Re: 2 wondows versions detected on pc startup?

Well, let me say this on that: You know more about what's in the registry
than *I* do. :-)

My F3 key gets used a lot. I also use RegScanner from NirSoft.

"RegScanner is a small utility that allows you to scan the Registry, find
the desired Registry values that match to the specified search criteria, and
display them in one list. After finding the Registry values, you can easily
jump to the right value in RegEdit, simply by double-clicking the desired
Registry item."

RegScanner Tool: Alternative to RegEdit find of Windows
http://nirsoft.net/utils/regscanner.html

There also seems to be more that ntldr gets from the BIOS because
ntldr has to interpret the meaning of "rdisk(0)" and "rdisk(1)", etc.,
when it goes looking for the OSes

The MBR.

I may have some of this wrong. But, the way I understand it on an x86-based
computer, after the POST, the BIOS locates and reads the configuration
information stored in CMOS looking for the order of what drive to look at
for an operating system. If the first bootable disk is a fixed disk the
BIOS examines the very first sector of the disk for a Master Boot Record
(MBR). (A Master Boot Record is made up of two parts - the partition table
which describes the layout of the fixed disk and the partition loader code
which includes instructions for continuing the boot process.) With a valid
MBR loaded into memory the BIOS transfers control of the boot process to the
partition loader code. The BIOS is done.

The partition loader (or Boot Loader) examines the partition table for a
partition marked as active (or bootable). The Boot Loader then searches the
very first sector of that partition for a Boot Record. The active
partition's boot record is checked for a valid boot signature and if found
the boot sector code is executed as a program.

This is where Windows and NTLDR comes in, the partition loader code loads
NTLDR. NTLDR is the Boot Loader for Windows NT. NTLDR wants to see a
boot.ini. Supposedly, if a boot.ini is not present it will default to
C:\Windows. I am not about to delete my boot.ini to test this. ;-)

Ntldr reads the Boot.ini file to determine the location of the operating
system boot partition. For systems that use a single-boot configuration,
Ntldr initiates the hardware detection phase by starting Ntdetect.com. For
multiple-boot configurations you get the Boot Menu, to pick an operating
system from.

Windows uses the Advanced RISC Computing Specification (ARC) Path Naming
Convention.

The Advanced RISC Computing Specification
http://www.netbsd.org/Documentation/Hardware/Machines/ARC/riscspec.pdf

Disk (rigid). Where r stands for rigid. So, rdisk is the physical hard
disk. fdisk is a FloppyDisk. Where f is for floppy.

I "think" that the path(s) in the boot.ini tells NTLDR where to look for any
operating systems.

From my boot.ini...
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS

The Path is: Adapter\Controller\Peripheral\Partition\Filepath

multi(0) is a MultiFunction Adapter.
disk(0) is the Controller for the disk, a hard disk in this case (rdisk
denotes a hard disk).
rdisk(0) is the Peripheral, which is a hard disk.
partition(1) is the Partition on the hard disk.
WINDOWS is the Filepath.

rdisk(0) is Primary Controller channel 0 (Master)
rdisk(1) is Secondary Controller channel 0 (Master)
rdisk(2) is Primary Controller channel 1 (Slave)
rdisk(3) is Secondary Controller channel 1 (Slave)

--
Hope this helps. Let us know.

Wes
MS-MVP Windows Shell/User

In news:46116e30$0$1396$4c368faf@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx,
Timothy Daniels <TDaniels@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> hunted and pecked:
Well, let me say this on that: You know more about what's in the registry
than *I* do. :-)

The core of my question, though, lies in whether msconfig only verifies
that the ARC path entries in boot.ini each lead to an installed Windows
OS, or whether it can actually find OSes and then create corresponding
entries in boot.ini for them. I guess the latter is yet to be seen,
although if I had the energy and time, I could run some experiments which
would answer the question. I'll let you know if I come up with anything.

There also seems to be more that ntldr gets from the BIOS because
ntldr has to interpret the meaning of "rdisk(0)" and "rdisk(1)", etc.,
when it goes looking for the OSes. There must be a vector (i.e. an
ordered
list) of HD locations that the BIOS exposes to ntldr so that the ARC path
entries in boot.ini can be understood by ntldr so that ntldr can find the
HDs that contain an OS. But Phoenix Technologies has refused to say
anything about how the BIOS does this it except to say "ask Microsoft".
I have not been able to understand the reason for this stonewall, but it
exists.
*TimDaniels*


"Wesley Vogel" wrote:
You got pretty much what I know about it, Tim. Check All Boot Paths
reads the boot.ini. How? I have no idea. I also have no idea how
checking or unchecking Boot Options adds or removes switches in the
boot.ini. I do know that it is safer to let msconfig edit the boot.ini,
especially for first timers, than directly editing it in Notepad.

As far as I know, there are only a couple of things that Windows even
knows about a machine's BIOS.

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\HARDWARE\DESCRIPTION\System
Value Name: SystemBiosVersion
Data Type: REG_MULTI_SZ
Value Data: This should show the BIOS version.

Value Name: SystemBiosDate
Data Type: REG_MULTI_SZ
Value Data: This should show the BIOS date.

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Biosinfo
Value Name: InfName
Data Type: REG_SZ
Value Data: biosinfo.inf

Value Name: SystemBiosDate
Data Type: REG_SZ
Value Data: This should show the BIOS date.

Biosinfo.inf: Windows file that lists machines on the Autoenable APM list
and the Disable APM list, and also lists the BIOS detection sequences
used to match them.

Biosinfo vs. Machine-Specific Info. The results of machine-specific
detection versus Biosinfo.inf are stored in
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\BIOSInfo\APM. If the
"Attributes" value is 1, the machine's APM BIOS is "known good" and the
machine is on the Autoenable APM list. If the value 2, the machine's APM
BIOS is "known bad" and the machine is on the Disable APM list.
Otherwise, the machine is neutral.

C:\WINDOWS\inf\biosinfo.inf

If this is any help to you. My boot.ini.

[boot loader]
timeout=5
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP
Professional" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect /sos

multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1) appears in my registry.

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control
Value Name: SystemBootDevice
Data Type: REG_SZ
Value Data: multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)

/noexecute=optin /fastdetect /sos also appear in that key.
Value Name: SystemStartOptions
Data Type: REG_SZ
Value Data: NOEXECUTE=OPTIN FASTDETECT SOS

FYI, NOEXECUTE=OPTIN Enables DEP for core system images and those
specified in the DEP configuration dialog. Added by SP2.

FASTDETECT Default boot option for Windows. Causes NTDETECT to skip
parallel and serial device enumeration, so that NTDETECT can support
booting Windows NT 4. Note that ntdetect.com detects installed hardware
components when XP boots.

SOS I added this. Causes Windows to list the device drivers marked to
load at boot time and then to display the system version number
(including the build number), amount of physical memory, and number of
processors. Maybe I should have just said, "You got pretty much what I
know about
it", and left it at that, :-)

--
Hope this helps. Let us know.

Wes
MS-MVP Windows Shell/User

.

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