
                         P A R T I T A   2 0 0 0
                         -----------------------

                 (C) 1995-2000  CYNERGI / Pedro Freire


This is a boot manager designed so that it fits into a single sector (actually
part of a sector, since there must be space to store the partition table).
Like its name indicates (*), Partita is not designed to itself create or
change partitions, just manage booting amongst different operating systems.

Main features:
* One-key boot-time selection of operating system
* Optional partition hiding depending on selected operating system
* Timeout feature, which also allows for unmanned recharge of UPS batteries
  after a power failure
* Y2K fix
* Works with *any* operating system, and takes up *no* hard disk space

You must however boot from DOS or Windows 95/98 to install Partita.

New to version 2000, Partita includes a Y2K fix. Some computers trash the
system year upon boot. This Y2K fix will... fix this! It will not, however fix
bad leap year calculations. Bad Feb-29th dates could be easily removed, but
Partita could hardly guess when to add a good Feb-29th day, unless it assumed
the machine is boot *once*, and *every day*, which is hardly the case for most
users.

PARTITA 2000 is freeware. This means there is no tech support of any kind. You
also cannot *sell* it standalone or as part of a package, please contact
CYNERGI for such options.

Use "PARTITA /h" for command-line help.


(*) "Partita" is the plural of "partite", which means "partitioned". This
    program works on drives that have already been partitioned; it will not
    try to partition them.



                                U S A G E
                                ---------


This will show up during boot (for example):

2 v
  1. Windows
  2. Linux

The value before the down arrow (here a "v") indicates the current default
partition (this may be a space if there is no default partition). Then the
partitions are listed along with their names (as shown). Just select one.
Valid keystrokes are: any of the two Enter keys, Esc, Space or any of the 0
keys to activate the "default" partition (the one that would be selected if
the timeout is to reach its end), or any of the 1 keys or F1 for the first
shown partition, and so on for all the shown partitions.

Use "PARTITA /h" for command-line help.



                             W A R N I N G S
                             ---------------


BEWARE OF HIDING PARTITIONS! Using this feature carelessly might make you
unable to access your data! You won't lose data, but you will not be able to
access it. If you do not know what you're doing, do not use the /h option.
Odds are you don't need it. See notes, bellow.

BEWARE OF STRIPE OR MIRROR SETS emulated by software, namely in a Microsoft
Windows NT installation. Apparently the NT Disk Administrator places a 4-byte
signature in a non-standard area of the partition sector, which caused
problems with older versions of Partita (prior to v2.10). Even though this
problem has been fixed (using Microsoft documentation), other OSs using
non-standard areas may overwrite parts of Partita, and lead to what used to
happen with NT: all stripe and mirror sets were lost! Partita itself may
become damaged as well, preventing you from booting.

When changing partitions from some other software, Partita might detect that
the partitions it was supposed to list have been changed, and remove them from
the list that is shown on screen at boot time. This may lead to you having
*NO* partitions listed!! You will *not* lose data (but you will also not be
able to boot). Booting from a floppy and removing Partita or re-configuring it
will solve this.

CYNERGI does not give any guarantees regarding this software and will not be
held responsible for loss of data or other problems.



                                N O T E S
                                ---------


/d (default) option
The number that is to be specified in the default option is the number that
will show up on screen during boot, which is not (necessarily) the same as the
partition number that is shown on a Partita screen, since these can be
re-ordered for boot using the /o option.

/t (timeout) option
Partita will not verify that a timeout is too small. If Partita tells you
there is no timeout, use a bigger timeout. The timeout accuracy is around .05
seconds, so the minimum value is just over .05 (.1 is a safe value). An
invalid keystroke during boot will abort the timeout and Partita will wait
until there is a valid keystroke. Valid keystrokes are: any of the two Enter
keys, Esc, Space or any of the 0 keys to activate the "default" partition (the
one that would be selected if the timeout is to reach its end), or any of the
1 keys or F1 for the first shown partition, and so on for all the shown
partitions. A very small timeout is useful if you only want the Y2K fix
feature of partita, and not any boot managing features (see "Y2K-Only",
bellow). See also "UPS Recovery", bellow.

/o (order) option
Partitions not listed in the order option will not be shown on screen. This
means the order option can be used to avoid partition entries from being shown
on screen.

