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╔═════════════════════════════════╗
║ MASTERBOOTER v1.5 DOCUMENTATION ║
║ (C) Nagy Daniel 09-14-96 ║
╚═════════════════════════════════╝
SHAREWARE VERSION
┌──────────┐
│ CONTENTS │
└──────────┘
Disclaimer............................ 1
Copyright............................. 2
Introduction.......................... 3
Files in package...................... 4
Features.............................. 5
Compatibility......................... 6
Usage................................. 7
A step-by-step example................ 8
History............................... 9
Registration......................... 10
Contact.............................. 11
┌────────────┐
│ DISCLAIMER ├──────────────────────── 1 ─────────────────────────────────────
└────────────┘
Using this program comes without any warranty. The author
and distributors will not accept responsibility for any
damage incurred directly or indirectly through use of this
program.
Use at your own risk!
┌───────────┐
│ COPYRIGHT ├───────────────────────── 2 ─────────────────────────────────────
└───────────┘
This program is copyright (c) Nagy Dániel. This program is shareware.
You are free to distribute it by electronic means and make as
many copies as you want on electronic or magnetic media, as long
as the files of this package remain unmodified, with copyright
notices intact. Distributing parts separtely is not allowed!
Selling for money is prohibited without the author's prior
permission.
┌──────────────┐
│ INTRODUCTION ├────────────────────── 3 ─────────────────────────────────────
└──────────────┘
MasterBooter is a very powerful utility which enables your
computer to use multiple operation systems without changing
harddisks or messing with boot floppies.
You can choose among up to three operating systems at boot time
(four in the registered verison).
MasterBooter is compatible with many operating systems.
┌──────────────────┐
│ FILES IN PACKAGE ├────────────────── 4 ─────────────────────────────────────
└──────────────────┘
EFDISK.EXE - Extended FDISK partitioning program
EFDISK.DOC - EFDISK documentation
EFDHUN.DOC - Hungarian EFDISK documentation
FILE_ID.DIZ - Description for BBS systems
MRBOOTER.EXE - MasterBooter executable
MRBOOTER.DOC - MasterBooter documentation
MRBTHUN.DOC - Hungarian MasterBooter documentation
MRESCUE.COM - Rescue disk maker utility
REGISTER.FRM - Registration form
┌──────────┐
│ FEATURES ├────────────────────────── 5 ─────────────────────────────────────
└──────────┘
- Cabapility of booting from any disk's any primary partition
- Compatibility with many operating systems:
MS-DOS
Novell DOS
Linux
OS/2
Windows95 (*)
Windows NT
Unknown OS with 'standard' boot process (*)
- Programmable delay time (*)
- Up to three operating systems on a single computer without
the hassle of boot disks! (Registered version allows four!)
- VERY small memory and harddisk space requirement for the setup
program only. The loader doesn't use any memory or disk space!
- Safety and easy-to-use user interface
(*) these features work in registered version only!
┌───────────────┐
│ COMPATIBILITY ├───────────────────── 6 ─────────────────────────────────────
└───────────────┘
Requirements: - 80286 processor or newer
- MS-DOS or compatible operating system
(for installation only)
- At least one harddisk
- Keyboard
- VGA adapter
- If you have a harddisk with capacity more
than 540MB, then your mainboard MUST have
a new BIOS (EBIOS) which supports large drives,
else you won't be able to use MasterBooter.
Most 486 and all Pentium machines have such BIOS.
This program souldn't conflict with any other programs which
don't alter your disks Master Boot Record.
Known programs which alter the MBR (and therefore can't be used
with MasterBooter):
- LILO (Linux's booter) if installed in MBR. Note that if LILO
is installed in its partition's boot sector (the Linux partition
superblock), then MasterBooter CAN coexist with LILO!
- MicroHouse's EZ-Drive
- OnTrack's Disk Manager
- PC Vault
┌───────┐
│ USAGE ├───────────────────────────── 7 ─────────────────────────────────────
└───────┘
Introduction:
─────────────
Every time you turn on your computer, the BIOS executes a small
program, which resides in the very first sector of your harddisk.
This sector is the so-called Master Boot Record (MBR). This small
program examines the partitions, and loads the operating system of
the partition which has the 'active' flag. A harddisk can contain
up to four primary partitions, but only one can be active at a time.
