Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!wuarchive!uunet!mcsun!ukc!educ-isis!teexmmo
From: teexmmo@ioe.lon.ac.uk (Matthew Moore)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.ps2.hardware
Subject: Re: Switching boot from A: to C:
Message-ID: <1990Dec13.160923.17177@ioe.lon.ac.uk>
Date: 13 Dec 90 16:09:23 GMT
References: <1990Dec11.185227.17027@maverick.ksu.ksu.edu>
Reply-To: teexmmo@ioe.lon.ac.uk (Matthew Moore)
Organization: Institute of Education University of London
Lines: 29

In article <1990Dec11.185227.17027@maverick.ksu.ksu.edu> devolder@matt.ksu.ksu.edu (Eric DeVolder) writes:
>Hello all.  I have a simple question.  Is it possible to make a model 30
>boot from the hard drive first instead of the a: drive?  Are there dip
>switches somewhere that do that, or does this require going in and changing
>the BIOS?

Unless there is something terribly different about the model 30, the
answer is the same for any PS/2 or PC which has a hard disk.

When you boot up, the ROM bootstrap examines the floppy drive first,
and then the hard drive, for the system files to boot from. If it
finds  them on the floppy, it will boot from that, if not, it will
look at the hard drive, and boot from that, if possible.

So to boot from your hard disk, you may get away with simply removing
your boot floppy; if you then get a 'non system disk' error message,
your hard disk has not been set up with the system files on it.

How to put the system files on your hard disk?

Under DOS 4, use the 'sys' command to copy them from your boot disk,
and then copy command.com to the root directory of the hard disk.

Under earlier versions of DOS, FIRST backup your files, then
FORMAT c: /s
(then restore your backed up files).

(This recipe should do it. - I will be away for a while, so any
comments should be emailed to be sure of reaching me).