Re: Booting directly from D partition

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Hi Doug,

> Since our image must be deployed to multiple targets (identical hardware,
> but would probably vary in low-level serial numbers?), I have a concern
> about this technique. Mainly, what is in the binary data that is the value
> of the DosDevices keys?

No problems there because those numbers are hardware independent.
First four bytes represent DiskID that is stored in MBR sector (first 512 bytes on disk).
Next 8 bytes represent offset on disk to partition start.

So if you do full cloning of disk content you will not have a problems since both DiskID in MBR and partition start will be same for
all disks.

> What is it that XP is matching up when assigning the drives
> based on these keys?
Bacialy it check whether key exist that describe disk/partition and if not it will create it and autoassign volume letter.
If you put it manualy there then it will use your value.

Regards,
Slobodan




"Doug Gordon" <douglas.gordon@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message news:uUhO1ylAGHA.1032@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> Slobodan:
> Since our image must be deployed to multiple targets (identical hardware,
> but would probably vary in low-level serial numbers?), I have a concern
> about this technique. Mainly, what is in the binary data that is the value
> of the DosDevices keys? I can see that they vary from PC to PC, so I am
> wondering if they represent something that is going to be seen differently
> on different specific PCs, even if the PCs are "identical" in their
> configurations. What is it that XP is matching up when assigning the drives
> based on these keys?
>
> Doug G
>
>
> "Slobodan Brcin (eMVP)" <sbrcin@xxxxxx> wrote in message
> news:uD7I0zeAGHA.3928@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> > Hi Doug,
> >
> > Fortunately for you C:, D: are logical link that represent some volume
> > access point and they are automatically assigned by PnP is
> > they are not already assigned.
> > Why I say fortunately.
> > Regardless of number of partitions that you have or their order you can
> > assign arbitrary volume letters for each partition in TD
> > much before you put your image on target platform.
> >
> > So you can say that OS partition is D: in TD by following my tip:
> > http://msdn.microsoft.com/embedded/community/community/tips/xp/rtpartin/default.aspx
> >
> > And PnP will assign C: for your second partition that can be unprotected,
> > and I guess programs that have hardcoded path
> > C:\SomeCoolProgram\start.exe will be fooled and will work on second
> > partition with volume letter C:.
> >
> > Regards,
> > Slobodan
> >
> > "Doug Gordon" <douglas.gordon@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
> > news:ekeMNHbAGHA.3268@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> >> For various reasons, our end system must be configured so the C drive is
> >> available for the user's files and can't be EWF-protected. So I have
> >> always
> >> configured XPE to run off the 2nd partition in such as way that the
> >> system
> >> drive is the D drive with EWF protection. So far, so good -- almost.
> >>
> >> However, there is still one critical component that remains on the C
> >> drive,
> >> and that is the boot loader. The C partition is the one that is set
> >> "active", so NTLDR runs from there, Boot.ini is there, etc. This means
> >> that
> >> it is possible for the user to corrupt the C partition and prevent the
> >> system from booting, and this has apparently happened a few times. If I
> >> set
> >> the 2nd partition active, the system will boot directly from the
> >> protected
> >> drive, but then that becomes the C drive, and the user's partition is now
> >> D.
> >>
> >> Is there any way to boot directly off of the 2nd partition, but have the
> >> drive letters come up so the system drive is D and the 1st, non-active
> >> partition is C?
> >>
> >> Doug G
> >>
> >>
> >
> >
>
>


.

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