This flexible technique enables many operating systems to be used
on a PC. However, these systems often have their own unique loader
code, and won't let you use other systems, unless you know tricky
methods to get past this. MasterBooter works by replacing the program
in the MBR with its own loader code that you can configure, so you
can select from any installed operating system.
Overview:
─────────
If you have all operating systems installed, all you need to do is
to run MRBOOTER.EXE, and configure your MBR. Before doing so you
can use MRESCUE to create a backup copy of your partition tables.
The Rescue utility from Norton Utilities is also a good choice to
save all important areas of your harddisks.
If you want to create a completely new system, follow the
instructions below.
Using EFDISK, partition the disk into as many primary partitions as
you intend to have operating systems (up to a maximum of four per
harddisk). Install DOS to them, and then use MRBOOTER to configure
the MBR. Then install an operating system on each partition.
When complete, you will be able to choose which system to boot each
time you start your computer!
1) Preparing To Partition Your Harddisk
────────────────────────────────────
WARNING: Re-partitioning your harddisk will erase ALL data from it!
Make sure you have backed up any important files!
Since most operating systems need to be started from a primary
partition to boot reliably, you will need to use a disk partitioning
utility that lets you make multiple primary partitions. FDISK, which
is supplied as standard with DOS and Windows95, cannot create more
than one primary partition, so the MasterBooter package includes
EFDISK for this purpose.
First, create a boot floppy and put copies of the following files
onto it:
MRBOOTER.EXE (the MasterBooter utility)
EFDISK.EXE (disk-partitioning utility)
FDISK.EXE (disk-partitioning utility)
FORMAT.COM (to format DOS partitions)
If you need to install any operating systems from a CD-ROM, you will
also need CD-ROM driver files, plus properly configured AUTOEXEC.BAT
and CONFIG.SYS files for this. Make sure it works before proceeding!
Reboot your machine with your boot floppy. From the relevant directory
at the A: prompt, type EFDISK. This will start the EFDISK utility.
Note that this version of EFDISK handles only the first two harddisks!
EFDISK will gather information about your disks and partitions. You
will then be provided with a list of all partitions on all disks and
their parameters. From this list you can choose the partition entry
you want to change.
When you select a partition, EFDISK will ask the following questions:
- The hexadecimal type ID of the partition. EFDISK will show you
the most common types and their IDs.
- The starting cylinder of the partition (the minimum is 0).
If the previous partition ends on cylinder 'x' then set this to
'x+1'. This number is decimal.
- The ending cylinder number of partition. EFDISK will show you
the maximum cylinder number available for the actual harddisk.
The number of heads and sectors per track are determined automatically
for each disk, you don't have to mess with them.
Pressing SPACE will activate the highlighted partition, pressing DEL
will clear it.
NOTE: EFDISK doesn't check for partition errors! It's not an
'intelligent' program. You have total freedom to set all
parameters, even if they are incorrect or redundant!
When setting up partitions, bear the following in mind: Due to DOS
file system limits, the larger the partition, the more space is wasted
by "overhang." If you have a large drive (around 800MB or above) you
may want to optimise your use of disk space by making each partition
just below one of the "doubling points" (i.e. 255, 511, 1023
megabytes, etc.).
You can also have "extended" partitions, but EFDISK can only create
primary partitions. You can, however, use the standard DOS FDISK
utility to create an extended partition, and then create "logical
drives" within that if you wish. Bear in mind that you can have a
maximum of four primary and extended partitions on one drive, because
each allocates one partition entry in the table.
After preparing all partition entries, press F10 to save the new
partition table to disk.
2) Using MRBOOTER
──────────────
Now that you have successfully partitioned your harddisk, you can use
the MRBOOTER utility to set up your system for booting multiple
operating systems, then install the systems you wish to run.
How you now proceed depends on which operating systems you plan to
install, but you will probably need to format and install DOS on at
least one of them if you are planning to put DOS, Windows 3.x or
Windows95 on any partition. Use FORMAT.EXE on your boot floppy with
the /s switch to format and install the DOS kernel on the relevant
partitions.
Now boot from your floppy and run MRBOOTER. You will be asked to name
each boot partition. When you have finished, you can then write this
information to the MBR and MasterBooter has been installed! When you
next reboot from the harddisk you will see a small menu asking you to
type a number corresponding to the operating system you wish to boot.
