BOOTIT shareware Copyright (c) 1995, TeraByte Unlimited. All rights reserved. TeraByte Unlimited 258 N. Saturmino Dr. Palm Springs, CA 92262 ASP Member Technical Support Preferred method is CompuServe E-Mail CIS: 70751,3507 Internet: 70751.3507@compuserv.com (619) 325-0892 Ombudsman Statement: TeraByte Unlimited is a member of the Association of Shareware Professionals (ASP). ASP wants to make sure that the shareware principle works for you. If you are unable to resolve a shareware- related problem with an ASP member by contacting the member directly, ASP may be able to help. The ASP Ombudsman can help you resolve a dispute or problem with an ASP member, but does not provide technical support for members products. Please write to the ASP Ombudsman at 545 Grover Road, Muskegon, MI 49442-9427 USA, FAX 616-788-2765 or send a CompuServe message via CompuServe Mail to ASP Ombudsman 70007,3536. Definition of Shareware: Shareware distribution gives users a chance to try software before buying it. If you try a Shareware program and continue using it, you are expected to register. Individual programs differ on details -- some request registration while others require it, some specify a maximum trial period. With registration, you get anything from the simple right to continue using the software to an updated program with printed manual. Copyright laws apply to both Shareware and commercial software, and the copyright holder retains all rights, with a few specific exceptions as stated below. Shareware authors are accomplished programmers, just like commercial authors, and the programs are of comparable quality. (In both cases, there are good programs and bad ones!) The main difference is in the method of distribution. The author specifically grants the right to copy and distribute the software, either to all and sundry or to a specific group. For example, some authors require written permission before a commercial disk vendor may copy their Shareware. Shareware is a distribution method, not a type of software. You should find software that suits your needs and pocketbook, whether it's commercial or Shareware. The Shareware system makes fitting your needs easier, because you can try before you buy. And because the overhead is low, prices are low also. Shareware has the ultimate money-back guarantee -- if you don't use the product, you don't pay for it. Disclaimer - Agreement: Users of Bootit must accept this disclaimer of warranty: "Bootit is supplied as is. The author disclaims all warranties, expressed or implied, including, without limitation, the warranties of merchantability and of fitness for any purpose. The author assumes no liability for damages, direct or consequential, which may result from the use of Bootit." Bootit is a "shareware program" and is provided at no charge to the user for evaluation. Feel free to share it with your friends, but please do not give it away altered or as part of another system. The essence of "user-supported" software is to provide personal computer users with quality software without high prices, and yet to provide incentive for programmers to continue to develop new products. If you find this program useful and find that you are using Bootit and continue to use Bootit after a reasonable trial period, you must make a registration payment of $17.95 to TeraByte Unlimited. The $17.95 registration fee will license one copy for use on any one computer at any one time. You must treat this software just like a book. An example is that this software may be used by any number of people and may be freely moved from one computer location to another, so long as there is no possibility of it being used at one location while it's being used at another. Just as a book cannot be read by two different persons at the same time. Commercial users of Bootit must register and pay for their copies of Bootit within 30 days of first use or their license is withdrawn. A Site License may be purchased by an organization that owns more than one computer. Site License fees are based upon the total number of computers that will use the software. Anyone distributing Bootit for any kind of remuneration must first contact TeraByte Unlimited at the address on the cover for authorization. This authorization will be automatically granted to distributors recognized by the (ASP) as adhering to its guidelines for shareware distributors, and such distributors may begin offering Bootit immediately (However TeraByte Unlimited must still be advised so that the distributor can be kept up-to-date with the latest version of Bootit.). You are encouraged to pass a copy of Bootit along to your friends for evaluation. Please encourage them to register their copy if they find that they can use it. All registered users will receive a copy of the latest version of the Bootit system. System Requirements: 100% IBM XT, AT, PS/1 or PS/2 compatible personal computer