delorie.com/archives/browse.cgi   search  
Mail Archives: opendos/2000/09/15/09:04:49

X-Apparently-From: <pmoran22 AT yahoo DOT com>
Message-ID: <000501c01dc0$48c15510$9e8a1004@dbcooper>
From: "Patrick Moran" <pmoran22 AT yahoo DOT com>
To: <opendos AT delorie DOT com>
References: <01c01cdb$0e5d8780$cb5eb7d4 AT default>
Subject: Re: does DR-DOS dynamically assign the drive letters at boot?
Date: Wed, 13 Sep 2000 14:05:48 -0600
MIME-Version: 1.0
X-Priority: 3
X-MSMail-Priority: Normal
X-Mailer: Microsoft Outlook Express 5.00.3018.1300
X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V5.00.3018.1300
Reply-To: opendos AT delorie DOT com

I'll see if I can explain this. The IBM BIOS will assign the first physical
drive it finds to hex 80 and the second drive hex 81...  The first primary
partition it finds is assigned as DRIVE C:, the second as DRIVE D:, the
third as DRIVE E:, etc.  The system must boot from the first primary
partition it find at hex 80. Thus I do not think that by simply eliminating
that first primaty partition will work. I believe you will have to put the
1.2GB drive as the first physical drive and make it a or a portion of it a
primary partition.

However, if you have a newer BIOS that allows you to boot from any one of
the four IDE drives then you can set it to boot from the 1.2GB drive.

I have no idea why these stupid programs and OSes, demand to install on
drive C:. I have run accross this problem before. Once it is installed, then
you can relocate it to wherever you want. I cannot remember for certain, but
believe that when I installed DRDOS, it gave me a choice of where to install
Personal NetWare. At least the directory name, but think I could have also
used the drive letter as well.

I am not familiar enough with NetWare 4.x and 5.x to know what can and
cannot be done with them. I suspect all the audit files and other security
stuff will still have to be installed on DRIVE C:. That is the way PNW does
it. I have put PNW's NWCLIENT on DRIVE D: and it worked just fine, but it
was originally installed on C:. I do have the books for NetWare 2.x, but
that would not be of any help here. PNW is compatible with 4.x.

I suggest, you open up the computer and change the two drives around. You
will have to change the Master and Slave jumpers on each drive accordingly.

At one time my first primary partition was only 12MB, but had to increase
the size because of all the junk that insisted on installing itself on DRIVE
C:. I could then move it, but it was a real pain. I'll probably get rid of
this IDE drive soon when I get another large SCSI, then I can boot from two
differnt SCSI drives if I need to. (ID0 & ID1) Unfortunately, IDE drives are
assigned before SCSI drives and thus you have to boot from an IDE if one is
installed.

One last thought, but I am not certain how you can do this without first
swapping the drives. You could install the Netware on the 1.2 when it is
installed as drive C:, then switch the drives back and use the DRDOS or some
other boot loader program and choose which to boot. The problem is in the
BIOS. You have to boot from the first drive it finds, unless you have a
newer BIOS that allows you to assign which drive is the boot drive.

Pat


----- Original Message -----
From: "Florian Xaver" <dos DOT fire AT aon DOT at>
To: <opendos AT delorie DOT com>
Sent: Tuesday, September 12, 2000 11:01 AM
Subject: Fw: does DR-DOS dynamically assign the drive letters at boot?


>
> -----Ursprüngliche Nachricht-----
> Von: Mike Anderson <mike AT lvconstruction DOT com>
> An: florianx AT drdos DOT org <florianx AT drdos DOT org>
> Datum: Dienstag, 12. September 2000 18:35
>
>
> >I am about to upgrade from NW 3.2 to NW 5.1.  I have a 20MB DOS partition
> on
> >the primary drive that is currently assigned the drive letter C.  I also
> >have a 1.2GB drive that has one primary DOS partition that is currently
> >assigned the drive letter D (which has the NWSERVER directory on it).  I
> >need to use the 1.2GB drive to for the 5.1 installation but I don't think
> >that the Novell installation program will allow me to choose drive D for
> the
> >install.
> >
> >My question is, does DR-DOS dynamically assign the drive letters at boot?
> >If that is the case, I should be able to delete the current C partition,
> >reboot the machine to a floppy, make the existing 1.2GB drive bootable
> >(which is now C because DOS has dynamically assign that letter to the
first
> >and only DOS partition) and end up with what I want.



_________________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Get your free @yahoo.com address at http://mail.yahoo.com

- Raw text -


  webmaster     delorie software   privacy  
  Copyright © 2019   by DJ Delorie     Updated Jul 2019