Boot drive order - settings won't stick

"Homer J. Simpson" <root@127.0.0.1> wrote in
news::

>> Try changing the Boot.ini of only one OS to read "disk(3)",,,,,leave
>> everything else alone and then reboot and see if it will boot into
>> that OS...........................if it does then you need to change
>> the other OS Boot.ini .
>> If it does not boot to the OS you have not changed and change the
>> other OS's Boot.ini file back.
>
> Your mention of multiple boot.ini files is interesting.
>
> Initially I only had one boot.ini file--on the first SATA drive. It
> has multiple partitions; the first two (C: and D contain,
> respectively, XP 32-bit and XP 64-bit.
>
> At some point in the past *something* decided to create another
> boot.ini file on one of the IDE drives--XP's disk manager labels it
> "Disk 1" ("Disk 0" is another IDE drive).
>
> This file contains the following:
>
> [boot loader]
> timeout=20
> default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(2)\WINDOW S
> [operating systems]
> multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Micro soft Windows XP
> Professional x86 Edition (200GB IDE)" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect
> /PAE /BOOTLOG
> multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(2)\WINDOWS="Micro soft Windows XP
> Professional x64 Edition (200GB IDE)" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect
>
> ...which I find confusing if I compare it with the boot.ini file on
> C:. Regardless, I've kept that file around and I've added the "200GB
> IDE" part just so if that's ever used, I would be able to
> differentiate it from the boot.ini file on C: (which would show "250GB
> SATA"). That's actually happened once when I was trying to
> disconnect/reconnect various drives. This partition also contains its
> own ntdetect.com and ntldr files. This partition has never contained
> a bootable OS.
>
> Right now I consider myself the machine boots at all, so I don't even
> dare try to get rid of those files "just to see if it'll still boot".
> I'm not particularly bothered by the presence of those files right
> now...
>
>

You have 3 SATA drives.
Plug data drive 1 into SATA 1 - bottom right corner
Plug data drive 2 into SATA 2 - bottom left corner
Plug the drive with the OS into SATA 3 - top right corner
SATA 4 should be empty - top left corner
You should be in business.

If not, are your "data drives" formatted as Primary Partitions? If so,
that's what may be confusing your system. It's finding Primary Partitions
on multiple drives and looking for an OS on each of them. Drives with no OS
(data drives) should be formatted as Extended Partitions with Logical
Drives. Then your system won't look at them while it's booting.

I had problems similar to yours until I rearranged the connectors and got
rid of the unused Primary partitions.

Morvin

>>Just to be absolutely clear--where should I be going to permanently define
>>the boot order among hard drives? I can set the floppy/cd/hd boot order
>>in
>>the BIOS, but I haven't seen *any* screen where I can *modify* (and save)
>>the hard drive boot sequence. The F8 menu doesn't seem to provide any
>>facilities to save the selection.
>>
> Section 2.6 Boot menu in the manual. There should be a setting named
> Hard Disk Drives. Move the disk that you want the BIOS boot from to
> the top of the list of disk drives.

This is interesting:

My F8 menu listed the drives in the following order:
1ST SATA-M
1ST MASTER
1ST SLAVE
2ND SATA-M
3RD SATA-M

The screen in the BIOS where you *define* the boot order (as opposed to the
F8 menu) listed the drives as follows:
2ND SATA-M
1ST SATA-M
3RD SATA-M
1ST MASTER
1ST SLAVE

So yeah...it appears it tried to boot off of the second SATA drive first,
then aborted. Why the menus listed the SATA drives in different order (if
you ignore the IDE drives), I have no idea...

In any case...I just swapped the order on that screen in the BIOS and that
seems to have fixed that problem. I've swear I've been there before and
have defined the boot order in the 'proper' sequence; it seems that
*something* happened and changed it on me--I would've remembered changing
it.

Oh well...sometimes you should just double-check the obvious. :-)

Thanks Andy.

> You have 3 SATA drives.
> Plug data drive 1 into SATA 1 - bottom right corner
> Plug data drive 2 into SATA 2 - bottom left corner
> Plug the drive with the OS into SATA 3 - top right corner
> SATA 4 should be empty - top left corner
> You should be in business.

Won't that screw up the drive mapping in the boot.ini? eg, having to edit
"multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)" etc to some proper value? Or
references already defined in the registry? eg, SATA0 currently being
identified as "Disk 3" within the OS, or does the OS just not care about
which drives are hooked to which connectors when it comes to SATA?

I'm asking because I've had, shall we say, "less than pleasant experiences"
in the past when it comes to swapping connection order (at least that was
the case with IDE and SCSI drives)...this is my first SATA-equipped machine.

> If not, are your "data drives" formatted as Primary Partitions? If so,
> that's what may be confusing your system. It's finding Primary Partitions
> on multiple drives and looking for an OS on each of them. Drives with no
> OS
> (data drives) should be formatted as Extended Partitions with Logical
> Drives. Then your system won't look at them while it's booting.

