meaning of "rdisk()" in boot.ini file
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From: Timothy Daniels on 2 Feb 2006 06:30 ABSTRACT This investigation shows that the "rdisk()" parameter in the boot.ini file represents a hard drive in terms of its displacement from the head of the hard drive boot order in the BIOS. The value of n in "rdisk(n)" expresses this displacement, where n is an integer value starting with 0, and where "rdisk(0)" represents the hard drive which is at the head of the hard drive boot order, i.e. the hard drive at zero displacement from the head of the hard drive boot order. The BIOS used in the investigation was the Phoenix Technologies BIOS as supplied in Dell Dimension desktop PCs. HARDWARE Dell Dimension XPS-R450 with a Phoenix Tech BIOS, (3) Maxtor DiamondMaxPlus 9 hard drives connected to (1) SIIG IDE PCI controller card used in the 1st half of the investigation, and connected to (1) motherboard IDE controller used in the 2nd half of the investigation. HARD DRIVE CONFIGURATION IDE channel 0, Master - 80GB hard drive IDE channel 0, Slave - 40GB hard drive IDE channel 1, Master - 120GB hard drive Each HD had a Master Boot Record (MBR), each HD had as its partition #1 a Primary partition that 1) had a Boot Sector, 2) was marked "Active", and which 3) contained the boot files ntldr, boot.ini, and ntdetect.com . SOFTWARE CONFIGURATION Microsoft WindowsXP Pro installed in partition #1 of each HD. boot.ini file in the 80GB HD: [boot loader] timeout=30 default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS [operating systems] multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="(80GB part 1 boot.ini) rdisk 0, part 1" /fastdetect multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(1)\WINDOWS="(80GB part 1 boot.ini) rdisk 1, part 1" /fastdetect multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(2)partition(1)\WINDOWS="(80GB part 1 boot.ini) rdisk 2, part 1" /fastdetect boot.ini file in the 40GB HD: [boot loader] timeout=30 default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS [operating systems] multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="(40GB part 1 boot.ini) rdisk 0, part 1" /fastdetect multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(1)\WINDOWS="(40GB part 1 boot.ini) rdisk 1, part 1" /fastdetect multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(2)partition(1)\WINDOWS="(40GB part 1 boot.ini) rdisk 2, part 1" /fastdetect boot.ini file in the 120GB HD: [boot loader] timeout=30 default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS [operating systems] multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="(120GB part 1 boot.ini) rdisk 0, part 1" /fastdetect multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(1)\WINDOWS="(120GB part 1 boot.ini) rdisk 1, part 1" /fastdetect multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(2)partition(1)\WINDOWS="(120GB part 1 boot.ini) rdisk 2, part 1" /fastdetect Each of the above boot.ini file entries under the line "[operating systems]" specified an OS in partition #1 of one of the HDs, i.e. from "rdisk(0)", "rdisk(1)", or "rdisk(2)". The character string between the quotes in each OS entry became a line in the on-screen menu displayed by ntldr at boot time, and it was to aid in identifying which HD got control from the BIOS (i.e 80GB, 40GB, or 120GB) and which "rdisk()" value each line corresponded to. A file with a name identifying the HD which contained it was put on the Desktop of each OS. This was to aid in identi- fying the HD of the OS that was loaded. EXPERIMENT Each HD was in turn put at the head of the BIOS's hard drive boot order and the PC was started. Each of the three entries in the on-screen boot menu was selected in turn, and the OS that loaded was recorded. Since the boot.ini files contained entries only for the partition #1 on each HD, the experiment was a specific test for the meaning of the "rdisk()" parameter. Then the order of the 2nd and 3rd HD in the hard drive boot order was reversed in the BIOS, and the above experiment was repeated. Then, the hard drives were disconnected from the IDE PCI controller card and connected to the IDE controller on the motherboard, and the entire experimental sequence detailed above was repeated. A total of 36 boot-ups were executed. RESULTS The following results were identical for both the PCI IDE controller case and for the motherboard IDE controller case: HD boot order: 80GB, 40GB, 120GB boot menu entry selected: HD the OS booted from: (80GB part 1 boot.ini) rdisk 0, part 1 80GB, part 1 (80GB part 1 boot.ini) rdisk 1, part 1 40GB, part 1 (80GB part 1 boot.ini) rdisk 2, part 1 120GB, part 1 HD boot order: 80GB, 120GB, 40GB boot menu entry selected: HD the OS booted from: (80GB part 1 boot.ini) rdisk 0, part 1 80GB, part 1 (80GB part 1 boot.ini) rdisk 1, part 1 120GB, part 1 (80GB part 1 boot.ini) rdisk 2, part 1 40GB, part 1 HD boot order: 40GB, 80GB, 120GB boot menu entry selected: HD the OS booted from: (40GB part 1 boot.ini) rdisk 0, part 1 40GB, part 1 (40GB part 1 boot.ini) rdisk 1, part 1 80GB, part 1 (40GB part 1 boot.ini) rdisk 2, part 1 120GB, part 1 HD boot order: 40GB, 120GB, 