Thoroughly understand the dual system boot menu

Now, there are a few friends who use dual systems. At boot time, the system will display a dual boot menu let us choose the operating system to enter (Figure 1), if not selected, The operating system where the height bar is located will be automatically booted after 30 seconds. However, how much do you know about the dual boot menu? FIG 1
a

, is how to achieve a dual boot

when the system through the Power On Self Test (POST), BiOS boot sequence according to the user set in advance from a hard disk or floppy Or the CD-ROM drive starts, for example, the hard disk boot is to first read the master boot record into the memory, then give control to the master boot program, then check the state of the partition table, find the active partition, and finally the master boot program will control the control. Give the boot record of the active partition, and finally load the operating system from the boot record.

So, as long as you follow the first Windows 9x /ME, then Windows 2000 /XP in order to install the system, it can automatically generate a dual-boot menu under normal circumstances, but if the reverse order, then dual-boot menu may not be Automatically generated.

two, consisting of dual-boot menu mercy

fact, the system boot sequence shown in Figure 1 we can freely adjusted, including the default operating system boot, the display of the list of operating systems, The time when the recovery option is displayed when needed.

In Windows XP/2000, right click on the "My Computer" icon on the desktop, and then click "System → Advanced", you can see the "Startup and Recovery" dialog box (Figure 2) This dialog box can complete the following setup tasks:


Figure 2
1. Change the default operating system

Just select an operating system in the "Default Operating System" drop-down list box, and you will see a word "/fastdect" after "". The operating system has been set as the default boot system, click "OK" below to take effect.

2. Set the time to display the operating system list

Here you can freely set the time to display the operating system list or the time to display the recovery options. The default setting is 30 seconds, but we don't want to wait for this at startup. For a long time, so change it to 5 seconds, it is recommended that friends do not shorten this time, otherwise you can not press the F8 button.

Third, in-depth understanding of a dual-boot menu

However, I was more interested in the image above this sentence: To manually edit the boot options, click "edit". What's under the "Edit" button?

original, dual-boot menu is controlled by a text file called boot.ini so-called "manually edit the boot options" that is manually edited (3) of this text file, here this list is not much, but friends may not be easy to understand, I will explain it in detail here:

Figure 3
1. [Boot Loader]: Boot Record

(1) timeout=5

Before you select the default operating system, "timeout" means that the user can boot from before NTLKR loads the default operating system. The loader screen selects the number of seconds of the operating system. If the value is 0, NTLDR will not display the loader screen and directly start the default operating system. In fact, it is the "time to display the operating system list" mentioned earlier. frame. The default value is 30 seconds, I have adjusted it to 5 seconds here.

(2) Default = multi (0) disk (0) rdisk (0) partition (2) \\ Windows

Default course, refers to the default (default) meaning, that is, the system The operating system path to be loaded by default, that is, the portion of the highlight that waits for you to select when the system starts. But there may be many friends who don't understand the names multi(0), disk(0), rdisk(0), and partition(1). In fact, in Windows, this involves some knowledge of ARC:

ARC is a dynamic method for identifying devices in x86 or RISC computers. The first part of ARC naming is used to identify hardware adapter cards/disk controllers. The typical ARC name structure is as follows:
< BR> component(x)disk(y)rdisk(z)partition(a)

The "component" field here generally has only two valid values: scsi and multi, which represent the device's hardware adapter. Scsi is of course a SCSI disk, and multi refers to a disk interface other than SCSI. "x" represents the serial number of the adapter, the first one is 0, the second is 1, the value can be allocated until all drive allocation ends; "y" refers to the bus number in the multi-bus SCSI adapter, for multi The value is 0; "z" refers to the serial number of the disk on the multi-adapter, and the value is 0 for SCSI; "a" refers to the serial number of the partition on the disk, and all partitions have a corresponding number, starting from 1, but Does not include 0 and 5.

