It seems that SmartBootManger could do the “hiding partition” and “swap” HDs
work. 
I used the SBM to boot QNXRTP successfully although it showed that the
partition ID was Unknown. I reported this to the author of SBM and he told
me that it would be fixed in next release. I have copied the “Key features”
of SBM from its website:
Key Features
Only the key features are listed below. There are many other normal features
not listed.
a… Automatically Searching Drivers and Partitions
Smart BootManager can automatically search out all of the floppy, hard and
CD-ROM drivers as well as partitions.It can distinguish whether a partition
is bootable or non-bootable, and only adds bootable partitions into the Boot
Menu.
b… Powerful Boot Schedule
You can assign a time schedule for each Boot Record (a partition or a
driver). Then Smart BootManager can boot them automatically in specified
time range or day. For example, you can let your computer automatically boot
Windows 98 during the working time of a week, while boot Linux at midnight
or weekend.
c… Booting from CD-ROM
Smart BootManager supports booting from almost all kinds of IDE ATAPI
CD-ROM, including PCMCIA CD-ROMs. You can let BIOS boot from C: only and
assign a password for it, then you can boot from CD-ROM with Smart
BootManager easily, while other guy couldn’t. If you have a Laptop computer
with a special PCMCIA CD-ROM which BIOS does not support booting from, Smart
BootManager can help you make it easy!
d… Swaping driver ID
With this feature, Smart BootManager can boot most of the Operating
Systems from not only the first harddisk but also the others. If you have
more than one harddisk, this feature would be very useful for you.
e… Auto Delay Boot
Smart BootManager can boot the default boot record automatically if non of
keys was pressed within a specfied delay time. By Combining this feature
with Boot Schedule feature, you can let your computer boot different
Operating Systems automatically in according to the Schedule Table.
f… Sending Keystrokes to Operating System
Smart BootManager can preload some keystrokes into the key buffer before
booting an Operating System to control its booting process. For example, you
can send Shift-F5 to Windows 98 to let it go into the real DOS mode.
g… Easy Customized Theme file
The theme file includes all of the screen element, such as window colors,
messages, background, font etc. It does not contain any program code, so you
can change Smart BootManager’s Looking and Feel without recompiling it. Just
choose your favorite theme and install it. Smart BootManager now has six
themes with different languages, including English, Chinese, Czech, German,
Hungarian and Russian. More themes with other languages will be out soon. If
there is no theme for your native language, you can do it by yourself, read
documentation for details.
h… Powerful Password Protection
You can not only assign a password for each partition or driver, but also
set a password for administrator. There are three security level in SBM,
which can make your computer secure and robust.
It’s a GPLed software.
“Xiaodan Tang” <xtang@ottawa.com> wrote in message
news:8s37qe$b9e$1@nntp.qnx.com…
Bill Leeper <> wleeper@actionnet.net> > wrote:
He might also want to consider Boot Magic by PowerQuest. It uses
partition hiding which can extend to whole drives. I have WinME on the
first HD of my system and WIN98 on the second HD. Win ME does not see
the WIN98 drive and WIN98 does not see the Win ME drive. Ineffect, when
I boot WIN98 the second HD becomes the first drive in the system.
I don’t think this is true. “Hiding partition” is done by System Commander
long time ago ( V2 ? But it will not change the fact that a “second
harddisk”
is “second”. You win98 on second hardisk may show itself on “C:”, but
this did not change the fact that the BIOS need to access the “second
harddisk”
as “0x81” not “0x80”
Some BIOS will allow you “swap” harddisk, that is when boot (tipically
while it doing memory check), you could press ESC and choose a “boot
disk”.
That boot disk will become your “first harddisk”. Of cause RTP works
OK on these BIOS.
-xtang
(Unlike Be which sees all the drives and partitions on them just fine).
Now if I can just get QNX to run on a system with an ATA100
controller… >
–
Bill Leeper P-III Powered by BeOS
wleeper@newportnet.com > Member Beta Bros
BeOS and loving it