with at least one diskette drive, one hard drive, and MS/PC DOS version 3.0 or later. How To Register: With your registration you will receive 90 days free technical support, a utility diskette to backup the Bootit data, and the latest version of Bootit. For pricing information see the order form. You may register in one of two ways: Method 1: Fill out and send in the order form with your check or money order. Method 2: CompuServe "GO SWREG" service. Search for BOOTIT.ZIP. Support Policy: For registered users support will be given free via E-Mail, US Mail, and Telephone/Fax for up to 90 days after the date of registration. Response will be within 24 hours normally; 72 hours maximum. Unregistered users needing support within the initial trial period may contact TeraByte Unlimited via E-Mail. All charges will be the responsibility of the user. For both registered and unregistered users, TeraByte Unlimited will not accept any E-Mail that has a fee associated with it. Before You Begin: TeraByte Unlimited has taken every effort to make Bootit as safe as possible; however, it is not possible to provide a 100 percent guarantee of safety. Bootit is not compatible with any software that needs to have a special MBR (master boot record) program to function. It is extremely important that you do not use any partitioning software (such as FDISK) to delete a partition. You should only use the partitioning software in combination with the menu option to allocate disk space (explained later). Before using Bootit on any system for the first time, BACK UP THE HARD DISK'S DATA! It's better to be safe than sorry. Although no problems have been found, it is possible that some systems/programs may experience problems with the disk swapping features and/or setting of the hard drive parameters. If this is the case, you can easily remove Bootit with the uninstall diskette you will create or remove the conflicting program if possible. Always have a DOS bootable diskette on hand that will work in your A: drive. Use the DOS format/s command to create a bootable diskette. See your DOS manual for more information on the format command. What Bootit Does: Bootit allows you to have up to ten şmasterş partitions per hard drive, instead of the standard four; this allows you to comfortably install multiple operating systems and easily select which one you want to boot. Bootit also allows you to "fill" the standard partition table (the one that only allows four partitions) with up to three of your choice; for example, you could boot Windows NT and have two DOS partitions. Bootit also allows you to swap the A: and B: drives and/or hard drive 0 and hard drive 1 so that you may boot from a different drive or for whatever other reason you may have to switch the drives. Bootit also will boot a partition from hard drive 1 without switching drives for operating systems that support it. If you have an older BIOS that does not allow you to utilize all the space on your new/existing hard drive, you now can; simply enter the hard drive specifications into Bootit and Bootit will take care of the rest. If you have an IDE hard drive you can even retrieve the recommended hard drive specifications automatically. Bootit currently supports up to two hard drives, partitions/HDs upto 4GBs, FDPT (not EDPT) and CHS/L-CHS addressing only. Installation: Create a DOS bootable diskette if you do not already have one. Keep this on-hand forever! Label this diskette "DOS Boot Diskette". See your DOS manual for information on the format/s command. You should also copy the external commands DEBUG, SYS, FDISK, and FORMAT to this diskette. The installation of Bootit is straight forward and simple. You will need a blank diskette that matches the density of your A: drive; If you can use high density diskettes in drive A: then you need a high density diskette. Failure to use the correct type of diskette could result in a writable but, unreadable diskette! You may install from a diskette or hard drive as long as all the Bootit files are in the same directory. If you would like to copy the Bootit files from a diskette to the hard drive, do the following: 1) Log onto the correct diskette drive (A: or B:) and directory. 2) Type COPYHARD For example: To copy the files from the diskette to a directory named C:\BOOTIT then type COPYHARD C:\BOOTIT and press enter. When you are ready to install Bootit do the following: 1) Log onto the correct drive and directory. For example: If installing from a diskette in the A: drive, insert the diskette and type A: then press enter, or if installing from the hard drive C: and the directory \BOOTIT; type C: then press enter, type CD\BOOTIT then press enter. 