Boot-B: Boot the B: Drive
Copyright (c) 1990, 1991 Solutions by the Numbers

Written by Scott A. Numbers

Do you have tons of games on 5.25" diskettes that can only run by
booting them, but you can't run them because your A: drive is a 3.5"
drive? Now you can. By using Boot-B: you can start most of those
diskettes from the B: drive. Boot-B: is a program that creates a new
boot sector for a disk in drive A: which when booted will pass the
boot process over to the B: drive.

It is not a TSR (obviously), nor does it in any way alter the format of
the diskette. It simply replaces the non-functional boot sector of
the floppy with one that redirects the boot process. All DOS disk
parameters are left unaltered. Since Boot-B: does all of its changes
in the boot sector, the BOOT_B program does not need to be present on
the floppy disk.

In many cases, using BOOT_B without any parameters will work fine. Some
hardware configurations may require one of the switches to help identify
the disk and drive combination.

Using Boot-B:

BOOT_B [options]

options are:

T1 - Drive B: is a 360K floppy in a 360K drive

T2 - Drive B: is a 360K floppy in a 1.2M drive

T3 - Drive B: is a 1.2M floppy in a 1.2M drive

T4 - Drive B: is a 720K floopy in a 720K drive

REBOOT - Restart system skipping memory tests

WARMBOOT - Restart system skipping memory tests (same as reboot)

COLDBOOT - Restart system including memory tests


Place a formatted diskette in drive A: and type the command:

BOOT_B [option1 option2]

When Boot-B: is run, it will check the disk in Drive A: and determine
whether it currently has a system on it. If it does have a system
on it, you will be asked if you want to continue with the process.
If you choose to continue, Boot-B: will alter the disk in drive A: so
that whenever the computer is started with that disk in drive A:,
the B: drive will be used to start the computer. If you use Boot-B:
on a diskette with a system, it will remove the system files from
the diskette since they are no longer needed.

If the disk in drive A: does not contain a system but Boot-B:
determines it was not formatted under DOS (possibly a game disk),
you will be given a warning that it was not formatted under DOS and
asked if you want to continue. If you continue, the disk in Drive
A: will be altered to Boot the B: drive.

If the disk was formatted under DOS and there is no system on it,
Boot-B: will alter the disk in Drive A: without any warnings or
prompts.

Boot-B: does all of its changes in the boot record of the disk in
drive A:. Under no circumstances will it write to your fixed disk.

Examples:

BOOT_B T2 Warmboot - will alter the disk in drive A: so that
it will boot a 360k diskette in a 1.2M
B: drive. After the boot sector is fixed
on the A: disk the computer will be
warm started.

BOOT_B T3 Coldboot - will alter the disk in drive A: so that
it will boot a 1.2M diskette in a 1.2M
B: drive. After the boot sector is fixed
on the A: disk the computer will be
cold started.

BOOT_B - will alter the disk in drive A: so that
it will boot the diskette in Drive B:
using the ROM BIOS default settings for
the drive.


You may get an error message telling you to try another Boot-B:
configuration. This is caused by incorrect information for the disk
and drive. Simply re-run Boot-B: using the correct option for the
disk and drive (T1, T2, T3, or T4).

Items to consider:

1. If your B: drive needs to a device driver such as DRIVER.SYS
to make it work, Boot-B: most likely won't work since the
device drivers cannot be loaded before the boot process
starts. But it doesn't hurt to try.

2. If your games were written to run on a system with Color Graphics
Adapter and they look funny on your VGA, try setting your adapter
to CGA and reboot the computer. For example: If you have a
Paradise VGA card and you need to boot in CGA mode, create your
boot disk, then issue the command VGAPLUS CGA REBOOT. This
will reboot your system in CGA mode.

3. Starting DOS from the B: drive is not recommended. DOS will overlay
some of the drive controlling logic placed in top of conventional
memory at boot time.

This program is supplied AS IS without any warranty, expressed or
implied, including but not limited to fitness for a particular
purpose.

If you find Boot-B: useful, a registration of $10.00 would be
appreciated. For your registration, you will receive a diskette
containing the assembly source for BOOT_B. Send check or money
order to:

Solutions by the Numbers
P.O. Box 1856
Germantown, MD 20875

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