Path: utzoo!utgpu!watmath!att!dptg!lzaz!hcj From: hcj@lzaz.ATT.COM (HC Johnson) Newsgroups: comp.sys.atari.st Subject: Re: Hard Disk Auto Boot Bypass Summary: reason: a floppy can be changed, a hard disk cannot Message-ID: <739@lzaz.ATT.COM> Date: 9 Aug 89 16:36:49 GMT References: <8908041913.AA02298@ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU> <667@opal.tubopal.UUCP> Organization: AT&T ISL Lincroft NJ USA Lines: 22 In article <667@opal.tubopal.UUCP>, alderaan@tubopal.UUCP (Thomas Cervera) writes: > > By the way, why does TOS look for a floppy disk to boot FIRST, even if a > hard disk is connected & on line ? Wouldn't it be better to boot from the > floppy disk _only_when_the_Alternate_key_is_pressed_ ? Doing that you could > get rid of this real frustrating wait period if no disk is in the drive. > The reason is that if the Hard disk goes bad in any way, you can get controll through the floppy. A bootable floppy can be inserted any time there is a real problem. The ALT key handles most logical errors (like bad .prg in /auto and bad .acc programs) but not all hardware errors. Such as if the Hard disk sector 0 reads into the wrong area, or forgets to stop reading. Anyway, It is always best to give the user a choice, and boot floppy first is the way to do that. Howard C. Johnson ATT Bell Labs att!lzaz!hcj hcj@lzaz.att.com