Boot.ini

[Bob]

Selection of a drive and booting from it from the Boot Menu moves it to
the top of the default list.

I have to use either the PgUp/PgDn keys or the +/- keys to move the
highlighted entry to the top to get it to boot from that disk by
default.

During the period when I was repairing my
wife's PC and had her Win98 HD added in this computer, we used that Boot
Menu to boot her Win98. If she had been the last user of the system any
day, I would get her Win98 instead of my Win2k menu when I turned on the
system the next morning if I forgot to go into the Bios Boot Menu. I
later simplified the process by adding her Win98 to the boot.ini along
with Win2k, WinXP, and Linux.

You had a different version of the BIOS than I have. Mine is
relatively new - Phoenix AwardBIOS v6.00pg 12/23/04 according to
Everest.

 

[Robert Heiling]

I have to use either the PgUp/PgDn keys or the +/- keys to move the
highlighted entry to the top to get it to boot from that disk by
default.


You had a different version of the BIOS than I have. Mine is
relatively new - Phoenix AwardBIOS v6.00pg 12/23/04 according to
Everest.

After checking Sandra, I now see that I didn't copy from the right
section in Everest. By Bios is also - Phoenix-Award BIOS v6.00PG, the
same version, although dated 08/05/04. Just for giggles, why don't you
try booting with ESC or F1 or ? keys to see if there's a Boot Menu
hiding there somewhere?

Bob

 

[Mike Walsh]

That will work, although C:\= normally uses an image of a DOS loader to boot DOS/Win9x

I select the boot disk in the BIOS. I want to be able to select either
the first disk or the second disk. Now the boot loader starts from the
disk I selected and now I want to load the operating system from the
same disk. That means I must have the ability to select which disk in
from statements in the boot.ini file.

My system might look like this:

[boot loader]
timeout=3
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINNT
[operating systems]
C:\="Win2K"
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINNT="First Disk"
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(1)\WINNT="Second Disk"

Is that how to do what I want?

 

[Bob]

try booting with ESC or F1 or ? keys to see if there's a Boot Menu
hiding there somewhere?

I think I may know what is going on. That BIOS has two different
presentations - the default which is a quick presentation skipping
over such things as the enumeration of devices etc - and the fuller
presentation which shows a lot of information I like to keep an eye
on, such as whether the BIOS recognizes a device on the IDE bus.
Sometimes my NEC 3540 gets skipped because I opened the tray to put
the Acronis CD in at a bad time - which means I have to reboot.

In any event with the fuller screen the ESC button causes the full
memory test to abort and the DEL key causes entry into the BIOS.
There's another key having to do with flashing the BIOS, which I have
not had any need to fool with. There may be other keys, like F1 - I
will look for them.

 

[Timothy Daniels]

The Bios Boot Menu IS an entry in the "BIOS" via a different
path. BTW Selection of a drive and booting from it from the
Boot Menu moves it to the top of the default list. During the
period when I was repairing my wife's PC and had her Win98
HD added in this computer, we used that Boot Menu to boot
her Win98. If she had been the last user of the system any day,
I would get her Win98 instead of my Win2k menu when I turned
on the system the next morning if I forgot to go into the Bios
Boot Menu. I later simplified the process by adding her Win98
to the boot.ini along with Win2k, WinXP, and Linux.

What you're calling a "BIOS boot menu" is usually called
the "hard drive boot order" which is in the BIOS. A "boot
menu" is usually what is put on the screen by a boot
manager to present the optional OSes which may be
booted. In the case of WinXP, the boot menu is presented
by ntldr (sometimes called a "boot manager", although its
larger function is as an outright system loader) and the
boot menu's entries are coded in the contents of the
boot.ini file. In contrast to the boot menu, the boot order
lists the order in which the BIOS searches HDs for a good
MBR - if the one at the head of the list doesn't have a
functional MBR, it looks at the next HD in the list, etc.
Accordingly, if the HD at the head of the list should fail,
the next boot-up would have the BIOS trying the 2nd HD
in the list to see if it has an MBR.

*TimDaniels*

 

[Robert Heiling]

What you're calling a "BIOS boot menu" is usually called
the "hard drive boot order" which is in the BIOS. A "boot
menu" is usually what is put on the screen by a boot
manager to present the optional OSes which may be
booted.

Uh uh. I'm calling it exactly what it calls itself - "Boot Menu". Please
read my (apparently failed) attempt to get the point across. If you've
never seen this feature in a Bios before, then I can understand your
confusion, but it's a parallel to holding down the DEL key during system
startup in order to get into the Bios CMOS setup.

In the case of WinXP, the boot menu is presented
by ntldr (sometimes called a "boot manager", <snip>

Yes yes, of course.

Bob

 

[Make-Model]

Boot menu =1

 

[Timothy Daniels]

Uh uh. I'm calling it exactly what it calls itself - "Boot Menu". Please
read my (apparently failed) attempt to get the point across. If you've
never seen this feature in a Bios before, then I can understand your
confusion, but it's a parallel to holding down the DEL key during system
startup in order to get into the Bios CMOS setup.

Then call it whatever you and your BIOS author call it, but
most people who deal with WinXP/Win2K boot procedures
will think you're referring to the menu derived from boot.ini
which is displayed by the loader.

