multi()disk()rdisk()partition() in boot.ini

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Newsgroups: microsoft.public.windowsnt.setup
Date: 1997/08/04

> My C: drive is a single FAT partition and my D: drive is a single NTFS
> partition.  The C: drive has DOS and I installed NT on the D: drive.
> When
> I try and boot NT, I get an error which the manual says that I should
> correct by puttng the correct values in boot.ini.

You need the following:

multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)

This means adapter 0 (ide port 0), disk 0 (the first disk), rdisk 0, the first primary partition and partition 1 the first partition.

robert calabro

multi()disk()rdisk()partition() in boot.ini

> what numbers should be in parenthesis after multi, disk, rdisk and
> partition?  What is the meaning of disk and rdisk in this context?

This type of syntax was invented as a sort of portable naming convention for the boot firmware of NT-capable RISC machines. On x86, such "firmware" is essentially a wrapper around the BIOS.

multi(n): nth "multifunction" adapter/bus. Always 0 on x86 machines since the firmware emulation doesn't concern itself with the distinction between various busses.
disk(n): nth disk controller on the adapter/bus. Again always 0 on x86 machines because the firmware emulation doesn't care about which controller the disk is on.
rdisk(n): nth disk (technically, on the controller, irrelevent on x86). The BIOS reports a total number of drives via int13 function 8. The valid range for rdisk(n) is 0 through the value reported by the BIOS minus 1.
partition(n): 0 refers to the whole physical drive. Partitions are numbered sequenatially starting at 1 based on their positions in the partition table. Logical drives within the extended partition are numbered after all primary partitions.

Ted Miller

multi()disk()rdisk()partition() in boot.ini

>This type of syntax was invented as  [...]

Ted,

thanks a lot! I already guessed that the person who invented this apparently had no reasonable command of technical English, otherwise he wouldn't have mistaken "disk" for "controller" (and "rdisk"---not an English word at all---for "disk"), or perhaps this is just one more of the programmers' tricks to make people look stupid <grin>.

Anyway, I'm learning.

Hans-Georg