There, "rdisk(x)" refers to the HD relative to its position x
in
the HD boot order, starting with "0", and "partition()" refers to the
position of the partition within the HD, starting with "1". The
partitions are no'd starting with the Primary partitions, then the
Local Drives on the Extended partition if there is one. Thus, the
OS can be in any partition on any HD in the system. There can
even be more than one OS in each partition since the file name
containing the OS must be given, too, which the installer usually
chooses to be "WINDOWS" unless there is already a "WINDOWS"
folder present. (I don't recommend more than one OS in a
partition, though.)

Now, as you have found, when the SATA HD boot order is
selected, "rdidk(0)" refers to the 1st SATA HD in the HD boot
order, *probably* SATA ch. 0. "rdisk(1)" would *probably* refer
to the 2nd SATA HD in the default SATA HD boot order -
*probably* SATA ch. 1.

Your question is "How does one combine the "rdisk()" spaces
of the IDE and SATA HDs?" I don't know the answer to that,
but the answer is probably *very* BIOS-specific. Since your
ASUS is a Phoenix-based BIOS, it's probably a common
implementation, so the answer would be valuable to a lot of
PC users. Please favor us with an experiment:

Set the BIOS to use the IDE controller first.
In the boot.ini file of an "active" Primary partition of an IDE HD,
place an OS entry that has the "rdisk()" argument set to the
no. of IDE HDs in the system. That is, if there is one IDE HD,
use "rdisk(1)" in the new entry. See if it causes the SATA HD
to control booting. If it does, it would appear that the rdisk()
space of the IDE HD boot order spills over into the SATA HD
boot order. If "rdisk(1)" doesn't work, try "rdisk(5)".

I suspect, though, that the rdisk() spaces don't overlap since
the controllers are so different. But please let us know.

*TimDaniels*


- Bobb - said:
One question about the ARC Path Naming Conventions :
I have a SATA and just added a temporary bootable IDE drive
(old drive that I used here prior to sata purchase). I see that in
the boot.ini of each drive that the path is the same - it depends
on the order that I setup the ASUS ( phoenix) BIOS which boots
first. So if I set SATA first, then I get ITS boot menu - and it
works fine. If I make the IDE drive first in BIOS boot order, I get
the IDE boot menu. With both in there, other than changing BIOS ,
any way to specify which drive to boot ?? I would THINK that
they'd be a variable to set path of IDE channel 0 or 1 and/or
SATA channel 0 or 1 ? I'd like to leave them both in for now to
use old XP partitions for Vista x32 and x64 installs, but don't
want to have to toggle BIOS. ( yes I would reformat old partitions)

Old IDE drive:
[boot loader]
timeout=5
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS="Microsoft
Windows XP Professional" /fastdetect /NoExecute=OptIn
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Windows XP
Professional x64 Edition" /fastdetect

New SATA Drive
[boot loader]
timeout=5
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft
Windows XP Professional" /NOEXECUTE=OPTIN /FASTDETECT
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS="Old XP Pro
on E:" /FASTDETECT /NOEXECUTE=OPTIN
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
 
Thought a second and the X64 box needs to be first drive so I booted it and
changed boot.ini to be:

[boot loader]
timeout=5
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP
Professional" /fastdetect /NoExecute=OptIn
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Windows XP Pro x64 Edition"
/fastdetect
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Windows XP Pro on SATA drive C
" /fastdetect

rebooting now


- Bobb - said:
So - with SATA as first boot - my boot.ini would be :

[boot loader]
timeout=5
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP
Professional" /NOEXECUTE=OPTIN /FASTDETECT
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP
Professional E:" /FASTDETECT /NOEXECUTE=OPTIN
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Windows XP Pro x64 "
/fastdetect ( This would be IDE drive #1 partition #1 ?)

I'll try it now.



Timothy Daniels said:
You're interested in what value to set the rdisk() argument.
Here's background:

In just an IDE environment, "rdisk(x)" refers to the disk that
is at position "x" relative to the start of the HD boot order.
The *default* HD boot order is:

Master, IDE ch. 0,
Slave, IDE ch.0,
Master, IDE ch. 1,
Slave, IDE ch. 1.

In this default HD boot order, assuming that all IDE ch. positions
are occupied by a HD, rdisk(0) refers to the Master on IDE ch. 0,
rdisk(1) refers to the Slave on IDE ch. 0, etc. If there is no HD
with an MBR at a particular position, rdisk() just refers to the next
HD in the HD boot order.

Many, if not most, BIOSes allow the user to reset the HD boot
order via keyboard during the POST phase of the boot process.
But the meaning of "rdisk(x)" continues to follow whatever HD
boot order that the user sets up. This can be used to change
which HD controls booting merely by resetting the HD boot order,
and it can be used as a crude (but effective) method of multi-
booting. The only thing it lacks is partition selection to find the OS.

A crude way of selecting the partition to control booting is to
set which Primary partition on a HD is "active" before restarting
the PC. Once a HD is selected for booting, the MBR of that HD
hands off control to the boot sector of the "active" partition, where
ntldr and boot.ini and ntdetect.com are expected to be found.
In WinXP, the "active" setting can be manually controlled with
Disk Management - rt-clk a partition in the GUI, and if "Mark
Partition as Active" is greyed out, it's already "active".

But, of course, the most convenient way of multi-booting is to
use the menu information contained in the entries of the boot.ini
file. There, "rdisk(x)" refers to the HD relative to its position x in
the HD boot order, starting with "0", and "partition()" refers to the
position of the partition within the HD, starting with "1". The
partitions are no'd starting with the Primary partitions, then the
Local Drives on the Extended partition if there is one. Thus, the
OS can be in any partition on any HD in the system. There can
even be more than one OS in each partition since the file name
containing the OS must be given, too, which the installer usually
chooses to be "WINDOWS" unless there is already a "WINDOWS"
folder present. (I don't recommend more than one OS in a
partition, though.)

Now, as you have found, when the SATA HD boot order is
selected, "rdidk(0)" refers to the 1st SATA HD in the HD boot
order, *probably* SATA ch. 0. "rdisk(1)" would *probably* refer
to the 2nd SATA HD in the default SATA HD boot order -
*probably* SATA ch. 1.