Now you can begin installing the operating systems.
3) Important Notes
───────────────
- DOS based systems (therefore Windows 95) and Windows NT
can only boot from a primary partition of the first harddisk!
This means that the OS itself can reside on the slave disk,
but it will tamper with the active partition of the master disk.
For example Windows 95 and NT will install some garbage into
the root directory of drive C:, and will replace the boot
sector with its special one.
- Before using this program be sure to disable the virus warning
option in your system's BIOS (if it has this option), else the
BIOS won't let MasterBooter to modify your harddisk's MBR!
- If you want to add a partition later, don't hesitate, but
after doing so you must re-run MasterBooter to update the
new system.
- Before running MasterBooter quit all multitasking environments
(ie. Windows or OS/2 DOS box) and run plain DOS, because
after the program writes the modifications to your harddisk,
the system needs to be rebooted.
- If you have two harddisks then I recommend the following:
Put DOSes and Windowses (3.1, 95 and NT) on the master,
OS/2 Warp and Linux on the slave disk.
- With DOS and Windows (not NT!) versions it's usually a good idea
to create as small partitions as possible for the OSes itselves,
and bigger logical drives for common data.
- If you want to use common data partitions, create an extended
partition with the original FDISK, then create logical drives
in it. These logical drives are usable by nearly all OSes.
- After installing Windows 95, MasterBooter menu will disappear,
because the installer overwrites the Master Boot Record.
Don't panic, just simply re-run MasterBooter, and everything will
work fine.
- If you install Linux on the slave disk, don't let LILO to modify
the Master Boot Record, install it in the Linux partition's boot
sector instead. Maybe you'll get a warning message saying you
will not be able to boot Linux, but don't panic. Just run
MasterBooter after the installation is done.
- Bear in mind that the active partition is always called C:.
Don't overwrite one system with another by choosing the wrong
partition to install it on!
┌────────────────────────┐
│ A STEP-BY-STEP EXAMPLE ├──────────── 8 ─────────────────────────────────────
└────────────────────────┘
Let's suppose that we have a 1.6Gig master, and a 540Mb slave
harddisk. Let's partition the harddisks in the following way:
Master: 100Mb - for DOS/Win3.1
300Mb - for Windows 95 (note that Windows 95 is supported
in the registered version only!)
500Mb - for programs and data ─┐ These two partitions will
699Mb - for games, archive area │ be logical drives in an
for writing CD-ROMs ─┘ extended partition
1Mb - for OS/2 Warp Boot Manager (it can be deleted after
OS/2 is fully installed)
Slave: 240Mb - for Linux
300Mb - for OS/2 Warp
Here's the recipee:
1: Create a system diskette, and copy FORMAT, FDISK, EFDISK
and MRBOOTER onto it.
2: Run EFDISK and create the 100Mb and 300Mb partitions on the
master harddisk (both are BIGDOS type)
3: When the computer reboots, boot up with the system diskette and
run FDISK. Create a 1199Mb extended partition, and crate the
500Mb and 699Mb logical drives in it.
4: After rebooting, use the diskette again. Format C: and D: with
the '/s' command line option, E: and F: without it.
Now you have two simple primary bootable partitions with plain
DOS on them, and two logical drives.
5: Run MasterBooter and select both DOSes. After rebooting, you
should see a small bootmenu with the names you've entered in
MasterBooter.
6: Select the 100Mb partition, and install DOS and Windows 3.1 on C:.
C: is always the partition you boot, D: will be the other
primary partition, E: and F: will be the logical drives.
7: Reboot the computer and select the 300Mb partition. Because now
it becomes the C: drive, therfore it should be empty and D:
should contain the installed DOS/Win3.1. Install Win95 to C:.
When Win95 reboots the computer, the bootmenu will disappear.
Just continue installing Win95, and if you're ready, re-install
MasterBooter.
8: Now the master harddisk is ready to go. Let's continue with
Warp and Linux. Before installing Warp, do a 'fdisk /mbr' to
uninstall MasterBooter.
9: Install Warp. During installing, you can use Warp's FDISK to
create the 300MB HPFS partition. Warp will call it E:.
