Master Boot Record

In a multiboot system, is there only one boot sector, C

Isn't that where the MBR and Partition table are located?
Would Boot.ini be the Partition Table and NTLDR be the bootstrap loader in Win2K?

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Comments

bellboy

those files reside on the active partition. doesn't matter which partition or logical drive windows nt/2000/xp is installed onto, those files need to be on the c:\ drive regardless.

Drakonblayde

It looks like you may be crossing some terms...

Every hard drive has a partition table, regardless of whether or not it's bootable. The partition table simply lays out how the harddrive is logically seperated.

The Master Boot Record resides at the beginning of the first harddrive in the system.

Once upon a time, all Microsoft OS's had to be installed on the first harddrive in the system. I don't remember if NT could be installed somewhere else, but 2k and XP sure can. Despite installing them somewhere else, say E:, the bootloader files will be loaded onto the first harddisk in the system, so you sorta have to plan for that when installing.

RussS

hmmmm - could have sworn that is what bellboy said

Drakonblayde

I was actually thinking more along the lines of not using DOS/Windows specific terminology. Alot of folks multibooting are doing so with some form of Unix as well, and since *x isn't bound to exactly the same paritioning rules, and that needs to be kept in mind when planning a multiboot system.

That and I wanted to make the point that partition table isn't a singular item and it doesn't equal MBR hehe