Terabyte
Releases
BootIt Lite!

David Fliceck, from Terabyte Unlimited, releases BootIt Lite and the archive (BOOTITL.ZIP, 208.5k) was uploaded on Pete Norloff BBS (http://www.os2bbs.com), the world largest repository of OS/2 Archives. Multi-Boot Utility. Boot from any partition or volume, on the fly partition/volume hiding, partition naming and placement, hard drive swapping, multiple OS in single partition, and much more. Shareware $39.95

Required Configuration

Processor Family: Intel 80x86 (minimum 80386)
Minimum OS: MS-DOS 3.3
Standard RAM: 640K
Hard Drive Space: 500K
Required:
Hard drive
Keyboard

System Requirements

100% IBM compatible personal computer with an i80386 compatible microprocessor and at least one diskette drive and one hard drive with a FAT or FAT32 partition with at least 500K of free space.


===== Packing List =====================================

Filename Size Date Time CRC32
APILITE. 10689 8-May-1998 08:57p 84A25CCB
BOOTMENU. 34288 10-May-1998 04:26p 139F6FE6
FDDMENU. 21820 10-May-1998 04:26p A12AC6D7
MBRLITE. 512 26-Apr-1998 06:52p 86D4838C
OSCHECK. 31056 10-May-1998 04:26p F45A6C99
SETUPL. 21118 10-May-1998 04:26p 8B97801C
STARTUP. 13 2-May-1998 01:11p FE3A663E
^CAPMBR. 20754 10-May-1998 04:26p F7869433
^OPTIONS. 20590 10-May-1998 04:26p 49AF299F
READ_ME.1ST 171 10-May-1998 01:00a F9D97F00
READ_ME.BAT 412 10-May-1998 01:00a E246E4B7
SETUP.BAT 1439 9-May-1998 06:17p 556B2748
FATBS.BIN 512 26-Feb-1998 08:03p 90DAA3B0
FILE_ID.DIZ 267 10-May-1998 01:00a 45800102
BOOTITL.DOC 72704 10-May-1998 03:40p C3EA686C
VENDOR.DOC 216 10-May-1998 01:00a 13796CEE
MAKEBOOT.EXE 8974 2-May-1998 12:51p 2143483E
SETACT.EXE 25382 10-May-1998 02:17p 0777F45B
EMBRML.FDD 512 2-May-1998 01:03p 0F20D9FD
REGISTER.FRM 2394 10-May-1998 04:26p 1CA119BD
^EDITGRP.L 35478 10-May-1998 04:26p A021DDFC
^MENUCFG.L 40782 10-May-1998 04:26p 334A87A8
DESC.SDI 32 10-May-1998 01:00a 9EBBBAFB
SOUND1.SND 48 11-Apr-1998 07:32a 243F1423
SOUND2.SND 19 11-Apr-1998 07:37a 5AE3FDDB
SOUND3.SND 28 11-Apr-1998 07:33a B270CBF8
SOUND4.SND 33 11-Apr-1998 07:45a 1BE34243
SOUND5.SND 34 11-Apr-1998 07:45a CC4B17AB
SOUND6.SND 46 11-Apr-1998 08:00a DFF0B09E
SOUND7.SND 36 11-Apr-1998 08:04a D0344CDC
SOUND8.SND 26 11-Apr-1998 08:14a C5A2C97A
SOUND9.SND 86 11-Apr-1998 08:16a 12C74D62
BOOTITL.TXT 49364 10-May-1998 03:40p 11EE14D3
VENDOR.TXT 216 10-May-1998 01:00a 13796CEE


===== Installation =====================================


Before you Begin
TeraByte Unlimited has taken every effort to make BootIt as safe as possible; however, it is not possible to provide a 100 percent guarantee of safety.
Before using BootIt on any system for the first time, BACK UP ALL DATA on ALL HARD DRIVES. It's better to be safe than sorry.
It's always a good idea to have a system disk, such as a DOS boot diskette or Windows 95 Startup Diskette, that can be used to boot your system should something ever go wrong. You should configure the diskette to give you all the function you may need. This includes adding any drivers or utilities as well as configuring the configuration files.
To create a DOS boot diskette use the DOS FORMAT A:/S command. You should also copy the following external commands to the diskette: SYS, FDISK, FORMAT, ATTRIB, and DEBUG. If you think you may need access to your CD ROM drive or another device then be sure to copy the required drivers to the diskette. Windows 95/98 users can use the "Startup Disk" tab to create the diskette.