2) Type BOOTIT and press enter. Note for XT computers: If you have a XT compatible computer you may need to type BOOTIT /xt. Also, your controller must be pointing to the first drive type (which is usually the smallest) if you are going to input hard drive specifications, otherwise you need to set all hard drive specs to 0. See your controller manual or contact the manufacture for more information on setting the dip switches. If you move a hard drive from a XT system to a AT system, you will need to reinstall Bootit unless you use the same 8-bit controller. 3) Choose the Prepare uninstall diskette (A:) option and follow the directions. Only prepare one diskette even if you have two hard drives. Preparing a diskette, erases all data on that diskette. Label this diskette "Bootit Uninstall". Note: Your path must contain the directory where FORMAT can be found. 4) After you've prepared the uninstall diskette, change the hard drive parameters to the correct values (if they need to be changed), then choose the Install option and follow the directions. If you have two hard drives you must install Bootit on the first hard drive in order to utilize the second hard drive. Be sure to initialize Bootit for each drive after the installation. That's It! Note on Hard Drive Parameters: If your hard drive has already been partitioned, you should only change the number of cylinders; otherwise; you can press Ctrl-R to retrieve the parameters for the hard drive on the current row. Some BIOSs limit the number of heads to sixteen; therefore; your BIOS must support the parameters you enter. Bootit Manager/Special Functions: The first thing you should notice after installing Bootit is the copyright message that is displayed on each boot of the computer. If you press a key within two seconds after this message, you will invoke either a special function or the Bootit manager. Response to your keystroke will take effect after the two second delay. To invoke a special function press one of the following keys: A Alternate boot by switching HD0/HD1 only. S Switches all drives A:/B: and HD0/HD1 with alternate boot. D Switch drive A:/B: only. F Floppy boot. Searches drive A: and B: for a diskette to boot. If the diskette is found in B: then A:/B: are switched. If you only have one drive there will be a short delay between attempts to load the diskette. If the hard drive parameters are set via Bootit, then you must use this option to boot from a floppy drive. This is easy to forget! T Transfer to Hard Drive 1 for boot. 1 Bootit manager for Hard Drive 1 NOTE: switching of the drives works at the BIOS level, if an operating system access the controllers directly then once that operating system is booted, the switched drives are no longer switched. If you try to alternate boot from one of these OSs, the boot process will fail. Menu Options: Option 1 is used to configure the hard drive parameters. This will override the BIOS allowing you to set the correct parameters for your hard drive. Even if your BIOS supports your hard drive parameters, you may still want to use this feature. If you use this feature and your computer looses its setup information, you just select drive type 1. Note that you shouldn't change the hard drive parameters if partitions have already been created; unless you know what you are doing! If you are using this feature and add a second hard drive after youşve installed Bootit then you will need to update the parameters manually on hard drive 0. If you have a XT type computer, you should not change the entries here. XT computers must be configured at the time of the installation by running Bootit with the /xt switch (if needed). Option 2 allows you to enter any description for the partition entry; the description is for your reference only. If you place an '*' in the first space of the partition name, then when that partition is booted it will be marked bootable on the hard drive. Some OS's may need this; if you're having a problem booting a OS try the '*'. To end the input either press F10 or enter on the last line. To know what partition belongs to what OS, look in the OS field. Some OS values are listed towards the end of this document. Option 3; Configure Groups; Here you group which three partitions you would like to be entered in the standard partition table. The first partition listed will be the partition that is booted. For example, entering abc in group p, boots partition a and fills the partition table with b and c. Again here you may press F10 or enter on the last line to end the input. Option 4; If you want to delete a partition choose this option. You may also undelete a deleted partition. A deleted partition will be permanently erased from the bootit menu when a new entry takes its place. Be sure to backup any data you need from the partition before it's deleted. Note: If there is no space for a new partition you will get a notification. If you want the new partition to be added to the table, you will need to delete one of the existing partitions and choose option 6 (exit). If you don't use option 6 the partition will be lost! Option 5; You need to