Your question is "How does one combine the "rdisk()" spaces
of the IDE and SATA HDs?" I don't know the answer to that,
but the answer is probably *very* BIOS-specific. Since your
ASUS is a Phoenix-based BIOS, it's probably a common
implementation, so the answer would be valuable to a lot of
PC users. Please favor us with an experiment:

Set the BIOS to use the IDE controller first.
In the boot.ini file of an "active" Primary partition of an IDE HD,
place an OS entry that has the "rdisk()" argument set to the
no. of IDE HDs in the system. That is, if there is one IDE HD,
use "rdisk(1)" in the new entry. See if it causes the SATA HD
to control booting. If it does, it would appear that the rdisk()
space of the IDE HD boot order spills over into the SATA HD
boot order. If "rdisk(1)" doesn't work, try "rdisk(5)".

I suspect, though, that the rdisk() spaces don't overlap since
the controllers are so different. But please let us know.

*TimDaniels*


- Bobb - said:
One question about the ARC Path Naming Conventions :
I have a SATA and just added a temporary bootable IDE drive
(old drive that I used here prior to sata purchase). I see that in
the boot.ini of each drive that the path is the same - it depends
on the order that I setup the ASUS ( phoenix) BIOS which boots
first. So if I set SATA first, then I get ITS boot menu - and it
works fine. If I make the IDE drive first in BIOS boot order, I get
the IDE boot menu. With both in there, other than changing BIOS ,
any way to specify which drive to boot ?? I would THINK that
they'd be a variable to set path of IDE channel 0 or 1 and/or
SATA channel 0 or 1 ? I'd like to leave them both in for now to
use old XP partitions for Vista x32 and x64 installs, but don't
want to have to toggle BIOS. ( yes I would reformat old partitions)

Old IDE drive:
[boot loader]
timeout=5
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS="Microsoft
Windows XP Professional" /fastdetect /NoExecute=OptIn
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Windows XP
Professional x64 Edition" /fastdetect

New SATA Drive
[boot loader]
timeout=5
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft
Windows XP Professional" /NOEXECUTE=OPTIN /FASTDETECT
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS="Old XP Pro
on E:" /FASTDETECT /NOEXECUTE=OPTIN
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
 
Timothy,

That boot.ini worked fine.
IDE drive = rdisk(0) primary drive in BIOS (my X64 boot)
rdisk = 1 for SATA = XP Pro.
So, that will save me an install
I can now install Vista x64 to the IDE drive ( overwrite old copy of XP)
and when done with the beta , remove the IDE to get back to plain old XP
Pro.
Although the drive letters change between OS boots. For X64 one drive =
C , then under XP that drive partition = F:
I'll have to think over how I'd like to have the drives / Os'es
arranged.
I'll let you know how I end up - thanks very much.
( gotta get back to an SBS install for now - same kind of issue.)


back on my PC wrote in message
Thought a second and the X64 box needs to be first drive so I booted
it and changed boot.ini to be:

[boot loader]
timeout=5
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Windows XP Pro x64
Edition" /fastdetect
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Windows XP Pro on SATA
drive C " /fastdetect

the XP install that is on 0-0-0-2 not used for now

rebooting now
- Bobb - said:
So - with SATA as first boot - my boot.ini would be :

[boot loader]
timeout=5
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP
Professional" /NOEXECUTE=OPTIN /FASTDETECT
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP
Professional E:" /FASTDETECT /NOEXECUTE=OPTIN
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Windows XP Pro x64 "
/fastdetect ( This would be IDE drive #1 partition #1 ?)

I'll try it now.

Timothy Daniels said:
You're interested in what value to set the rdisk() argument.
Here's background:

In just an IDE environment, "rdisk(x)" refers to the disk that
is at position "x" relative to the start of the HD boot order.
The *default* HD boot order is:

Master, IDE ch. 0,
Slave, IDE ch.0,
Master, IDE ch. 1,
Slave, IDE ch. 1.

In this default HD boot order, assuming that all IDE ch. positions
are occupied by a HD, rdisk(0) refers to the Master on IDE ch. 0,
rdisk(1) refers to the Slave on IDE ch. 0, etc. If there is no HD
with an MBR at a particular position, rdisk() just refers to the
next
HD in the HD boot order.

Many, if not most, BIOSes allow the user to reset the HD boot
order via keyboard during the POST phase of the boot process.
But the meaning of "rdisk(x)" continues to follow whatever HD
boot order that the user sets up. This can be used to change
which HD controls booting merely by resetting the HD boot order,
and it can be used as a crude (but effective) method of multi-
booting. The only thing it lacks is partition selection to find the
OS.

A crude way of selecting the partition to control booting is to
set which Primary partition on a HD is "active" before restarting
the PC. Once a HD is selected for booting, the MBR of that HD
hands off control to the boot sector of the "active" partition,
where
ntldr and boot.ini and ntdetect.com are expected to be found.
In WinXP, the "active" setting can be manually controlled with
Disk Management - rt-clk a partition in the GUI, and if "Mark
Partition as Active" is greyed out, it's already "active".

But, of course, the most convenient way of multi-booting is to
use the menu information contained in the entries of the boot.ini
file. There, "rdisk(x)" refers to the HD relative to its position x
in
the HD boot order, starting with "0", and "partition()" refers to
the
position of the partition within the HD, starting with "1". The
partitions are no'd starting with the Primary partitions, then the
Local Drives on the Extended partition if there is one. Thus, the
OS can be in any partition on any HD in the system. There can
even be more than one OS in each partition since the file name
containing the OS must be given, too, which the installer usually
chooses to be "WINDOWS" unless there is already a "WINDOWS"
folder present. (I don't recommend more than one OS in a
partition, though.)

Now, as you have found, when the SATA HD boot order is
selected, "rdidk(0)" refers to the 1st SATA HD in the HD boot
order, *probably* SATA ch. 0. "rdisk(1)" would *probably* refer
to the 2nd SATA HD in the default SATA HD boot order -
*probably* SATA ch. 1.

Your question is "How does one combine the "rdisk()" spaces
of the IDE and SATA HDs?" I don't know the answer to that,
but the answer is probably *very* BIOS-specific. Since your
ASUS is a Phoenix-based BIOS, it's probably a common
implementation, so the answer would be valuable to a lot of
PC users. Please favor us with an experiment:

Set the BIOS to use the IDE controller first.
In the boot.ini file of an "active" Primary partition of an IDE HD,
place an OS entry that has the "rdisk()" argument set to the
no. of IDE HDs in the system. That is, if there is one IDE HD,
use "rdisk(1)" in the new entry. See if it causes the SATA HD
to control booting. If it does, it would appear that the rdisk()
space of the IDE HD boot order spills over into the SATA HD
boot order. If "rdisk(1)" doesn't work, try "rdisk(5)".

