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From: glang@slee01.srl.ford.com (Gordon Lang)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware
Subject: Re: Booting from B drive
Date: 16 Apr 1993 15:53:13 GMT
Organization: Ford Motor Company Research Laboratory
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David Weisberger (djweisbe@unix.amherst.edu) wrote:
: I have a 5 1/4" drive as drive A.  How can I make the system boot from
: my 3 1/2" B drive?  (Optimally, the computer would be able to boot
: from either A or B, checking them in order for a bootable disk.  But
: if I have to switch cables around and simply switch the drives so that
: it can't boot 5 1/4" disks, that's OK.  Also, boot_b won't do the trick
: for me.)
: 
: Thanks,
:   Davebo
We had the same issue plague us for months on our Gateway.  I finally
got tired of it so I permanently interchanged the drives.  The only
reason I didn't do it in the first place was because I had several
bootable 5-1/4's and some 5-1/4 based install disks which expected
the A drive.  I order all new software (and upgrades) to be 3-1/2 and
the number of "stupid" install programs that can't handle an alternate
drive are declining with time - the ones I had are now upgraded.  And
as for the bootable 5-1/4's I just cut 3-1/2 replacements.

If switching the drives is not an option, you might be able to wire up
a drive switch to your computer chasis.  I haven't tried it but I think
it would work as long as it is wired carefully.

Gordon Lang
