Is it possible to select a partition to boot from in the BIOS?

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As opposed to just the hard disk that the partition is on? For example, would I be able to create a small partition on my C drive then go into the BIOS and set it as my primary boot device?
 

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Your C drive is a partition.

If you select your "C drive", you are selecting your C partition.
 

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Hi,

Unless Im mistaken, you can only select the disk order, you cannot specify partitions.

Regards,
Golden
 

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ignatzatsonic said:
Your C drive is a partition.

If you select your "C drive", you are selecting your C partition.
Click to expand...

Oh yeah, I know. I wanted to boot from a small partition with no OS on it or anything just to run some files in DOS. Looks like it's not possible though. This is what happens when you have no USB stick and no floppy drive!
 

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roastbeef said:
I wanted to boot from a small partition with no OS on it or anything just to run some files in DOS.
Click to expand...

In order to boot to that small partition, you would require some sort of OS on it. If you did have a separate OS, then you would be in the realm of multi-booting, however you still don't select a partition to boot from - rather you select which OS to boot from. A slightly subtle difference.

Regards,
Golden
 

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roastbeef said:
As opposed to just the hard disk that the partition is on? For example, would I be able to create a small partition on my C drive then go into the BIOS and set it as my primary boot device?
Click to expand...
The partition booted to is (a) the "active" partition on (b) the first hard drive in the BIOS disk list. And also that partition must be of type "primary" (as opposed to "logical").

So you set the DRIVE to be examined in the BIOS. And you use something like DISKMGMT or Partition Wizard etc. to set the particular partition on that drive that you want to boot from as "active". That combination specifies THE partition on THE drive to be booted to.

Now of course you need to have some bootable OS or boot manager program files on that partition to make this be useful.
 

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Hi, this thread is now redundant as I made a bootable DVD and ran the files off there. Successfully updated my BIOS!
 
Last edited:

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If you want to get a 4GB USB stick you can have a bootable on by using Download Hiren which has the option of adding apps, OSs, utilites, and already has a mini-XP installed.
 

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roastbeef said:
Hi, this thread is now redundant as I made a bootable DVD and ran the files off there. Successfully updated my BIOS! Feels good man.
Click to expand...

I believe he means "moot", but I guess this post is moot. :D
 

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