I suspect, though, that the rdisk() spaces don't overlap since
the controllers are so different. But please let us know.

*TimDaniels*


:
One question about the ARC Path Naming Conventions :
I have a SATA and just added a temporary bootable IDE drive
(old drive that I used here prior to sata purchase). I see that in
the boot.ini of each drive that the path is the same - it depends
on the order that I setup the ASUS ( phoenix) BIOS which boots
first. So if I set SATA first, then I get ITS boot menu - and it
works fine. If I make the IDE drive first in BIOS boot order, I get
the IDE boot menu. With both in there, other than changing BIOS ,
any way to specify which drive to boot ?? I would THINK that
they'd be a variable to set path of IDE channel 0 or 1 and/or
SATA channel 0 or 1 ? I'd like to leave them both in for now to
use old XP partitions for Vista x32 and x64 installs, but don't
want to have to toggle BIOS. ( yes I would reformat old partitions)

Old IDE drive:
[boot loader]
timeout=5
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS="Microsoft
Windows XP Professional" /fastdetect /NoExecute=OptIn
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Windows XP
Professional x64 Edition" /fastdetect

New SATA Drive
[boot loader]
timeout=5
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft
Windows XP Professional" /NOEXECUTE=OPTIN
/FASTDETECT
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS="Old XP Pro
on E:" /FASTDETECT /NOEXECUTE=OPTIN
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
 
As you realized, you got the IDE and SATA HD boot
orders reversed. If you have only one IDE HD, the
expectation is that with IDE set up as leading the HD
boot order, the next HD in the order (i.e. rdisk(1))
would be the SATA HD. "rdisk(0)" would refer to the
lone IDE HD.

*TimDaniels*

- Bobb - said:
So - with SATA as first boot - my boot.ini would be :

[boot loader]
timeout=5
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS=
"Microsoft Windows XP Professional"
/NOEXECUTE=OPTIN /FASTDETECT
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS=
"Microsoft Windows XP Professional"
/FASTDETECT /NOEXECUTE=OPTIN
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(1)\WINDOWS=
"Windows XP Pro x64 " /fastdetect

( This would be IDE drive #1 partition #1 ?)

I'll try it now.



Timothy Daniels said:
You're interested in what value to set the rdisk() argument.
Here's background:

In just an IDE environment, "rdisk(x)" refers to the disk that
is at position "x" relative to the start of the HD boot order.
The *default* HD boot order is:

Master, IDE ch. 0,
Slave, IDE ch.0,
Master, IDE ch. 1,
Slave, IDE ch. 1.

In this default HD boot order, assuming that all IDE ch. positions
are occupied by a HD, rdisk(0) refers to the Master on IDE ch. 0,
rdisk(1) refers to the Slave on IDE ch. 0, etc. If there is no HD
with an MBR at a particular position, rdisk() just refers to the next
HD in the HD boot order.

Many, if not most, BIOSes allow the user to reset the HD boot
order via keyboard during the POST phase of the boot process.
But the meaning of "rdisk(x)" continues to follow whatever HD
boot order that the user sets up. This can be used to change
which HD controls booting merely by resetting the HD boot order,
and it can be used as a crude (but effective) method of multi-
booting. The only thing it lacks is partition selection to find the
OS.

A crude way of selecting the partition to control booting is to
set which Primary partition on a HD is "active" before restarting
the PC. Once a HD is selected for booting, the MBR of that HD
hands off control to the boot sector of the "active" partition, where
ntldr and boot.ini and ntdetect.com are expected to be found.
In WinXP, the "active" setting can be manually controlled with
Disk Management - rt-clk a partition in the GUI, and if "Mark
Partition as Active" is greyed out, it's already "active".

But, of course, the most convenient way of multi-booting is to
use the menu information contained in the entries of the boot.ini
file. There, "rdisk(x)" refers to the HD relative to its position x
in
the HD boot order, starting with "0", and "partition()" refers to the
position of the partition within the HD, starting with "1". The
partitions are no'd starting with the Primary partitions, then the
Local Drives on the Extended partition if there is one. Thus, the
OS can be in any partition on any HD in the system. There can
even be more than one OS in each partition since the file name
containing the OS must be given, too, which the installer usually
chooses to be "WINDOWS" unless there is already a "WINDOWS"
folder present. (I don't recommend more than one OS in a
partition, though.)

Now, as you have found, when the SATA HD boot order is
selected, "rdidk(0)" refers to the 1st SATA HD in the HD boot
order, *probably* SATA ch. 0. "rdisk(1)" would *probably* refer
to the 2nd SATA HD in the default SATA HD boot order -
*probably* SATA ch. 1.

Your question is "How does one combine the "rdisk()" spaces
of the IDE and SATA HDs?" I don't know the answer to that,
but the answer is probably *very* BIOS-specific. Since your
ASUS is a Phoenix-based BIOS, it's probably a common
implementation, so the answer would be valuable to a lot of
PC users. Please favor us with an experiment:

Set the BIOS to use the IDE controller first.
In the boot.ini file of an "active" Primary partition of an IDE HD,
place an OS entry that has the "rdisk()" argument set to the
no. of IDE HDs in the system. That is, if there is one IDE HD,
use "rdisk(1)" in the new entry. See if it causes the SATA HD
to control booting. If it does, it would appear that the rdisk()
space of the IDE HD boot order spills over into the SATA HD
boot order. If "rdisk(1)" doesn't work, try "rdisk(5)".

I suspect, though, that the rdisk() spaces don't overlap since
the controllers are so different. But please let us know.