use option five whenever you want to create a new partition. You should NEVER use any hard drive partitioning software until you have used this option. More important, you should NEVER delete a partition outside of Bootit. Bootit normally fills the standard partition table so that there is no free space, this is very important as you don't want to accidentally damage a partition that is not in the current table or even one in the table (because partitions overlap). There are several "techniques" to allocate space for a new partition. Technique #2 is the safest way to create a partition, Bootit will create a partition with the OS Type you tell it too. You also have the option to clear the first sector of the new partition or leave it as is. You need to know the correct OS value to use this technique. It assumes that all partitions are rounded to whole cylinders and will do the same. Note: If you clear the first sector of the new partition, it is done at the time the partition is created; therefore; there is no way to undo it. Technique #0 is the second safest way to create a partition, after allocating space choose option 6 to reboot and boot from the floppy disk supplied by the OS vendor; then create a partition as you normally would. Don't forget if the hard drive specification are set via Bootit then you need to boot the floppy by using the "F" special function. Technique #1 is the final technique. It adds two special partitions to the partition table, then if you select a single partition to boot, Bootit will boot that partition along with the two special partitions. You then need a special program to "fix up" the partition table. The one supplied with Bootit is BOOTITMS and is used for the MS-DOS/PC- DOS operating systems. You simply run BOOTITMS before you run FDISK. For more information on BOOTITMS see "BOOTITMS". NOTE: if the partitioning software installs its own MBR program, the Bootit manager will be invoked and will reinstall itself. If the partitioning software installs its own MBR program and its partition is marked bootable and you have no way to boot the Bootit partition (OS=DFh), then you will need to run the bootit.exe program again; this time you will only have one menu option; "Reinstall MBR Program", simply do this and you're back in business. Option 6 writes changes you've made to the hard drive and will reboot the system. To undo changes, press Ctrl-Alt-Del, RESET or POWER instead of option 6. Options A-J, P-Y; simply type the letter of the group or partition you want to become "active". If you choose a letter from a to j that partition will be added to the partition table and booted. If you choose a letter from p to y then that group will be added to the partition table and the first partition booted. Note that you cannot boot a DOS extended partition. BOOTITMS: Bootitms is used with Option 5, allocation technique #1. It does a "fix up" of the partition table and is tightly coupled with Bootit. Any time you use allocation technique #1 you need to run this program. You may run this program at any time or even add it to your autoexec.bat file as it knows when it needs to "fix" the partition table. To run bootitms type bootitms and press enter, this will give you the instructions. UNINSTALLING BOOTIT: To uninstall Bootit, insert the diskette labeled "Bootit Uninstall" in drive A: (this is the diskette you created when you installed Bootit). Next reboot the computer by either pressing Ctrl-Alt-Del, RESET, or the POWER switch. If you recieve the message "Missing operating system" after you reboot the computer, you will need to set the hard drive parameters in your CMOS. TROUBLE SHOOTING: Installation Notes: You need one free entry in the partition table. If you get a message "Abort no space in partition table" you'll need to delete a partition before you can install Bootit. Deleting a partition erases all data on that partition so be careful. If you get a "Abort no space on hard drive" message when installing Bootit then another partition has already allocated the area of disk Bootit uses. Notes: Most troubles may be solved by re-running bootit.exe and choosing the REBUILD MBR PROGRAM option. If the INSTALL option is available then Bootit has been removed from your hard drive. Under some circumstances the Bootit manager may be invoked when your not expecting it or the system may reset during the bootstrap. This is normal and part of the Bootit self-reliance scheme, choose option 6 to continue. If you notice the Bootit copyright message is no longer being displayed during the boot process, and Bootit doesn't automatically load, then you will need to make the Bootit partition active if you can or in some other way boot the Bootit partition (OS=DFh). If you can't boot the Bootit partition then you must run the bootit.exe program. Under special circumstances if you need to REBUILD MBR PROGRAM, but, bootit.exe is not displaying the option, then add the switch /mbr to bootit.exe. If you can't get to a DOS prompt to rerun the bootit.exe program, boot with your "DOS Boot Diskette" in drive A: If you are unsuccessful solving a problem, fill out the "Bootit Problem Report" form and either fax, e-mail, or mail it to the numbers listed on the cover page. If you are going to call, please fill out the form to have the information ready. 