In article <00030518435400.00576@Vagabond>,
Adrian <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> On Sun, 05 Mar 2000, Stefan Bellon wrote:
[snip]
> > Well, I have a Gericom (http://www.gericom.com/) 1100MT notebook.
> > And I've installed the latest BIOS that is available for it from
> > their ftp site. And - per email - they told me, that it's the
> > latest available. Hmmmm.
> >
> Well, I hate to suggest this but have you considered downgrading your
> BIOS. I kind of doubt it would help but its an option.
I indeed have considered it. But: The 2 GB hard disc I'm using at the
moment is only a temporary solution untill I get my replacement 10 GB
disc from Toshiba (remember my first posting: The 10 GB crashed it's
second time). Then, on the 10 GB one I'll install Win 98, Win NT (I
need both for some commercial products) and Linux. I'll boot Linux from
the NT bootloader which works fine (it's just starting the LILO
bootsector as a file). BUT: I need the latest BIOS, as the previous
ones don't recognise a 10 GB disc! :-(
Hint to all others: *never*, *never*, *never* buy a computer with a
SystemSoft BIOS!
[snip]
> > I don't understand why you're confused. If the BIOS checks a
> > checksum of the boot sector, then it can do it not just only for
> > the MBR, but for the boot sector called from this one as well, as
> > it /expects/ the DOS MBR to be there. So it looks at the active
> > boot partitions and checks its boot sector as well. I don't see why
> > this couldn't apply here.
> >
> My understanding of the DOS/Windows boot sequence is that the BIOS
> reads the MBR, which then loads the first boot sector marked as
> active, which then loads the msdos.sys and related files.
[pretty nice ASCII art which however didn't use mono spaced font ;-)]
> When you do a "sys" command in DOS/Windows, it rewrites the boot
> sector to point at the msdos.sys file, etc. The DOS MBR is the same
> across all Microsoft OSs but the boot sector is unique by the way of
> different versions and pointing to different disk locations. My Win98
> release 1 reads "MSWIN4.1" were as my DOS 6.0/Win 3.1 reads
> "MSDOS5.0". If the BIOS was checking the boot sector then any other
> Windows version, or upgrade, or even reinstallation would not work
> because the boot sector would be different. That's why I'm confused.
No, not necessarily. There's a boot sector checksum, isn't there? It
would be possible that the BIOS checks this checksum. Not just the
correctness of the checksum itself, but the value of the checksum. So,
all the DOS (or MS) MBRs have *one* value as checksum. If this isn't
found: Don't boot. If it is found, then look at the active partition
(the BIOS knows that the MBR with /this/ checksum does this as well)
and do the same there.
It /would/ be possible. There's no other way I can explain what's
happening.
[snip]
> > ... A)bort R)etry G)et a stick and kill it.
> >
> <g> ... <shift>+<g> ... <shift>+<g> <return> ... <G> <G> <G> <G> <G>
> <G> ... <G> damnit <G>
;-)
Greetings,
Stefan.
--
Stefan Bellon * <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> * <http://www.sbellon.de/>
Zucchini: God's way of saying "You don't work in your garden enough."