What BootIt Lite Does:
· Hide and unhide partitions and volumes on the fly in real time.
· Configure up to 100 boot configurations to fit your needs.
· Boot from any partition or up to 48 volumes on up to eight hard drives.
· Boot multiple operating system from a single FAT or FAT32 partition.
· Logical swap hard drives in order to boot DOS from a hard drive other than the first.
· Boot from the A: or B: drive on the fly.
· Create boot menus for individual users.
· Easy installation
· Partition naming
· Supports Hard Drives larger than 8GB
· Works with your favorite partitioning software
· and much, much, more

Limitations:
BootIt relies on the BIOS for processing disk functions. If your computer BIOS limits access to the hard drive for any reason, BootIt will also be limited. The BIOS "large" mode is not supported.

Getting Started
1) Make sure you have read the previous section titled "Before You Begin".
2) If you need to create a system diskette (such as a DOS boot diskette or Windows 95/98/NT Startup Diskette), do so now.
3) Backup all the data on all of your hard drives.
4) Create the installation diskette by following the steps in the installation section of this document.
5) Install/upgrade BootIt on your hard drive by following the steps in the installation section of this document.
6) Read the "BootIt Lite overview for first time users" section of this document.
7) Refer to the Operating System section at the end of this document for notes.

BootIt 2.x and BootIt Lite Compatibility/Information
BootIt 2.x and BootIt Lite are part of the same BootIt line of products but they are not compatible with each other. In other words, you can use one or the other but not both on the same system.
Both version use the same multi-os directory structure and group editor. If you had previously used BootIt 2.x multi-os on a partition then BootIt Lite may not detect the existing operating systems and therefore not create the menu configuration automatically.
If BootIt 2.x multi-os was active on any of your partitions, you should verify that the CURRENT.GRP file is not on any of the partitions. If it exists it will be a hidden file located in the root directory of the partition(s). You should delete this file so BootIt Lite will detect the partition as having a new operating system installed.
BootIt Lite will only automatically create menu configurations on detection where a new group is created. This means if BootIt 2.x multi-os already had several groups created, you may need to run the menu configuration utility and recreate your boot configurations to load the correct groups and boot files.
The BootIt licensing is for either BootIt 2.x or BootIt Lite. One registration allows use of one of the products on one system
Installation STEP 1:
Installation of BootIt Lite is a two step process. First you will create the installation diskette, then you will use that diskette to install BootIt to your hard drive. Visit www.TeraByteUnlimited.com to make sure you have the latest version of this software as well as for any additional information/help.
Before beginning the installation of BootIt make sure you have read the previous section titled "Before You begin".
The following instructions will guide you through the first step of the installation process. This step creates the installation diskette.
You will need one formatted diskette that matches the floppy drive A: of the computer that will have BootIt installed. If you are upgrading BootIt Lite then be sure to use that same diskette you used when you last install BootIt Lite. If you are installing on multiple machines, each machine should have its own diskette (and license).
1) Extract the BOOTITL.ZIP file to its own directory.
2) Change to the directory used in step 1.
3) Type SETUP A: (or B: ) then press <enter>
4) If you have accepted the terms, hit any key otherwise press Ctrl-C and terminate the batch job.
5) Insert the diskette in to the correct diskette drive any key.
6) Once the files have finished being copied to the diskette, you're done with step one.
Once you have successfully created the installation diskette you can proceed with step two on the next page.
Installation STEP 2:
The following instructions will guide you through the second step of the installation process. This step installs or updates BootIt Lite to your hard drive.
Boot From the Installation Diskette:
1) Make sure your system boot up sequence is A:/C: and not C:/A:. This information is found in the CMOS setup. You should also disable the boot sector virus protection option. If you leave the virus protection option enabled then it will just get in the way.
2) Shut down and turn off your computer.
3) Insert the BootIt installation diskette in your A: drive then turn on your computer.
4) If your system boots up as it normally does, see step 1, otherwise BootIt will start to load from the diskette. Eventually the BootIt Lite Diskette Menu will appear.
Installing/Updating BootIt Lite to the Hard Drive
1) If you are installing BootIt Lite then choose the Install option. If you are updating BootIt Lite then choose the Update option.
2) Once the process is complete, press <enter> and continue with the next section.
Finishing the installation
When you reboot after installing BootIt Lite, It will begin asking you for the names you want to assign to your partitions and volumes. It will also detect your existing operating system.
When BootIt asks you for a name of a partition you must assign a name to it. You can name it anything you want but to make things easier on yourself, you'll want to keep the names unique and understandable to you.
To help you identify the partition you will be given the partition entry number in the MBR or volume number in an extended partition, size of the partition, the file system type, and the hard drive number.
After naming a partition or volume that is not a FAT type partition, BootIt Lite will ask if you want to add this partition to the Boot Menu. If you want to boot from this partition answer yes. Don't worry if you answer wrong, you can always run the menu configuration utility and add that partition as a boot option.
After naming a FAT type partition/volume BootIt will either continue to the next partition or display a message that it appears that the partition contains a new operating system and asks what you want to do.
If this partition contains a partition you want to boot from you would normally create a boot file and a group for it. For example, If it as windows 95 you could name the boot file WIN95BOOT and create a group named WIN95. The on -screen prompts will step you through the process. All you need to do is enter a unique name for the boot file, create a group with a unique name, and select the operating system type from a menu.
If the partition being detected contains an operating system but is not the startup partition or does not contain an operating system you can disable detection on the partition or ignore this instance of detection. The difference between the two is that disabling detection will keep BootIt from checking the partition for updates until you ether manually create a boot configuration or use an existing boot configuration to boot the partition with a valid boot file or group. Ignoring the detection means BootIt will no longer see the current status of the partition as having a new operating system but will still detect changes to the partition.
If you wanted to skip creation of a boot file at this time you would choose the "None of the above" option. You are then still presented with an option to create a group.
Once all new partitions and volumes are named and operating systems detected you'll arrive at the BootIt Lite Boot Menu. Simply choose one of the boot configurations you created to boot that operating system.
You should now create a copy of the installation diskette and keep it in a safe place. You will need the installation diskette to recover from any problems or situations that may arise in the future. Use the disk copy feature of one of your operating systems to create a backup. If your installation diskette is ever updated or new one used you should update your backup diskette too.
Upgrade History:
Ver 1.00 Initial Release.