*TimDaniels*


- Bobb - said:
One question about the ARC Path Naming Conventions :
I have a SATA and just added a temporary bootable IDE drive
(old drive that I used here prior to sata purchase). I see that in
the boot.ini of each drive that the path is the same - it depends
on the order that I setup the ASUS ( phoenix) BIOS which boots
first. So if I set SATA first, then I get ITS boot menu - and it
works fine. If I make the IDE drive first in BIOS boot order, I get
the IDE boot menu. With both in there, other than changing BIOS ,
any way to specify which drive to boot ?? I would THINK that
they'd be a variable to set path of IDE channel 0 or 1 and/or
SATA channel 0 or 1 ? I'd like to leave them both in for now to
use old XP partitions for Vista x32 and x64 installs, but don't
want to have to toggle BIOS. ( yes I would reformat old partitions)

Old IDE drive:
[boot loader]
timeout=5
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS="Microsoft
Windows XP Professional" /fastdetect /NoExecute=OptIn
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Windows XP
Professional x64 Edition" /fastdetect

New SATA Drive
[boot loader]
timeout=5
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft
Windows XP Professional" /NOEXECUTE=OPTIN /FASTDETECT
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS="Old XP Pro
on E:" /FASTDETECT /NOEXECUTE=OPTIN
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
 
Right. The expectation is that the OS in the WINDOWS folder
on the SATA HD will be loaded when the 3rd menu entry is
selected at boot time.

*TimDaniels*


RJ said:
Thought a second and the X64 box needs to be first drive,
so I booted it and changed boot.ini to be:

[boot loader]
timeout=5
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS=
"Microsoft Windows XP Professional"
/fastdetect /NoExecute=OptIn
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS=
"Windows XP Pro x64 Edition"
/fastdetect
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(1)\WINDOWS=
"Windows XP Pro on SATA drive C"
/fastdetect

rebooting now


- Bobb - said:
So - with SATA as first boot - my boot.ini would be :

[boot loader]
timeout=5
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP
Professional" /NOEXECUTE=OPTIN /FASTDETECT
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP
Professional E:" /FASTDETECT /NOEXECUTE=OPTIN
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Windows XP Pro x64 "
/fastdetect ( This would be IDE drive #1 partition #1 ?)

I'll try it now.



Timothy Daniels said:
You're interested in what value to set the rdisk() argument.
Here's background:

In just an IDE environment, "rdisk(x)" refers to the disk that
is at position "x" relative to the start of the HD boot order.
The *default* HD boot order is:

Master, IDE ch. 0,
Slave, IDE ch.0,
Master, IDE ch. 1,
Slave, IDE ch. 1.

In this default HD boot order, assuming that all IDE ch. positions
are occupied by a HD, rdisk(0) refers to the Master on IDE ch. 0,
rdisk(1) refers to the Slave on IDE ch. 0, etc. If there is no HD
with an MBR at a particular position, rdisk() just refers to the next
HD in the HD boot order.

Many, if not most, BIOSes allow the user to reset the HD boot
order via keyboard during the POST phase of the boot process.
But the meaning of "rdisk(x)" continues to follow whatever HD
boot order that the user sets up. This can be used to change
which HD controls booting merely by resetting the HD boot order,
and it can be used as a crude (but effective) method of multi-
booting. The only thing it lacks is partition selection to find the OS.

A crude way of selecting the partition to control booting is to
set which Primary partition on a HD is "active" before restarting
the PC. Once a HD is selected for booting, the MBR of that HD
hands off control to the boot sector of the "active" partition, where
ntldr and boot.ini and ntdetect.com are expected to be found.
In WinXP, the "active" setting can be manually controlled with
Disk Management - rt-clk a partition in the GUI, and if "Mark
Partition as Active" is greyed out, it's already "active".

But, of course, the most convenient way of multi-booting is to
use the menu information contained in the entries of the boot.ini
file. There, "rdisk(x)" refers to the HD relative to its position x in
the HD boot order, starting with "0", and "partition()" refers to the
position of the partition within the HD, starting with "1". The
partitions are no'd starting with the Primary partitions, then the
Local Drives on the Extended partition if there is one. Thus, the
OS can be in any partition on any HD in the system. There can
even be more than one OS in each partition since the file name
containing the OS must be given, too, which the installer usually
chooses to be "WINDOWS" unless there is already a "WINDOWS"
folder present. (I don't recommend more than one OS in a
partition, though.)

Now, as you have found, when the SATA HD boot order is
selected, "rdidk(0)" refers to the 1st SATA HD in the HD boot
order, *probably* SATA ch. 0. "rdisk(1)" would *probably* refer
to the 2nd SATA HD in the default SATA HD boot order -
*probably* SATA ch. 1.

Your question is "How does one combine the "rdisk()" spaces
of the IDE and SATA HDs?" I don't know the answer to that,
but the answer is probably *very* BIOS-specific. Since your
ASUS is a Phoenix-based BIOS, it's probably a common
implementation, so the answer would be valuable to a lot of
PC users. Please favor us with an experiment:

Set the BIOS to use the IDE controller first.
In the boot.ini file of an "active" Primary partition of an IDE HD,
place an OS entry that has the "rdisk()" argument set to the
no. of IDE HDs in the system. That is, if there is one IDE HD,
use "rdisk(1)" in the new entry. See if it causes the SATA HD
to control booting. If it does, it would appear that the rdisk()
space of the IDE HD boot order spills over into the SATA HD
boot order. If "rdisk(1)" doesn't work, try "rdisk(5)".

I suspect, though, that the rdisk() spaces don't overlap since
the controllers are so different. But please let us know.

*TimDaniels*


:
One question about the ARC Path Naming Conventions :
I have a SATA and just added a temporary bootable IDE drive
(old drive that I used here prior to sata purchase). I see that in
the boot.ini of each drive that the path is the same - it depends
on the order that I setup the ASUS ( phoenix) BIOS which boots
first. So if I set SATA first, then I get ITS boot menu - and it
works fine. If I make the IDE drive first in BIOS boot order, I get
the IDE boot menu. With both in there, other than changing BIOS ,
any way to specify which drive to boot ?? I would THINK that
they'd be a variable to set path of IDE channel 0 or 1 and/or
SATA channel 0 or 1 ? I'd like to leave them both in for now to
use old XP partitions for Vista x32 and x64 installs, but don't
want to have to toggle BIOS. ( yes I would reformat old partitions)

Old IDE drive:
[boot loader]
timeout=5
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS="Microsoft
Windows XP Professional" /fastdetect /NoExecute=OptIn
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Windows XP
Professional x64 Edition" /fastdetect

New SATA Drive
[boot loader]
timeout=5
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft
Windows XP Professional" /NOEXECUTE=OPTIN
/FASTDETECT
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS="Old XP Pro
on E:" /FASTDETECT /NOEXECUTE=OPTIN
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
 
_Bobb_, you've just made multi-boot history. Virtually
NO ONE, not even the MVPs in these NGs, know how
rdisk() is handled in mixed IDE/SATA environments.
It appears (until further experimentation proves otherwise)
that the IDE boot order continues into the SATA boot order,
at least in the ASUS version of the Phoenix BIOS. If or when
you get the time, please see if the reverse occurs - that the
SATA boot order continues into the IDE boot order if the
SATA channels are placed ahead of the IDE channels.
(Remember that you'll have to set up the boot.ini file in the
"active" partition of the SATA HD to perform that experiment.)

