Forum Home
Press F1
 
Thread ID: 28166 2002-12-12 08:46:00 Select boot device pswing (2760) Press F1
Post ID Timestamp Content User
105456 2002-12-13 22:24:00 Right crozier. Also Graham is probably right when he says it is just an accident.
It is a fact of life that you cant have 2 simultaneous active partitions, at least not in my sphere of knowledge, so a program is needed to make one partition inactive and hidden, whilst the other is active and not hidden; and vice-versa, ie a boot manager of somesort.
In bios boot sequence apart from floppy, cdrom etc there is only one C drive, so I cant see how that can be used to choose between hard drives that have OSs on each of them.
If one drive with an OS on it is set as a slave, then the drive set as master will boot, if both are masters then neither will boot.
I find the posting odd and I dont understand it.
Terry Porritt (14)
105457 2002-12-14 05:51:00 I just downloaded a DOS 622 boot and boot on the floppy and my DOS slave becomes C: am getting all my DOS games working now.
Still going to try and hit the right key during startup for that menu though.
pswing (2760)
105458 2002-12-14 05:55:00 >Still going to try and hit the right key during startup for that menu though

It's best to close your eyes really really tight and make a wish before pressing any keys. But remember, to just press the.... hit them real hard! ;)
crozier (2004)
105459 2002-12-14 06:48:00 Hi there pswing,
I think the penny has just dropped for me :) . Maybe just a question of using the right words.
I think what you want to do is to press F8 key as the boot screen says "Starting Windows 98", you will then get a startup menu (not a boot menu, the computer has already booted).
Select 'Command prompt only' and you will be in DOS all ready to run your DOS programs.
Terry Porritt (14)
105460 2002-12-14 09:45:00 oh, i understand now......:D vk_dre (195)
105461 2002-12-14 10:36:00 aaaaahhhhhhhhhh!!! Well done! ;) crozier (2004)
105462 2002-12-14 19:28:00 The menu I had wasnt a windows thing, more a BIOS thing.
Next time I manage it I will post a print screen.
pswing (2760)
105463 2002-12-14 19:36:00 Heres the very discussion we have been having - with an answer:

www.k7v.com
pswing (2760)
105464 2002-12-14 22:08:00 Ok, I see. I must keep up to date. Newer BIOSs allow you to select from one of several HDDs to boot from, I hadnt really noticed that before. Older bIOSs dont give you that choice. So that explains a lot, I must be thick.

I tried to get that effect by using [esc] and [F12] from cold boots, but couldnt replicate it on my AMD 900.
The other question is why cant you run the DOS programs from your windows c: drive?
Do you really have to boot into a separate DOS hard drive with its own OS?
If you do then a boot manager may be easier.

What Ive had on my set up for a long time going back to win 95 has been a muliti-configuration arrangement , one for windows one for DOS, so that the DOS settings are optimised. This is done in autoexec.bat and config.sysy. There is then a screen after POST that asks me whether I want to start DOS or to start Windows98.
This is quite useful for the many programs that require pure DOS, not a DOS window.
Terry Porritt (14)
105465 2002-12-15 01:07:00 Yes Terry, we'll both have to upgrade from our MFM drives. :D (Except that I haven't yet done my last installation on an MFM ... it's netBSD, on a 70MB RD drive on my Microvax II. I've got a 5.25" floppy jumpered to boot the box, but I need to get MOP going on a Linux server first. I'm not going to try getting a CD drive wired to it (though a SCSI one might work).

Anyway, we were all right, so everyone gets a prize. Virtual choc fish all round. ;-)
Graham L (2)
1 2 3