*TimDaniels*

 

[Robert Heiling]

Then call it whatever you and your BIOS author call it, but
most people who deal with WinXP/Win2K boot procedures
will think you're referring to the menu derived from boot.ini
which is displayed by the loader.

Gawd is that hilarious!<lol> Then most people who deal with Linux boot
procedures will think I'm talking about grub or lilo? Sorry, but
Microsoft doesn't have a copyright on the term and if anybody is thick
enough to think XP is what I'm talking about after having it explained
to them, then they deserve what they get.

In any case, he would probably be informed by a "press key X for Boot
Menu" or somesuch at the bottom of the screen at boot time if the option
existed. Over & out.

Bob

 

[Timothy Daniels]

"Robert Heiling" guffawed:

Gawd is that hilarious!<lol> Then most people who deal with Linux boot
procedures will think I'm talking about grub or lilo? Sorry, but
Microsoft doesn't have a copyright on the term and if anybody is thick
enough to think XP is what I'm talking about after having it explained
to them, then they deserve what they get.

In any case, he would probably be informed by a "press key X for Boot
Menu" or somesuch at the bottom of the screen at boot time if the option
existed. Over & out.

Bob

The Original Poster is running Windows 2000, a Microsoft
product. If you go to Microsoft.com and put "boot menu" in the
search window, you'll see that Microsoft does, indeed, use
"boot menu" to refer to the presentation by ntldr of the contents
of the boot.ini file. Since Windows is a Microsoft product, it's
only proper to use standard Microsoft terminology in this thread.

*TimDaniels*

 

[Robert Heiling]

"Robert Heiling" guffawed:

The Original Poster is running Windows 2000, a Microsoft
product. If you go to Microsoft.com and put "boot menu" in the
search window, you'll see that Microsoft does, indeed, use
"boot menu" to refer to the presentation by ntldr of the contents
of the boot.ini file. Since Windows is a Microsoft product, it's
only proper to use standard Microsoft terminology in this thread.

At this moment I also am running Windows 2000, a Microsoft product.
However, what you don't seem to grasp is that whether either of us is
running Win2k, WinXP, WinME, Win98, Debian Linux, Redhat Linux, Dos, or
whatever, has nothing whatsoever to do with this aspect of the
discussion. You got lost there sometime back and aren't understanding
this branch of the thread.

In addition to Windows software, he also has a computer system, a Dell I
believe. That's hardware. Just sitting there, it doesn't know what
software (Win2000 or whatever) that it will be running. When it is
turned on and the Bios starts running, it doesn't know what software
(Win2000 or anything) will be running. That Bios will be looking for a
key depression, DEL I believe, and will enter the CMOS setup if the DEL
key is depressed. So there it is: just Bios & hardware, no Windows, no
Linux, no nothing.

My hardware isn't a Dell. It's an HP-Compaq so it's a bit different. If
I depress F1 at the point where you press DEL on the Dell, my Bios will
enter CMOS setup. If I press ESC instead, I get a Boot Menu as described
in previous information that you chose to snip a couple of interations
ago and I won't be repeating it. My suggestion to the OP was that his
Dell might possibly have the same Boot Menu feature available to him as
I have on this Compaq. I will have nothing further to say on the topic.

Bob

 

[Timothy Daniels]

At this moment I also am running Windows 2000, a Microsoft product.
However, what you don't seem to grasp is that whether either of us is
running Win2k, WinXP, WinME, Win98, Debian Linux, Redhat Linux,
Dos, or whatever, has nothing whatsoever to do with this aspect of the
discussion. You got lost there sometime back and aren't understanding
this branch of the thread.

In addition to Windows software, he also has a computer system,
a Dell I believe. That's hardware. Just sitting there, it doesn't know
what software (Win2000 or whatever) that it will be running. When it is
turned on and the Bios starts running, it doesn't know what software
(Win2000 or anything) will be running. That Bios will be looking for a
key depression, DEL I believe, and will enter the CMOS setup if the
DEL key is depressed. So there it is: just Bios & hardware, no Windows,
no Linux, no nothing.

My hardware isn't a Dell. It's an HP-Compaq so it's a bit different. If
I depress F1 at the point where you press DEL on the Dell, my Bios will
enter CMOS setup. If I press ESC instead, I get a Boot Menu as described
in previous information that you chose to snip a couple of interations
ago and I won't be repeating it. My suggestion to the OP was that his
Dell might possibly have the same Boot Menu feature available to him as
I have on this Compaq. I will have nothing further to say on the topic.

Bob

The term "boot menu" had already been used at that point
with the standard meaning used by Microsoft. To use that term
with some other meaning without pointing out the distinction
was misleading. In my Dell BIOS, written by Phoenix Tech,
there is no "Boot Menu", only a hard drive boot order. If you
use obscure terminology - or at least terminology contrary to
that which is already in the thread - it helps to define it. In this
thread, it would have been appropriate for you to introduce your
meaning of "Boot Menu" by saying something like "my BIOS
provides for adjustment of the boot order by the display of what it
labels a 'Boot Menu'." Then we would all have known that your
use of "Boot Menu" was not the "boot menu" of standard Microsoft
terminology, and it could have been seen how your comments
related to what had preceded.

This is no way negates the value of your posting in contribution
to the thread. Thank you for that. Once you clarified your terms,
it was a good addition.

*TimDaniels*