2. [Operating System]: Operating System

(1)multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Professional" /fastdetect

Now It is easy to understand, this line of instructions tells us: the default operating system is "Microsoft Windows XP Professional" on the D drive, which is Windows XP. The "/fastdetect" here is a usage parameter, which means that the serial port and the parallel port are not checked at startup.

(2)C:\\="Windows 98SE"

This is the second operating system and is displayed as "Windows 98SE" in the boot menu.

3. Appendix: Usage parameters of the boot.ini file

Just now, we have mentioned that "/fastdetect" is a usage parameter, which means that the serial port and the parallel port are not checked at startup. In detail, a lot of parameters can be used in the boot.ini file. But too many use parameters, how do they remember to live? It doesn't matter, you can use the "BOOTCFG /?" command at the "command prompt" to see a list of all the parameters and their explanations (Figure 4).
Figure 4
four senior editor
how to dual boot menu
, now you structure and use of the boot.ini file to find out, right? In fact, editing the boot.ini file is consistent with the editing results in the dialog box of Figure 2. The difference is that if you can't enter Windows for some reason, you can do it under DOS
or another Manually edit the boot.ini file in an operating system.

1. Manually edit boot options in DOS
or other operating systems

In simple terms, boot options that can be modified include default operating system modifications, setting the time to display the operating system list, and modifying the boot menu. The display name of the operating system, etc. First, open "My Computer → Tools → Folder Options → View", in the "Advanced Settings Window" remove the "Hide Protected Operating System Files" in front of the hook and then "OK"; enter the C drive root directory to find The boot.ini file is now. Here I tried to change the original "Windows 98SE" in the dual boot menu to the scary "Microsoft Windows 2008" (Figure 5). After rebooting, look at it, what's new?

FIG. 5
2. Remove the tail left after manually deleting the operating system

Maybe friends have this experience, please God is easy to send God, when in some cases had to manually delete an operating system and found the boot menu It still retains the annoying option, and you have to wait 30 seconds unless you hit the Enter key. Especially in the case of installing multiple operating systems, we have reinstalled an operating system by formatting in order to save trouble, but found that the multi-boot menu has been lost. What should I do at this time, must be installed again? Another operating system?

now, we just open the boot.ini file, the deleted operating system that everything will be fine-line statement to delete it. Of course, if the property of the boot.ini file is read-only, please remove it first, and please delete the original file first.

3. Minor modifications, to prevent others from using the system

know the principles of the boot.ini file, we can it be a small change, so you can prevent unauthorized use of the system. For example, if the boot.ini file is renamed or transferred to another path, the file cannot be found when the system starts, and the error will not be entered continuously; or the statement in the boot.ini file can be changed, for example, "Default=" Multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\\WINDOWS" is changed to "Default=multi(0)disk(1)rdisk(0)partition(2)\\Windows". When you want to use it yourself, just change it back. However, novices still don't want to move it, otherwise, you can only look at the screen.

5, how to restore damaged dual boot menu

believe that the use of dual operating systems on a dual-boot menu friends must love and hate, of course, is the reason for this dual boot menu often baffling There are various failures, such as reinstalling Windows 9x or formatting the C drive. At this time, you will not see this dual boot menu when you start, and naturally you will not be able to enter another operating system. How to restore it? What?

In fact, the method is simple enough, although the dual-boot menu is destroyed, but another operating system files and configuration were not damaged, you just rerun Windows 2000 /XP installation program, select the "Repair" Installation, wait for the first time the file is copied, choose not to start when restarting, then end the installation, and then manually delete some folders or files in the root directory of the hard disk starting with $ (they are temporary files generated during the installation process) After rebooting, you can restore the boot menu.

Therefore, "Default = multi (0) disk (0) rdisk (0) partition (2) \\ Windows" meaning of this line of the statement refers to the default operating system is a non-SCSI interface number is 0 On the second partition on the hard disk. Here "partition(2)" is the second partition on the first physical hard disk in the computer. It is actually the D drive (I installed Windows XP on the D drive and Windows 98SE on the C drive), now you Got it out?