Way to go! Thanks!

*TimDaniels*


- Bobb - said:
Timothy,

That boot.ini worked fine.
IDE drive = rdisk(0) primary drive in BIOS (my X64 boot)
rdisk = 1 for SATA = XP Pro.
So, that will save me an install
I can now install Vista x64 to the IDE drive ( overwrite old copy of XP)
and when done with the beta , remove the IDE to get back to plain old XP
Pro.
Although the drive letters change between OS boots. For X64 one drive =
C , then under XP that drive partition = F:
I'll have to think over how I'd like to have the drives / Os'es
arranged.
I'll let you know how I end up - thanks very much.
( gotta get back to an SBS install for now - same kind of issue.)


back on my PC wrote in message
Thought a second and the X64 box needs to be first drive so I booted
it and changed boot.ini to be:

[boot loader]
timeout=5
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Windows XP Pro x64
Edition" /fastdetect
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Windows XP Pro on SATA
drive C " /fastdetect

the XP install that is on 0-0-0-2 not used for now

rebooting now
- Bobb - said:
So - with SATA as first boot - my boot.ini would be :

[boot loader]
timeout=5
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP
Professional" /NOEXECUTE=OPTIN /FASTDETECT
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP
Professional E:" /FASTDETECT /NOEXECUTE=OPTIN
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Windows XP Pro x64 "
/fastdetect ( This would be IDE drive #1 partition #1 ?)

I'll try it now.

You're interested in what value to set the rdisk() argument.
Here's background:

In just an IDE environment, "rdisk(x)" refers to the disk that
is at position "x" relative to the start of the HD boot order.
The *default* HD boot order is:

Master, IDE ch. 0,
Slave, IDE ch.0,
Master, IDE ch. 1,
Slave, IDE ch. 1.

In this default HD boot order, assuming that all IDE ch. positions
are occupied by a HD, rdisk(0) refers to the Master on IDE ch. 0,
rdisk(1) refers to the Slave on IDE ch. 0, etc. If there is no HD
with an MBR at a particular position, rdisk() just refers to the
next
HD in the HD boot order.

Many, if not most, BIOSes allow the user to reset the HD boot
order via keyboard during the POST phase of the boot process.
But the meaning of "rdisk(x)" continues to follow whatever HD
boot order that the user sets up. This can be used to change
which HD controls booting merely by resetting the HD boot order,
and it can be used as a crude (but effective) method of multi-
booting. The only thing it lacks is partition selection to find the
OS.

A crude way of selecting the partition to control booting is to
set which Primary partition on a HD is "active" before restarting
the PC. Once a HD is selected for booting, the MBR of that HD
hands off control to the boot sector of the "active" partition,
where
ntldr and boot.ini and ntdetect.com are expected to be found.
In WinXP, the "active" setting can be manually controlled with
Disk Management - rt-clk a partition in the GUI, and if "Mark
Partition as Active" is greyed out, it's already "active".

But, of course, the most convenient way of multi-booting is to
use the menu information contained in the entries of the boot.ini
file. There, "rdisk(x)" refers to the HD relative to its position x
in
the HD boot order, starting with "0", and "partition()" refers to
the
position of the partition within the HD, starting with "1". The
partitions are no'd starting with the Primary partitions, then the
Local Drives on the Extended partition if there is one. Thus, the
OS can be in any partition on any HD in the system. There can
even be more than one OS in each partition since the file name
containing the OS must be given, too, which the installer usually
chooses to be "WINDOWS" unless there is already a "WINDOWS"
folder present. (I don't recommend more than one OS in a
partition, though.)

Now, as you have found, when the SATA HD boot order is
selected, "rdidk(0)" refers to the 1st SATA HD in the HD boot
order, *probably* SATA ch. 0. "rdisk(1)" would *probably* refer
to the 2nd SATA HD in the default SATA HD boot order -
*probably* SATA ch. 1.

Your question is "How does one combine the "rdisk()" spaces
of the IDE and SATA HDs?" I don't know the answer to that,
but the answer is probably *very* BIOS-specific. Since your
ASUS is a Phoenix-based BIOS, it's probably a common
implementation, so the answer would be valuable to a lot of
PC users. Please favor us with an experiment:

Set the BIOS to use the IDE controller first.
In the boot.ini file of an "active" Primary partition of an IDE HD,
place an OS entry that has the "rdisk()" argument set to the
no. of IDE HDs in the system. That is, if there is one IDE HD,
use "rdisk(1)" in the new entry. See if it causes the SATA HD
to control booting. If it does, it would appear that the rdisk()
space of the IDE HD boot order spills over into the SATA HD
boot order. If "rdisk(1)" doesn't work, try "rdisk(5)".

I suspect, though, that the rdisk() spaces don't overlap since
the controllers are so different. But please let us know.

*TimDaniels*


:
One question about the ARC Path Naming Conventions :
I have a SATA and just added a temporary bootable IDE drive
(old drive that I used here prior to sata purchase). I see that in
the boot.ini of each drive that the path is the same - it depends
on the order that I setup the ASUS ( phoenix) BIOS which boots
first. So if I set SATA first, then I get ITS boot menu - and it
works fine. If I make the IDE drive first in BIOS boot order, I get
the IDE boot menu. With both in there, other than changing BIOS ,
any way to specify which drive to boot ?? I would THINK that
they'd be a variable to set path of IDE channel 0 or 1 and/or
SATA channel 0 or 1 ? I'd like to leave them both in for now to
use old XP partitions for Vista x32 and x64 installs, but don't
want to have to toggle BIOS. ( yes I would reformat old partitions)

Old IDE drive:
[boot loader]
timeout=5
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS="Microsoft
Windows XP Professional" /fastdetect /NoExecute=OptIn
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Windows XP
Professional x64 Edition" /fastdetect

New SATA Drive
[boot loader]
timeout=5
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft
Windows XP Professional" /NOEXECUTE=OPTIN
/FASTDETECT
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS="Old XP Pro
on E:" /FASTDETECT /NOEXECUTE=OPTIN
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
 
I misunderstood your earlier comment. Right - it's NOT the default: I scroll
down to 3rd entry to boot it. ( I just added the 3rd line - in case nothing
worked in that config, I could pop out the drive and leave boot.ini alone.)