10: When all is done, install Linux, but don't let it to write LILO
in the Master Boot Record. Install LILO in its own partition's
boot sector (superblock) instead.
11: Now install MasterBooter, and live a long and happy life with
four OSes on a single PC!
The numbers above are just for this example only. The only
important thing is that you should leave 1Mb unpartitioned
space on the master harddisk, because Warp needs it during
installation.
┌─────────┐
│ HISTORY ├─────────────────────────── 9 ─────────────────────────────────────
└─────────┘
Version:
1.0b - First official test release
1.1 - Both versions: Added EFDISK partitioning program to package
Fixed typos in documentations
Removed 'by NagyD' string from loader
Improved 'string input' routine
Added Hungarian documentatiom
Registered: Minor bug fixes
Added support for unknown file system
Added infinite boot delay time
Shareware: Minor bug fixes
1.2 - Both versions: Less useless MBR writes (better loader routine)
If an OS is not on the first harddisk, then
MasterBooter will examine that the 'physical
drive number' value in the boot sector is
correct. If not, it will be corrected.
For example OS/2 cannot boot if this value is
incorrect.
OS/2's Boot Manager doesn't patch the MBR (this
was an error in the documentation of
MasterBooter), so it can coexist with
MasterBooter (but unnecessary).
1.3 - Both versions: Fixed a small bug in the Boot Sector patcher
Added LILO detection in the MBR
Loader now clears screen if necessary
System names can be up to 16 characters long
1.4 - Both versions: Small improvements in loader routine
1.5 - Both versions: Added support for Windows NT
Some documentation cosmetics and additions
A Big Thanks goes to Jonathan Baker-Bates, who helped
me to re-write and correct the documentation.
Shareware: Added support for Novell DOS
┌──────────────┐
│ REGISTRATION ├───────────────────── 10 ─────────────────────────────────────
└──────────────┘
The registration benefits the following:
- Windows95 support
- Unknown OS support
- Programmable delay time
- Programmable default system
- Up to four choosable operation systems (not three)
Registration fee: 20 USD / 2500 HUF for private use
50 USD / 8000 HUF for institutional use
Print the registration form (the file REGISTER.FRM), fill it
and send it to:
Nagy Daniel
2011 Budakalász
Ciklamen u. 19.
HUNGARY
! Registration via E-mail is NOT accepted, since your signature
! is required!
Upon registering you'll get the latest registered version of
MasterBooter and information about future releases when available.
You can register in three ways:
───────────────────────────────
1) Send cheqe or money order to: Nagy Daniel
Use registered mail only. 2011 Budakalasz
Don't send coins! Ciklamen u. 19.
HUNGARY
2a) Bank transfer from Hungary:
Address: Mezobank Rt.
8200 Veszprem
Egyetemi fiok 1.
Account No.: 10600546-71910011
2b) Bank transfer from other country:
Address: OTP Veszpremi Korzeti fiok
8200 Veszprem
Account No.: B114220
3) Via Albert's Ambry. Check out http://www.alberts.com for more
information. There you can register on-line, and immediately
download the registered version. It's probably the most
comfortable way of registering.
This method is available only for private license!
The preferred registration method is to send the cash together with
the registration form in a registered envelope. This is the fastest,
and we don't have to pay additional postal or bank transfer fee.
Getting the software:
────────────────────
You can order your copy on a 1.44Mb floppy diskette.
In this case you have to pay additional 5 USD / 300 HUF for
postage and package.
You can also order via E-mail transfer (preferred). Then you'll
get your copy uuencoded in an E-mail.
Warning!
───────
You're not allowed to copy or distribute the registered version
of this software. If you do so, please consider that my whole work
(many weeks I can say...) will be almost wasted time.
Please support shareware!
┌─────────┐
│ CONTACT ├────────────────────────── 11 ─────────────────────────────────────
└─────────┘
If you have any problems, questions or suggestions you can
contact me through mail or Internet E-mail.
Bug reports, ideas also welcomed!
Postal address: Internet E-mail address:
────────────── ───────────────────────
Nagy Daniel nagyd@almos.vein.hu
2011 Budakalasz
Ciklamen u. 19 WWW homepage:
HUNGARY ─────────────
http://www.vein.hu/~nagyd
Fax: (36) 26 340-472