From owner-freebsd-questions  Tue Jan 23 10: 8:33 2001
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From: Stefan KORONKA <KoronkaS@interscope.ro>
To: 'Marcus Ramos' <marcus@ansp.br>
Cc: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org
Subject: RE: Boot menu
Date: Tue, 23 Jan 2001 20:04:17 +0200
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> 
> Hello,
> 
> I have Windows NT on one disk and FreeBSD 4.1 Release on a 
> second disk.
> When booting, I first get the following menu:
> 
>                    F1 MSDOS
>                    F2 Windows NT
>                    F5 Drive 1
> 
>                    Pressing F1 causes Windows NT to be loaded;
>                    Pressing F2 gives error message;
>                    Pressing F5 presents the following new menu:
> 
>                    F1 FreeBSD
>                    F5 Drive 0
> 
>                    Pressing F1 loads FreeBSD;
>                    Pressing F5 presents previous menu again.
> 
> This is of course not logical. 

Yes, it is logical :)

This boot manager presents all partitions it finds, from the 
first and second harddisk.  So, on the first partition it find
an "MSDOS" (FAT partition), and an NTFS partition; additionally,
it see that you have another harddisk - and give you the chance
to boot from it.  On the second disk is the same - a FreeBSD
partition, and the chance to boot from the first disk.

From your messages, I can see that you have an FAT partition
where ntldr resides.  Before installing FreeBSD (and this
bootmanager), you simply booted from this partition.  The
ntldr from it solve the rest (this is why it works by pressing
"F1").

When you press F2, it tries to boot from your second partition
(formatted NTFS).  But this partition does not have any
bootable info - so you get an error message.

The F3-F4 are reserved for the third, respectively fourth
partition.

F5 start the boot process from the second disk;  there,
process is similar (only with one partition).


> How can I fix it to something as simple as:
> 
>                    F1 FreeBSD
>                    F2 Windows NT
> 
>                    where each option effectively loads the mentioned
> system ?

Search for and install other bootmanager, that solve
your needs.  There are several (free) bootmanagers,
each with its goodness and weakness.

> 
> I've tried to use bootinst.exe, but the situation remains de same.

this is the bootmanager installed by default - if
your MBR is corrupted (say that you install an w'9x)
you can reinstall it.


stefan


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