Bobb

Timothy Daniels said:
Right. The expectation is that the OS in the WINDOWS folder
on the SATA HD will be loaded when the 3rd menu entry is
selected at boot time.

*TimDaniels*


RJ said:
Thought a second and the X64 box needs to be first drive,
so I booted it and changed boot.ini to be:

[boot loader]
timeout=5
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS=
"Microsoft Windows XP Professional"
/fastdetect /NoExecute=OptIn
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS=
"Windows XP Pro x64 Edition"
/fastdetect
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(1)\WINDOWS=
"Windows XP Pro on SATA drive C"
/fastdetect

rebooting now


- Bobb - said:
So - with SATA as first boot - my boot.ini would be :

[boot loader]
timeout=5
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP
Professional" /NOEXECUTE=OPTIN /FASTDETECT
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP
Professional E:" /FASTDETECT /NOEXECUTE=OPTIN
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Windows XP Pro x64 "
/fastdetect ( This would be IDE drive #1 partition #1 ?)

I'll try it now.



You're interested in what value to set the rdisk() argument.
Here's background:

In just an IDE environment, "rdisk(x)" refers to the disk that
is at position "x" relative to the start of the HD boot order.
The *default* HD boot order is:

Master, IDE ch. 0,
Slave, IDE ch.0,
Master, IDE ch. 1,
Slave, IDE ch. 1.

In this default HD boot order, assuming that all IDE ch. positions
are occupied by a HD, rdisk(0) refers to the Master on IDE ch. 0,
rdisk(1) refers to the Slave on IDE ch. 0, etc. If there is no HD
with an MBR at a particular position, rdisk() just refers to the next
HD in the HD boot order.

Many, if not most, BIOSes allow the user to reset the HD boot
order via keyboard during the POST phase of the boot process.
But the meaning of "rdisk(x)" continues to follow whatever HD
boot order that the user sets up. This can be used to change
which HD controls booting merely by resetting the HD boot order,
and it can be used as a crude (but effective) method of multi-
booting. The only thing it lacks is partition selection to find the
OS.

A crude way of selecting the partition to control booting is to
set which Primary partition on a HD is "active" before restarting
the PC. Once a HD is selected for booting, the MBR of that HD
hands off control to the boot sector of the "active" partition, where
ntldr and boot.ini and ntdetect.com are expected to be found.
In WinXP, the "active" setting can be manually controlled with
Disk Management - rt-clk a partition in the GUI, and if "Mark
Partition as Active" is greyed out, it's already "active".

But, of course, the most convenient way of multi-booting is to
use the menu information contained in the entries of the boot.ini
file. There, "rdisk(x)" refers to the HD relative to its position x in
the HD boot order, starting with "0", and "partition()" refers to the
position of the partition within the HD, starting with "1". The
partitions are no'd starting with the Primary partitions, then the
Local Drives on the Extended partition if there is one. Thus, the
OS can be in any partition on any HD in the system. There can
even be more than one OS in each partition since the file name
containing the OS must be given, too, which the installer usually
chooses to be "WINDOWS" unless there is already a "WINDOWS"
folder present. (I don't recommend more than one OS in a
partition, though.)

Now, as you have found, when the SATA HD boot order is
selected, "rdidk(0)" refers to the 1st SATA HD in the HD boot
order, *probably* SATA ch. 0. "rdisk(1)" would *probably* refer
to the 2nd SATA HD in the default SATA HD boot order -
*probably* SATA ch. 1.

Your question is "How does one combine the "rdisk()" spaces
of the IDE and SATA HDs?" I don't know the answer to that,
but the answer is probably *very* BIOS-specific. Since your
ASUS is a Phoenix-based BIOS, it's probably a common
implementation, so the answer would be valuable to a lot of
PC users. Please favor us with an experiment:

Set the BIOS to use the IDE controller first.
In the boot.ini file of an "active" Primary partition of an IDE HD,
place an OS entry that has the "rdisk()" argument set to the
no. of IDE HDs in the system. That is, if there is one IDE HD,
use "rdisk(1)" in the new entry. See if it causes the SATA HD
to control booting. If it does, it would appear that the rdisk()
space of the IDE HD boot order spills over into the SATA HD
boot order. If "rdisk(1)" doesn't work, try "rdisk(5)".

I suspect, though, that the rdisk() spaces don't overlap since
the controllers are so different. But please let us know.

*TimDaniels*


:
One question about the ARC Path Naming Conventions :
I have a SATA and just added a temporary bootable IDE drive
(old drive that I used here prior to sata purchase). I see that in
the boot.ini of each drive that the path is the same - it depends
on the order that I setup the ASUS ( phoenix) BIOS which boots
first. So if I set SATA first, then I get ITS boot menu - and it
works fine. If I make the IDE drive first in BIOS boot order, I get
the IDE boot menu. With both in there, other than changing BIOS ,
any way to specify which drive to boot ?? I would THINK that
they'd be a variable to set path of IDE channel 0 or 1 and/or
SATA channel 0 or 1 ? I'd like to leave them both in for now to
use old XP partitions for Vista x32 and x64 installs, but don't
want to have to toggle BIOS. ( yes I would reformat old partitions)

Old IDE drive:
[boot loader]
timeout=5
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS="Microsoft
Windows XP Professional" /fastdetect /NoExecute=OptIn
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Windows XP
Professional x64 Edition" /fastdetect

New SATA Drive
[boot loader]
timeout=5
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft
Windows XP Professional" /NOEXECUTE=OPTIN
/FASTDETECT
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS="Old XP Pro
on E:" /FASTDETECT /NOEXECUTE=OPTIN
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
 
Bobb, until you get around to doing the reverse wrap-
around experiment, would you tell us how many IDE channels
your BIOS has? I'm wondering if the two SATA channels were
added to the usual two IDE channels, allowing a total of 6 HDs
(4 IDE and 2 SATA), or have the two SATA channels replaced,
in effect, a single IDE channel, allowing a total of 4 HDs
(2 IDE and 2 SATA).