80GB boot menu entry selected: HD the OS booted from: (40GB part 1 boot.ini) rdisk 0, part 1 40GB, part 1 (40GB part 1 boot.ini) rdisk 1, part 1 120GB, part 1 (40GB part 1 boot.ini) rdisk 2, part 1 80GB, part 1 HD boot order: 120GB, 40GB, 80GB boot menu entry selected: HD the OS booted from: (120GB part 1 boot.ini) rdisk 0, part 1 120GB, part 1 (120GB part 1 boot.ini) rdisk 1, part 1 40GB, part 1 (120GB part 1 boot.ini) rdisk 2, part 1 80GB, part 1 HD boot order: 120GB, 80GB, 40GB boot menu entry selected: HD the OS booted from: (120GB part 1 boot.ini) rdisk 0, part 1 120GB, part 1 (120GB part 1 boot.ini) rdisk 1, part 1 80GB, part 1 (120GB part 1 boot.ini) rdisk 2, part 1 40GB, part 1 DISCUSSION The OS always booted from the hard drive having a position in the hard drive boot order expressed as the n in "rdisk(n)" parameter of the boot.ini file entry. This correspondence persisted throughout all all permutations of the hard drive boot order and despite which IDE controller the HDs were connected to. Whether this is the case in other less common BIOSes is unknown by this investigator. But since the Phoenix Technologies' BIOSes are used by many large PC manufacturers, it is probably a very common meaning of "rdisk()" among modern PCs running a Microsoft Windows operating system. *TimDaniels*
From: Timothy Daniels on 2 Feb 2006 15:47 "Rod Speed" non-sequitured: > ....have fun explaining why ALL the documentation > of the ARC path naming convention fails to mention the > hard drive boot order at all when documenting the rdisk() > parameter. There has GOT to be a reason for that. > > AND its a stupid way to implement a system anyway > because the boot.ini file would have to be changed > when the boot order is changed. > > ALL the evidence points to the fact that its a terminal > stupidity that has been perpetrated in the Phoenix bios > and that it doesnt get mentioned just because the phoenix > bios is by far the least commonly used of the big 3. All I did was report reality. What does it matter what some obscure specification says? Do you run a spec or a PC? *TimDaniels*
From: Timothy Daniels on 2 Feb 2006 15:55 "Rod Speed" wrote: > ALL the evidence points to the fact that its a terminal > stupidity that has been perpetrated in the Phoenix bios > and that it doesnt get mentioned just because the phoenix > bios is by far the least commonly used of the big 3. Maybe. But Dell is a MAJOR brand. *TimDaniels*
From: Rod Speed on 2 Feb 2006 17:49 Timothy Daniels <TDaniels(a)NoSpamDot.com> wrote > Rod Speed non-sequitured Lying, as always. >> ....have fun explaining why ALL the documentation >> of the ARC path naming convention fails to mention the >> hard drive boot order at all when documenting the rdisk() >> parameter. There has GOT to be a reason for that. >> AND its a stupid way to implement a system anyway >> because the boot.ini file would have to be changed >> when the boot order is changed. >> ALL the evidence points to the fact that its a terminal >> stupidity that has been perpetrated in the Phoenix bios >> and that it doesnt get mentioned just because the phoenix >> bios is by far the least commonly used of the big 3. > All I did was report reality. No you didnt. You reported what YOU see on a badly implemented system and claimed that that proved that the rdisk() param is the boot drive order number on all systems out there. That is just plain wrong. > What does it matter what some obscure specification says? It matters because it proves that your claim that the rdisk() parameter is ALWAYS the boot order sequence number is just plain wrong when that spec for the boot.ini file, written by the designers of that boot.ini file dont even mention the boot order sequence number with rdisk() > Do you run a spec or a PC? Never ever could bullshit its way out of a wet paper bag.
From: Timothy Daniels on 2 Feb 2006 17:51
"Rod Speed" wrote: > > AND its a stupid way to implement a system anyway because the > boot.ini file would have to be changed when the boot order is changed. What's so hard about that? In my normal system, which contains 8 or 9 bootable clones, the boot.ini file in each primary partition contains a generic boot.ini file that has 10 optional entries (the max for my BIOS). The comment character string in each entry indicates its rdisk() and partition() value, and knowing where the desired clone is in the boot order, I can boot to any clone in the system. Which is harder - knowing the position of a HD in terms of IDE channel no. and Master/Slave setting, or knowing where the HD is in the hard drive boot order? But the Phoenix BIOS, in fact, accomodates geriatric users such as yourself. It has as a DEFAULT hard drive boot order which is tied to the physical position of each hard drive: Master, IDE channel 0 Slave, IDE chennel 0 Master, IDE channel 1 Slave, IDE channel 1 Thus, if one doesn't want to adjust the hard drive boot order (or doesn't know how), one can just rely on the default hard drive boot order. To change which hard drive is at the head of the order, one must physically rearrange the hard drives. But hey(!), some people *like* restrictions more than convenience. *TimDaniels* |