|
|
|
||||||||
BootPart 2.20: Boot Partition for WinNT
BootPart is an easy tool for adding one partition in the Windows NT multi boot menu (by samples, OS/2 boot manager or Linux partition).
You can download BootPart 2.20 by ftp or http (25 525 bytes):
bootpa22.zip (http link)
ftp://members.aol.com/gvollant/bootpa22.zip
http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/gvollant/bootpa22.zip
ftp://ftp.winimage.com/bootpa22.zip
btpafr22.zip contain the french documentation(http link)
BOOTPART lets you add partitions in the Windows NT Multiboot
menu. Usually, you only have an MSDOS or Windows 95 entry and one
(or several) entries on the Windows NT multiboot.
With BOOTPART, you can add any partition on the menu. You can
add OS/2 Multiboot, or Linux Partition (with Lilo) in the menu.
The only thing I highly suggest : your active partition on your first hard disk must be a FAT16 primary partition. This can be a small partition.
It seems it's actually impossible add an HPFS partition with
OS/2 boot. If you find a workaround, please let me know.
BOOTPART creates a 512 bytes file which contains an image of a
boot sector that loads the boot sector of the partition. After,
this file is declared in C:\BOOT.INI (a text file used by Windows
NT boot menu). The boot sector comes from FDFormat and WinImage.
The version 2.20 has now very cool feature : repair
Windows NT boot sector, easily add both MS-Dos 6.22 and Windows
95 in boot menu, support FAT32 and disk over 4 GB...
Fast tips
To repair the Windows NT boot sector
Windows NT installs a boot sector that launches NTLDR and displays the Windows NT boot menu. If you lose this boot sector, BootPart can restore it.
Boot under MS-Dos (this can be MS-Dos 6.22 on your hard disk, on an MS-Dos bootable floppy, or the "MS-Dos 7.0" included in Windows 95 (you can obtain it by pressing Shift+F5 when Win95 loads). Then, enter the command :
BOOTPART WINNT BOOT:C:
If you want to remove the WinNT boot sector, you can replace
it with the command "BOOTPART DOS622 BOOT:C:"
or "BOOTPART WIN95 BOOT:C:"
To have both MS-Dos 6.22 and Windows 95 in the NT menu (forgot F4 !)
The standard situation for a computer that multiboots to
Windows NT, Windows 95, or MS-Dos 6.22 is : the user selects a
"Windows 95" entry in NT menu, and, then must press F4
if he wants to boot MS-Dos 6.22. If you don't have this situation
(i.e. : you don't have both Win95 and MS-Dos 6.22 on your system,
but want to have both), see the next section.
Just enter these BootPart command :
BOOTPART DOS622 C:\BOOTSECT.622 "MS-Dos 6.22"
BOOTPART WIN95 C:\BOOTSECT.W95 "Windows 95"
BOOTPART REWRITEROOT:C:
The last line (REWRITEROOT:C:) MUST BE EXECUTED UNDER MSDOS,
and moves the MS-Dos IO.* and MSDOS.* files to the beginning of
the root directory.
You can visit the page : http://www.bcpl.net/~dbryan/directboot.html
for more information on booting WinNT/Win95/DOS.
If you have WinNT & Win95 and you only want to add MS-Dos
Take an MSDos 6.22 floppy, copy the files IO.SYS, MSDOS.SYS,
and COMMAND.COM to C:\ as IO.DOS, MSDOS.DOS, and COMMAND.DOS
(warning : these files can be hidden, but you can ask File
Manager or Explorer to display hidden files). Then go to the
section "To have both MS-Dos 6.22 and Windows 95 in the NT
menu"
If you have WinNT & MS-Dos and you only want to add Win95
Install Win95 in a new directory (start the install under
MS-Dos 6.22 or Windows 3.1) and go to the section "To have
both MS-Dos 6.22 and Windows 95 in the NT menu"
To add OS/2
Unfortunately, I can't directly add an OS/2 partition by
itself (if you have a workaround or fix, I'd be happy to hear
about it !). Install the OS/2 Boot Manager (you need 1 MB free on
your first hard disk), add the OS/2 partition in the boot menu
with automatic start (0 sec. waiting), and then add the OS/2 Boot
Manager partition on your NT menu with BootPart. Sometimes, when
you install OS/2 Boot Manager, it becomes the active partition of
your first hard disk. You can use FDISK to set the partition with
NT boot manager as the active partition later.
To add Linux
For Linux, you must install Lilo at the beginning of the Linux
partition (as with OS/2 boot manager) and then add the Linux
partition with BootPart:
When you install Linux or run liloconfig, select "Superblock of the root linux partition" as location of Lilo. In my sample, this adds the line "boot=/dev/sdb4" on the file /etc/lilo.conf
If you want mount NTFS partition under Linux, visit the NTFS for
Linux page.
For more info in mutlibooting, you can take a look at http://www.bcpl.net/~dbryan/directboot.html or at a modified version.
There is also several interresting HowTo. Look at NT OS Loader + Linux mini-HOWTO. There is also another howto.
Microsoft has also several KB article about boot process : Q102873 describes Boot.ini, Q101787 describes boot operation.
If you want backup Long File name in FAT partition under MSDOS, Duncan Murdoch's DOSLFNBK
utility may prove useful. (you can visit
the page of this tools).
Return to WinImage
Home Page or Gilles Vollant Home Page
Latest update: Thursday, January 7, 1999