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From: jwbirdsa@phoenix.Princeton.EDU (James Webster Birdsall)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc
Subject: Re: Booting off 1 hard drive and not the other
Message-ID: <8635@phoenix.Princeton.EDU>
Date: 23 May 89 17:28:16 GMT
References: <8275@pyr.gatech.EDU> <8938@xanth.cs.odu.edu> <1210@kksys.mn.org>
Organization: Princeton University, NJ
Lines: 40


In article <1210@kksys.mn.org> gk@kksys.UUCP (Greg Kemnitz) writes:
>In article <8938@xanth.cs.odu.edu> rlb@cs.odu.edu (Robert Lee Bailey) writes:
>>In article<8275@pyr.gatech.EDU> ccastgw@pyr.gatech.edu (GREG WILLIAMS) writes:
>>>I have two hard disks on my PC/XT clone.  One is an ST-238R and the other
>>> ...how do I switch the 2 addresses to boot from the 251?
>    [lots of stuff deleted...]
>Another possible approach would be to format the ST-238R without a dos
>system image.  Theoretically, at boot it would scan the ST-238R, find
>no boot image, and then scan the ST-251N (it is likely the first drive
>on its controller, and thus would be scanned for boot).  If the
>ST-251N *did* have a boot image, the system would boot from it.
>
>Disclaimer:  The above has not been tested, however I have seen at
>least one bios which booted in this manner.  Your mileage may vary.
>-- 
>Greg Kemnitz / K and K Systems / PO Box 41804 / Plymouth, MN 55441-0804
>Domain: gk@kksys.mn.org / UUCP: ...!{amdahl,hpda}!bungia!kksys!gk


   Interesting. Whose bios was it? So far as I know, the original IBM
bios (at least in the XT, which I what I have) will ONLY boot from A: or
C: (the first floppy or the first HD) and drops you into ROM Basic if it
doesn't find the boot files. Which is fine unless you want to leave a
non-system floppy in A:, in which case the stupid thing never looks at
C: and gives a Non-System Disk error. Grrr.

   Of course, if you don't have Basic in your ROM (are there any clones
which do?), it would pay for the ROM to be more creative in trying to
find the boot files because there's noplace to go if you don't find
them. 


[Inews fodder]


-- 
James W. Birdsall  jwbirdsa@phoenix.Princeton.EDU  jwbirdsa@pucc.BITNET
   ...allegra!princeton!phoenix!jwbirdsa   Compu$erve: 71261,1731
"For it is the doom of men that they forget." -- Merlin