*TimDaniels*

- Bobb - said:
I misunderstood your earlier comment. Right - it's NOT the default:
I scroll down to 3rd entry to boot it. ( I just added the 3rd line - in
case nothing worked in that config, I could pop out the drive and
leave boot.ini alone.)

Bobb

Timothy Daniels said:
Right. The expectation is that the OS in the WINDOWS folder
on the SATA HD will be loaded when the 3rd menu entry is
selected at boot time.

*TimDaniels*


RJ said:
Thought a second and the X64 box needs to be first drive,
so I booted it and changed boot.ini to be:

[boot loader]
timeout=5
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS=
"Microsoft Windows XP Professional"
/fastdetect /NoExecute=OptIn
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS=
"Windows XP Pro x64 Edition"
/fastdetect
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(1)\WINDOWS=
"Windows XP Pro on SATA drive C"
/fastdetect

rebooting now


:
So - with SATA as first boot - my boot.ini would be :

[boot loader]
timeout=5
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP
Professional" /NOEXECUTE=OPTIN /FASTDETECT
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP
Professional E:" /FASTDETECT /NOEXECUTE=OPTIN
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Windows XP Pro x64 "
/fastdetect ( This would be IDE drive #1 partition #1 ?)

I'll try it now.



:
You're interested in what value to set the rdisk() argument.
Here's background:

In just an IDE environment, "rdisk(x)" refers to the disk that
is at position "x" relative to the start of the HD boot order.
The *default* HD boot order is:

Master, IDE ch. 0,
Slave, IDE ch.0,
Master, IDE ch. 1,
Slave, IDE ch. 1.

In this default HD boot order, assuming that all IDE ch. positions
are occupied by a HD, rdisk(0) refers to the Master on IDE ch. 0,
rdisk(1) refers to the Slave on IDE ch. 0, etc. If there is no HD
with an MBR at a particular position, rdisk() just refers to the next
HD in the HD boot order.

Many, if not most, BIOSes allow the user to reset the HD boot
order via keyboard during the POST phase of the boot process.
But the meaning of "rdisk(x)" continues to follow whatever HD
boot order that the user sets up. This can be used to change
which HD controls booting merely by resetting the HD boot order,
and it can be used as a crude (but effective) method of multi-
booting. The only thing it lacks is partition selection to find the
OS.

A crude way of selecting the partition to control booting is to
set which Primary partition on a HD is "active" before restarting
the PC. Once a HD is selected for booting, the MBR of that HD
hands off control to the boot sector of the "active" partition, where
ntldr and boot.ini and ntdetect.com are expected to be found.
In WinXP, the "active" setting can be manually controlled with
Disk Management - rt-clk a partition in the GUI, and if "Mark
Partition as Active" is greyed out, it's already "active".

But, of course, the most convenient way of multi-booting is to
use the menu information contained in the entries of the boot.ini
file. There, "rdisk(x)" refers to the HD relative to its position x in
the HD boot order, starting with "0", and "partition()" refers to the
position of the partition within the HD, starting with "1". The
partitions are no'd starting with the Primary partitions, then the
Local Drives on the Extended partition if there is one. Thus, the
OS can be in any partition on any HD in the system. There can
even be more than one OS in each partition since the file name
containing the OS must be given, too, which the installer usually
chooses to be "WINDOWS" unless there is already a "WINDOWS"
folder present. (I don't recommend more than one OS in a
partition, though.)

Now, as you have found, when the SATA HD boot order is
selected, "rdidk(0)" refers to the 1st SATA HD in the HD boot
order, *probably* SATA ch. 0. "rdisk(1)" would *probably* refer
to the 2nd SATA HD in the default SATA HD boot order -
*probably* SATA ch. 1.

Your question is "How does one combine the "rdisk()" spaces
of the IDE and SATA HDs?" I don't know the answer to that,
but the answer is probably *very* BIOS-specific. Since your
ASUS is a Phoenix-based BIOS, it's probably a common
implementation, so the answer would be valuable to a lot of
PC users. Please favor us with an experiment:

Set the BIOS to use the IDE controller first.
In the boot.ini file of an "active" Primary partition of an IDE HD,
place an OS entry that has the "rdisk()" argument set to the
no. of IDE HDs in the system. That is, if there is one IDE HD,
use "rdisk(1)" in the new entry. See if it causes the SATA HD
to control booting. If it does, it would appear that the rdisk()
space of the IDE HD boot order spills over into the SATA HD
boot order. If "rdisk(1)" doesn't work, try "rdisk(5)".

I suspect, though, that the rdisk() spaces don't overlap since
the controllers are so different. But please let us know.

*TimDaniels*


:
One question about the ARC Path Naming Conventions :
I have a SATA and just added a temporary bootable IDE drive
(old drive that I used here prior to sata purchase). I see that in
the boot.ini of each drive that the path is the same - it depends
on the order that I setup the ASUS ( phoenix) BIOS which boots
first. So if I set SATA first, then I get ITS boot menu - and it
works fine. If I make the IDE drive first in BIOS boot order, I get
the IDE boot menu. With both in there, other than changing BIOS ,
any way to specify which drive to boot ?? I would THINK that
they'd be a variable to set path of IDE channel 0 or 1 and/or
SATA channel 0 or 1 ? I'd like to leave them both in for now to
use old XP partitions for Vista x32 and x64 installs, but don't
want to have to toggle BIOS. ( yes I would reformat old partitions)

Old IDE drive:
[boot loader]
timeout=5
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS="Microsoft
Windows XP Professional" /fastdetect /NoExecute=OptIn
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Windows XP
Professional x64 Edition" /fastdetect

New SATA Drive
[boot loader]
timeout=5
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft
Windows XP Professional" /NOEXECUTE=OPTIN
/FASTDETECT
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS="Old XP Pro
on E:" /FASTDETECT /NOEXECUTE=OPTIN
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
 
I have 2 Dual IDE channels (4 IDE drives) and
4 SATA drives - like so: (only 1 sata HDD for now - gif attached )




( Note that here it also calls my SATA controller a PCI IDE) Also note at :
http://dlsvr03.asus.com/pub/ASUS/mb/socket939/A8N-E/e1911_a8n-e.pdf
in the specs (page 11 in pdf browser), it states that drives span IDE to SATA to support JBOD.

