Re: Hard Disk Auto Boot Bypass

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Article #3010

#3010

From: HC Johnson
Date: Wed, 09 Aug 1989 16:36

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In article <667@opal.tubopal.UUCP>, alderaan@tubopal.UUCP (Thomas Cervera) writes:
> 
>   By the way, why does TOS look for a floppy disk to boot FIRST, even if a
> hard disk is connected & on line ? Wouldn't it be better to boot from the
> floppy disk _only_when_the_Alternate_key_is_pressed_ ? Doing that you could
> get rid of this real frustrating wait period if no disk is in the drive.
> 
The reason is that if the Hard disk goes bad in any way, you can get controll
through the floppy.  A bootable floppy can be inserted any time there is
a real problem.

The ALT key handles most logical errors (like bad .prg in /auto and bad .acc 
programs) but not all hardware errors.  Such as if the Hard disk sector 0
reads into the wrong area, or forgets to stop reading.

Anyway, It is always best to give the user a choice, and boot floppy first
is the way to do that.

Howard C. Johnson
ATT Bell Labs
att!lzaz!hcj
hcj@lzaz.att.com

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Message-ID: <739@lzaz.ATT.COM>

Path: arc1-ca.pugleaf.net!utzoo!utgpu!watmath!att!dptg!lzaz!hcj

References: <8908041913.AA02298@ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU> <667@opal.tubopal.UUCP>

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Path: arc1-ca.pugleaf.net!utzoo!utgpu!watmath!att!dptg!lzaz!hcj
From: hcj@lzaz.ATT.COM (HC Johnson)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.atari.st
Subject: Re: Hard Disk Auto Boot Bypass
Summary: reason: a floppy can be changed, a hard disk cannot
Message-ID: <739@lzaz.ATT.COM>
Date: 9 Aug 89 16:36:49 GMT
References: <8908041913.AA02298@ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU> <667@opal.tubopal.UUCP>
Organization: AT&T ISL Lincroft NJ USA
Lines: 22

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