Navigating BootIt Lite
Unless there are no menu configurations defined, BootIt Lite first displays the Boot Menu. From this menu you can Boot one of you defined operating systems, Press F1 for help, F10 for maintenance, or F6 to Boot the Active partition. This section will explain the non obvious features.
If you press escape at the boot menu or assign a count down value BootIt can quick boo the last configuration. When the Boot Menu first appears after previously selecting a boot configuration, the highlight bar will return to that configuration and begin the count down if one is defined. When the count down time expires or you press enter during the count down, or press escape at anytime, BootIt Lite will "quick boot" the last configuration. On a quick boot, BootIt simply reads in the last boot sector booted and transfers control; nothing on the hard drive is updated, including the active partition, hidden status, etc. Therefore if the active partition has changed you should hit the spacebar during the count down to terminate the time out, then press enter to reestablish the active partition.
Under certain circumstances you may want to boot whatever partition is marked active on hard drive 0 without applying one of the defined boot configurations. Use the F6 key for this.
You can press F10 maintain certain features of BootIt Lite as well as run add-in utilities. If you are a registered user and have defined a maintenance password you must enter that password before BootIt Lite will allow you in.
Once at the maintenance menu you can highlight any of the utilities listed and press F1 to get information on the utility highlighted.
You can also press F5 to set the time out value (in seconds) for the Boot Menu. A value of 0 means there will be no count downs and you'll have to select a boot configuration each time you boot.
If you have not registered this is where you input your registration information by pressing F6. If you're already registered, you can press F6 to type in a new message in the message box below the menu. When entering a new message, each line is a field. You can use the Tab key to move between lines and press enter when you have completed updating the message.
The following sections describe the utilities included with BootIt in more detail.