Bobb



Timothy Daniels said:
Bobb, until you get around to doing the reverse wrap-
around experiment, would you tell us how many IDE channels
your BIOS has? I'm wondering if the two SATA channels were
added to the usual two IDE channels, allowing a total of 6 HDs
(4 IDE and 2 SATA), or have the two SATA channels replaced,
in effect, a single IDE channel, allowing a total of 4 HDs
(2 IDE and 2 SATA).

*TimDaniels*

- Bobb - said:
I misunderstood your earlier comment. Right - it's NOT the default:
I scroll down to 3rd entry to boot it. ( I just added the 3rd line - in
case nothing worked in that config, I could pop out the drive and
leave boot.ini alone.)

Bobb

Timothy Daniels said:
Right. The expectation is that the OS in the WINDOWS folder
on the SATA HD will be loaded when the 3rd menu entry is
selected at boot time.

*TimDaniels*


:
Thought a second and the X64 box needs to be first drive,
so I booted it and changed boot.ini to be:

[boot loader]
timeout=5
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS=
"Microsoft Windows XP Professional"
/fastdetect /NoExecute=OptIn
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS=
"Windows XP Pro x64 Edition"
/fastdetect
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(1)\WINDOWS=
"Windows XP Pro on SATA drive C"
/fastdetect

rebooting now


:
So - with SATA as first boot - my boot.ini would be :

[boot loader]
timeout=5
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP
Professional" /NOEXECUTE=OPTIN /FASTDETECT
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP
Professional E:" /FASTDETECT /NOEXECUTE=OPTIN
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Windows XP Pro x64 "
/fastdetect ( This would be IDE drive #1 partition #1 ?)

I'll try it now.



:
You're interested in what value to set the rdisk() argument.
Here's background:

In just an IDE environment, "rdisk(x)" refers to the disk that
is at position "x" relative to the start of the HD boot order.
The *default* HD boot order is:

Master, IDE ch. 0,
Slave, IDE ch.0,
Master, IDE ch. 1,
Slave, IDE ch. 1.

In this default HD boot order, assuming that all IDE ch. positions
are occupied by a HD, rdisk(0) refers to the Master on IDE ch. 0,
rdisk(1) refers to the Slave on IDE ch. 0, etc. If there is no HD
with an MBR at a particular position, rdisk() just refers to the next
HD in the HD boot order.

Many, if not most, BIOSes allow the user to reset the HD boot
order via keyboard during the POST phase of the boot process.
But the meaning of "rdisk(x)" continues to follow whatever HD
boot order that the user sets up. This can be used to change
which HD controls booting merely by resetting the HD boot order,
and it can be used as a crude (but effective) method of multi-
booting. The only thing it lacks is partition selection to find the
OS.

A crude way of selecting the partition to control booting is to
set which Primary partition on a HD is "active" before restarting
the PC. Once a HD is selected for booting, the MBR of that HD
hands off control to the boot sector of the "active" partition, where
ntldr and boot.ini and ntdetect.com are expected to be found.
In WinXP, the "active" setting can be manually controlled with
Disk Management - rt-clk a partition in the GUI, and if "Mark
Partition as Active" is greyed out, it's already "active".

But, of course, the most convenient way of multi-booting is to
use the menu information contained in the entries of the boot.ini
file. There, "rdisk(x)" refers to the HD relative to its position x in
the HD boot order, starting with "0", and "partition()" refers to the
position of the partition within the HD, starting with "1". The
partitions are no'd starting with the Primary partitions, then the
Local Drives on the Extended partition if there is one. Thus, the
OS can be in any partition on any HD in the system. There can
even be more than one OS in each partition since the file name
containing the OS must be given, too, which the installer usually
chooses to be "WINDOWS" unless there is already a "WINDOWS"
folder present. (I don't recommend more than one OS in a
partition, though.)

Now, as you have found, when the SATA HD boot order is
selected, "rdidk(0)" refers to the 1st SATA HD in the HD boot
order, *probably* SATA ch. 0. "rdisk(1)" would *probably* refer
to the 2nd SATA HD in the default SATA HD boot order -
*probably* SATA ch. 1.

Your question is "How does one combine the "rdisk()" spaces
of the IDE and SATA HDs?" I don't know the answer to that,
but the answer is probably *very* BIOS-specific. Since your
ASUS is a Phoenix-based BIOS, it's probably a common
implementation, so the answer would be valuable to a lot of
PC users. Please favor us with an experiment:

Set the BIOS to use the IDE controller first.
In the boot.ini file of an "active" Primary partition of an IDE HD,
place an OS entry that has the "rdisk()" argument set to the
no. of IDE HDs in the system. That is, if there is one IDE HD,
use "rdisk(1)" in the new entry. See if it causes the SATA HD
to control booting. If it does, it would appear that the rdisk()
space of the IDE HD boot order spills over into the SATA HD
boot order. If "rdisk(1)" doesn't work, try "rdisk(5)".

I suspect, though, that the rdisk() spaces don't overlap since
the controllers are so different. But please let us know.

*TimDaniels*


:
One question about the ARC Path Naming Conventions :
I have a SATA and just added a temporary bootable IDE drive
(old drive that I used here prior to sata purchase). I see that in
the boot.ini of each drive that the path is the same - it depends
on the order that I setup the ASUS ( phoenix) BIOS which boots
first. So if I set SATA first, then I get ITS boot menu - and it
works fine. If I make the IDE drive first in BIOS boot order, I get
the IDE boot menu. With both in there, other than changing BIOS ,
any way to specify which drive to boot ?? I would THINK that
they'd be a variable to set path of IDE channel 0 or 1 and/or
SATA channel 0 or 1 ? I'd like to leave them both in for now to
use old XP partitions for Vista x32 and x64 installs, but don't
want to have to toggle BIOS. ( yes I would reformat old partitions)

Old IDE drive:
[boot loader]
timeout=5
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS="Microsoft
Windows XP Professional" /fastdetect /NoExecute=OptIn
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Windows XP
Professional x64 Edition" /fastdetect

New SATA Drive
[boot loader]
timeout=5
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft
Windows XP Professional" /NOEXECUTE=OPTIN
/FASTDETECT
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS="Old XP Pro
on E:" /FASTDETECT /NOEXECUTE=OPTIN
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
 
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