1) Assuming your PC hardware is working and you've already installed Bootit, is the Bootit copyright message displayed when the system attempts to load the operating system? Yes - Go to step 2 No - Go to step 7 2) Does the system reboot continuously or "NO ROM BASIC" message? Yes - Go to step 6 No - Go to step 3 3) Is there a error message? Yes - Go to step 8 No - Go to step 4 4) Does the operating system start to load? Yes - Go to step 13 No - Go to step 5 5) Have you check for virus lately? Yes - Go to step 15 No - Run virus check and try again. 6) Run bootit.exe with the /mbr switch. Choose "Rebuild MBR Program". If you are still having problems, fill out the "Bootit Problem Report" form. 7) Run bootit.exe and choose "Rebuild MBR Program". 8) Is message "Missing OS!"? Yes - Go to step 11 No - Go to step 9 9) Is message "Bootit not found!"? Yes - Go to step 10 No - Go to step 12 10) Are you trying to alternate boot or load Bootit manager for a second hard drive? Yes - If you've installed Bootit on the second hard drive go to step 6 else install Bootit. No - Go to step 6 11) Either you are trying to boot a partition that is not bootable, not formatted, or have changed the hard drive parameters when there were already partitions. Correct problem and try again. 12) Is message "Invalid HD Parameters"? Yes - Correct problem and try again No - Go to step 6 13) Are you trying to alternate/transfer boot? Yes - OS probably does not support alternate boot. Try transfer boot. No - Go to step 14 14) Have you tried "COLD" booting you machine? Yes - Go to step 6 No - Turn the power off and try again (Note: Don't use Ctrl-Alt-Delete) 15) Are the hard drive parameters the same as when the partition your trying to boot was created? Yes - Go to step 16 No - Change the parameters back. 16) Are you trying to boot a non-bootable partition? Yes - Correct problem! No - Go to step 6 COMMENTS & SUGGESTIONS: Comments and suggestions are welcome! Either fax, e-mail, or mail your comments and/or suggestions to the numbers listed on the cover page. OPERATING SYSTEM NOTES: MS/PC DOS Use allocation technique #0, #1, or #2. If you use #2 then the File System ID depends on the size of the partition you are going to create. From 1-15MB ID=1, From 16-32MB ID=4, From 33MB-2GB ID=6. Coherent Use allocation technique #0 or #2. File System ID=9. You need to allocate space on each drive you are going to install a partition in. This OS will support a 'T'ransfer boot. LINUX Use allocation technique #0 or #2. File System ID=131. Install LILO in the root not MBR. This OS will support a 'T'ransfer boot. OS/2 For installation see Windows NT. Windows NT If you are going to install Windows NT/OS2 into a partition that already exists, then just select the correct partition or group from Bootit. Next, boot with the Windows NT/OS2 installation diskette in A:. Note: If you have set the HD Parameters via Bootit then don't insert the diskette yet, you'll need to use the special function 'F'. Insert the diskette when the system tells you too. If you are going to create a new partition for Windows NT/OS2 then either use allocation technique #0 or #2. For technique #2, File System ID=6, afterwards see instructions above. Note: If you convert the partition to NTFS/HPFS during Windows NT/OS2 installation, Windows NT/OS2 will convert the File System ID to 7. You cannot use the Windows NT's Disk Administrator on drives that have Bootit installed. If you need to use the Disk Administrator with one of these drives, Bootit won't work for you. If you are going to choose multiple partition configurations while using Windows NT then I suggest you move the Windows NT partition to the first entry. You'll need to update the ARC names in boot.ini. If you don't move the partition and will have multiple partition configurations, where, a partition that is removed or added is an Extended partition (OS=5), then the Windows NT boot will fail and display an error message: NTOSKRNL.EXE not found. If you get this error then boot with the previous setup (in Bootit) and change the ARC names in boot.ini for the partition setup you want to use (from Bootit), then reboot and select the setup you want to use from Bootit. Note: For the ARC name partition number, count from top to bottom (in the standard partition table) starting at one and counting all partitions except Extended (OS=5) partitions. Next, Continue counting from top to bottom this time only counting the logical drives in each Extended partition.