BootIt Boot Menu Configuration
This utility as its name implies for configuring the Boot Menu. When you run this utility you will be presented with all your boot configurations and their details. BootIt may also automatically apply changes to your configurations to match any changes in the system from when you lasted save the configuration.
The first box titled "Boot Description" contains the name of the boot configurations. This is the name that is displayed on the Boot Menu. The rest of the fields contain the detail information for the highlighted description. You use the arrow keys to move the highlight bar to other descriptions or the tab and shift tab keys to move between the fields.
If you want to add or delete a description you can do so by pressing the insert key or delete key, respectively, while in the Boot Description box. You can also reorder the descriptions by holding down the control key while using the up and down arrow keys.
If a description begins with an asterisk (*) it will always be highlighted as the next boot configuration to boot when the Boot Menu is displayed.
The drive field contains the drive number from 0 to 7 of the hard drive that contains the partition you want to boot.
The partition field contains the partition to be booted. You can choose from a list of partitions by pressing F4 in that field. If you leave this field blank then the boot configuration is assumed to boot from the floppy drive. Floppy drive boots work by trying to boot from the A: drive first then swapping the floppy drives and trying it again, this time from the B: drive which has been converted to be the A: drive.
The file field contains the boot file for this boot. Press F4 in this field for a list of boot files in the partition.
The Swap option can be used if the boot drive is not 0. If the swap option is checked for a boot configuration then when that configuration is selected the hard drive selected for boot will be swapped with hard drive 0. In other words the system BIOS thinks it is hard drive 0 an that hard drive 0 is the other drive. This allows booting and use of real mode operating systems, such as DOS, from any hard drive.
The sound file field allows you to define a sound that should be played when this configuration is booted. Press F4 for a list of sound files, you can sample the sound by press F4 from the list of sound files. You can also create your own sound files, see the section "creating your own sound files".
The Group field contains the "group" to use when booting this configuration. You can press F4 for a list of groups in the partition.
The MBR HDx fields contain a copy of the partitions defined on your system. With each boot configuration you can configure which partitions or volumes should be visible or hidden on any hard drive as well as what order the partitions should appear in the list.
To toggle the hidden/visible flag on a partition use the spacebar. To view a list of partitions in an extended partition, press enter then use the spacebar to mark a volume hidden/visible. A tagged partition/volume means its hidden.
IMPORTANT NOTE! about hiding volumes and/or having multiple file system volume types with multiple visible FAT primary partitions. All versions of MS DOS through Windows 98 have a major bug! If the last volume in an extended partition is not a FAT type partition and multiple FAT primary partitions exist on the drive, DOS will mount the last volume in the extended partition in place of the next primary partition to mount. If the last volume was a hidden FAT volume, DOS will successfully mount it but will report the size of the drive to be that of the primary partition that should have been mounted. If it was not a hidden FAT type partition then DOS will report that the drive it mapped has errors. Because of this you should arrange your volumes so that a FAT partition is always last in the extended partition chain and that it is always visible when booting or you should hide the entire extended partition.
To change the order of the entries in the MBR you can highlight the partition you want to move, hold down the control key while using the up and down arrows to move it.
If you want to rename a partition or volume you would highlight it and press F7. Renaming of the partition is applied as soon as you press enter.
When all changes have been made you can press F10 to save your changes.
You may have noticed the text in the upper right corner of the window that says AUTOMENU. The text at that location is the name of the menu file that is currently loaded. When you first enter the Boot Configuration Utility the AUTOMENU is always loaded first. The AUTOMENU menu is the menu that is displayed when no "user" menus are defined. To define or load user menus you can press Alt-L.
User menus are menus that require a user to enter a name and password to use. If any user menus are defined then user menus must be used. When a user menu is first created, the settings in the current menu are automatically transferred to the new menu. To define the password for the user menu, use the F6 key with that menu loaded.
When defining user menus you should not use the same descriptions as other menus if the configurations are different. If the configuration is exactly the same as all other configurations with that name then it's okay.
If you are working on a user menu and want to return to the AUTOMENU, you would hit Alt-L to display the user menus defined then press the HOME key.
When the AUTOMENU is loaded, you can use the F6 key to define the maintenance password. No password is ever associated with the AUTOMENU.

Capture MBR
In rare cases you may have to use a MBR to boot an operating system. If that is the case you can use this utility to capture the MBR. This utility is also located on the BootIt Lite Diskette.
All you need to do is select the hard drive you want to capture and give the file a name. You then use this file as the boot file in a boot configuration. All MBR boot files begin with the small box character.
If you run the utility from the diskette you'll need to copy the file to the \BOOTITL directory on your hard drive. To do so you can use a question mark (?) in place of the box character on the copy command.
For example: copy a:?mbrboot c:\bootitl


Group Editor
This utility is used to group a set of files together. For example a DOS group would contain (at minimum) IO.SYS, MSDOS.SYS, COMMAND.COM, AUTOEXEC.BAT, CONFIG.SYS.
To use this utility you select the hard drive that contains the FAT partition you want. You then select the FAT partition.
Once in the partition you are either presented with the existing group names or the option to add a group.
To add a group when there are existing groups press the insert key. To delete an existing group, highlight it and press the delete key. Two work on a group, highlight it and press enter. To rename a group, highlight it and press F7.
When you add a new group you are asked for the group name. This name will become the directory under \BOOTIT in the partition. After you enter the name you are prompted for the operating system. You can choose the appropriate OS from the list or choose 0 to enter the file group information yourself. Note, you can select an OS from the list and still go back and add or change additional things. If you choose the option from the menu you are prompted for a description. This is a description for the group.
If you choose to enter the file names yourself, or you are editing an existing group, you are presented with a list of file names currently in the group. If your creating an entry there won't be any. You can also change the description of the group here.
To add a new file to the list, go to the list and press insert. To delete one, highlight it and press delete.
When adding a file to the list a dialog box is displayed where you enter the position code, update type, path, file name, and extension.
The position code is only used in certain cases and only applies to files in the root directory. If a number other than 0 is in this field then it means that this file must be located at that location in the root directory. For example, DOS requires IO.SYS and MSDOS.SYS to be the first two entries in the directory. So you would assign 1 to IO.SYS and 2 to MSDOS.SYS.
The update code can be M or A. If it is an 'A' then this file will be automatically updated in the group when the file changes. In other words, if AUTOEXEC.BAT had the update code A and it was changed, the changes would be automatically applied to the copy of AUTOEXEC.BAT in the group. If it was an 'M' you would be prompted if you wanted to apply the changes to the group file or to leave the group file as it is (the new changes are lost). You don't want the program files or important files to be an update type 'A'.
The path is the path to the file and the file name and extension are obvious.