Hmmm. I've never given *that* any thought. I've always used
Primary/Extended+Logical on all my drives since the DOS days--I've never
configured an 'extended-only' scheme for data drives. Old habits die hard,
I guess.

I'll have to try that out next time I have the space to move all my data...

"Homer J. Simpson" <root@127.0.0.1> wrote in
news:9rmdnR9pMo-:

>> You have 3 SATA drives.
>> Plug data drive 1 into SATA 1 - bottom right corner
>> Plug data drive 2 into SATA 2 - bottom left corner
>> Plug the drive with the OS into SATA 3 - top right corner
>> SATA 4 should be empty - top left corner
>> You should be in business.
>
> Won't that screw up the drive mapping in the boot.ini? eg, having to
> edit "multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)" etc to some proper value?
> Or references already defined in the registry? eg, SATA0 currently
> being identified as "Disk 3" within the OS, or does the OS just not
> care about which drives are hooked to which connectors when it comes
> to SATA?
>
> I'm asking because I've had, shall we say, "less than pleasant
> experiences" in the past when it comes to swapping connection order
> (at least that was the case with IDE and SCSI drives)...this is my
> first SATA-equipped machine.
>

I've switched mine and experienced no problems, but I can't guarantee
that you won't. however, if you have a Windows XP CD, you could easily
rebuild your boot.ini file. NOTE: this process is unlikely to work if
all you have is a system recovery CD or restore CD - you need the real
thing - and you need to be able to boot from the CD.

Insert your Windows XP CD.

Reboot the computer with the CD and press any key when prompted to press
any key to boot from the CD.

Once in the Microsoft Setup menu press R to open the recovery console.

Select the operating system you wish to use; if you only have Windows XP
on the computer you will only have one prompt.

Once prompted for the password enter the Admin password and press enter.

Once at the command prompt type bootcfg /rebuild to start the rebuild
process.

The rebuild process will step you through a number of steps depending
upon how many operating systems you have on the computer and how the
computer is setup. Below is a listing of the common steps you are likely
going to encounter.

* Prompt to enter the load identifier. This is the name of the operating
system for the boot.ini. For example, Microsoft Windows XP Home users
would enter "Microsoft Windows XP Home edition".

* Prompt to Enter OS load options. When this prompt is received type
/fastdetect to automatically detect the available options.


Once you have completed all the available options in the rebuild and are
back at the prompt type exit to reboot the computer.

On Thu, 15 Feb 2007 13:34:32 -0500, "Homer J. Simpson"
<root@127.0.0.1> wrote:

>>>Just to be absolutely clear--where should I be going to permanently define
>>>the boot order among hard drives? I can set the floppy/cd/hd boot order
>>>in
>>>the BIOS, but I haven't seen *any* screen where I can *modify* (and save)
>>>the hard drive boot sequence. The F8 menu doesn't seem to provide any
>>>facilities to save the selection.
>>>
>> Section 2.6 Boot menu in the manual. There should be a setting named
>> Hard Disk Drives. Move the disk that you want the BIOS boot from to
>> the top of the list of disk drives.
>
>This is interesting:
>
>My F8 menu listed the drives in the following order:
>1ST SATA-M
>1ST MASTER
>1ST SLAVE
>2ND SATA-M
>3RD SATA-M
>
>The screen in the BIOS where you *define* the boot order (as opposed to the
>F8 menu) listed the drives as follows:
>2ND SATA-M
>1ST SATA-M
>3RD SATA-M
>1ST MASTER
>1ST SLAVE
>
>So yeah...it appears it tried to boot off of the second SATA drive first,
>then aborted. Why the menus listed the SATA drives in different order (if
>you ignore the IDE drives), I have no idea...
>
>In any case...I just swapped the order on that screen in the BIOS and that
>seems to have fixed that problem. I've swear I've been there before and
>have defined the boot order in the 'proper' sequence; it seems that
>*something* happened and changed it on me--I would've remembered changing
>it.

Any time you change the physical configuration of the disk drives, the
BIOS will reset the drives in Hard Disk Drives to some default order,
so you have to remember to go to that setting and make sure the drives
are in the order you want.

>
>Oh well...sometimes you should just double-check the obvious. :-)
>
>Thanks Andy.
>

Way more detailed than I needed, but I'm sure this'll come in handy for
someone who does need it. )

The answer's appreciated.

> Any time you change the physical configuration of the disk drives, the
> BIOS will reset the drives in Hard Disk Drives to some default order,
> so you have to remember to go to that setting and make sure the drives
> are in the order you want.

That's exactly what happened. A few weeks ago I put somebody else's SATA
drive in my machine to clean a virus (trying to get rid of it while running
the infected OS turned out to be a bitch), and ever since then I've had to
specify the correct boot drive each time I turned the system on.

You'd think the BIOS would be somewhat smarter.