When you press F10 to save the changes the current files in the "target" location are copied to the group. If the file already exists, you are given the option to keep or replace it. Be sure you don't copy over some other operating systems files. In other words, if you last booted with Win98 and your working on Win95 you don't want to replace the files you have in your Win95 group because it would be copying over the Win98 files.

Setup Colors and Background
This option is pretty obvious. You can pick you own colors as well as the desktop character.

Creating your own sound files
All you need to create your own sound files is an ASCII text editor. Simply create a file with an extension of SND and place it in the \BOOTITL directory. You can use the PLAY.EXE utility in the directory to sample your creation. If you create a sound file named STARTUP.SND then that sound file will be played when BootIt is started at boot.
The format of the sound file is as follows; note: capitalization/spacing is not important and the x in the examples represents a number.
cycles=x (optional-must be first) - number of times to cycle the entire routine.
Fx - Frequency to play (in hertz)
FRx|XSxLx - Frequency range to play. First x is starting frequency, x after '|' is ending frequency. S is optional and is the step frequency rate (default=1). L is also optional, it is the latency delay in milliseconds between frequency step. (default=0)
Nx -Delay in milliseconds. (1000 milliseconds = 1 second)
N - No sound. Turns sound off.
The Diskette Menu
The diskette menu gives you a convenient way to install, update, deactivate and reactivate BootIt Lite. You can also capture a MBR using the Capture MBR utility discussed above.
If BootIt is no longer displayed at boot you may need to reactive BootIt Lite. Simply insert your installation diskette and boot from it. Choose the reactivate option.
If want to remove BootIt as the boot manager, for example, you think BootIt is conflicting with the booting of one of your operating systems you can boot from the installation diskette and choose the deactivate option. To later reactivate BootIt, boot with the installation diskette and choose the reactivate option.

Operating System Notes

General Information
When you install most operating systems it will want to install its boot up files in the current active primary partition even if the bulk of the system is going to another partition. Not all operating systems do this and some give you the option to select where each part of the system should go. Many also come with their own partitioning software that is used during installation.
Some operating systems come with special loader programs which can be installed in the MBR or on the partition. You should always choose to install it in the partition.
If you are using one of the MS operating systems it will always install its boot up files in the current active partition on hard drive 0 (or what it thinks is hard drive 0). To install a MS OS in its own primary partition on hard drive 0 you need to make that partition active at startup. You can do that either by setting the partition active and rebooting the system by the installation boot diskette. You don't want to just set the partition active then install if you have other primary partitions that you booted from. If you were to do this, the installation would see the installation drive as something other than C:, then when this partition was booted (becoming C: ) all the drive pointers (in the configuration files, etc) would be pointing to the wrong drive.
Normmaly all you need to do is to choose the destination of where you want to install the operating system. BootIt will then detect the new operating system boot and system files that have been placed in the active partition. BootIt may also detect the drive that has the bulk of the new OS installed on it as having a new operating system. While this is true, you would ignore that detection because the files BootIt wants are on the other "startup" drive.
When you install other operating systems that use their own file system, you need to be careful of where a new file system may reside in an extended partition. MS DOS operating systems through Win98, have a bug where if the last volume in the extended partition is not a reconized FAT type partition and multiple visible FAT primary partitions exist, it will mount the last volume as a FAT volume in place of the next primary partition. But it will think the size of the partition is that of the primary partition.


CONTACT AUTHOR:

Orders:
Address: TeraByte unlimited.
258 N. Saturmino Dr.
Palm Springs, CA 92262
Phone: (760) 325-0892
FAX: (760) 325-0892
CompuServe: 70751,3507
Internet: TeraByte@TeraByteUnlimited.com
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