/#-nnnn (hiding partition) option
Beware of hiding partitions! If you do not know what this does, odds are you
don't need it, and shouldn't use it. Hiding changes the file system code on a
partition to something the system won't recognise (effectively hiding it). If
you boot from a partition that hides some (other) partitions these will not be
unhidden until you reboot from a partition that does not hide them (or you
reprogram the current partition not to hide any others, and reboot). NOT EVEN
"FDISK /MBR" WILL UNHIDE PARTITIONS IN THIS CASE. In fact, using this command
during a boot that hides partitions will make those partitions unrecoverable
by Partita, even if you re-install it! You can unhide them manually though, if
you know how to change the partition table using any utilities (like Norton
Utility's Disk Editor). Partita hides partitions by replacing their operating
system code by 10h (10 hex) plus this code (if it was bellow 10h), or by just
10h if the code was above or equal to 10h. This is an equal (or similar)
hiding procedure of what OS/2's Boot Manager does.

/y (Y2K fix) option
The Y2K fix will simply reset the system year to the year that is has stored
in its memory. It will detect a year change if the current system month is
lower than the last month stored during a boot (which occurs if the last boot
was on December, and it is now January, for instance). This means that:
* You must boot your machine in intervals smaller than 11 months;
* You shouldn't adjust your clock to an earlier date with a smaller month
  number.
If you break any of these rules, just re-run Partita with the /y option to
reset proper Y2K fix. Also note that if you boot from a device other than your
hard disk (like a floppy), Partita will not be run and your system clock will
not be fixed (during that session). See also "Y2K-Only", bellow.

Virus Warnings, etc
Norton Anti-Virus and other virus scanners may give you warnings that you have
some sort of virus installed in your "master boot record", "MBR" or "partition
table". This is a misdetection by these software products and is not a real
problem. Partita also re-writes the partition sector every time it needs to
(once a month if the Y2K fix is enabled, for instance). Anti-virus scanners
and other software may "complain" about this, but there is no way to avoid it.
Partita avoids re-writing the partition sector whenever possible.

Removing and Re-Installing PARTITA 2000
Partita can be removed by using a command such as "FDISK /MBR" on an MS-DOS
prompt. Using your operating system's partition manager to change any details
on the partition table should also do this. This means that if you add or
remove partitions after Partita is installed, Partita might be removed. If
Partita was removed, just re-install it using the normal command-line
parameters. If it was not removed, Partita might still detect that the
partitions that it was supposed to list during boot have been changed (if
their file system code is different), in which case it removes them from the
list, and you'll need to re-install them - this may lead to you having *NO*
partitions listed!! Booting from a floppy and removing Partita or
re-configuring it will solve this.

Error Messages
There are two possible error messages after pressing the proper partition key
during boot: "Rd" means there was a read error on the hard disk for that
partition. This may not be an actual physical error on the drive, but an
improper configuration of that partition by another software. "!x" means the
loaded boot sector for that partition did not contain the executable signature
on the last two bytes, and is therefore not bootable, or not executable.



                         U P S   R E C O V E R Y
                         -----------------------

Another good use for the timeout feature is to allow the unmanned recovery of
a server after a power failure that drained its UPS. If the UPS was drained,
odds are it is in a standby mode waiting for the mains power to come back up.
However, since its batteries are drained, it will not hold the server for more
than a few seconds if the power fails again. It will need some recharge time
to be able to hold a server for enough time so that it can complete a boot,
detect the new power failure, and shutdown again.

A timeout of, say, 30 minutes (1800 seconds), would allow a UPS to recover
enough power on its batteries to hold a server for some minutes if there is
another power failure. These minutes are essential to finish booting, start
the UPS monitoring program and receive a new power failure signal that will
start the server shutdown process again. If there were a power failure during
Partita's timeout, no harm would be done since the machine is in a stable
state suitable for immediate power disconnection. If on the other hand the
power failure were to occur during normal office hours, a simple press on
Enter for instance would abort the timeout and launch the boot process,
ensuring minimum downtime for the server.

This is not a perfect solution, however. If the power fails and comes back
repeatedly while Partita is in its timeout phase, the UPS will not be allowed
to recharge its batteries enough, which means that the server could still be
shutdown during boot anyway. A better solution is for the UPS to monitor its
own battery status and only power its load when its battery is, say, 50% full.



                             Y 2 K - O N L Y
                             ---------------

If you just want to use the Y2K feature and not any of Partita's boot manager
features, first find which is your current active partition (let's call it #)
by running Partita, for instance. MS-DOS and Windows partitions show up as
"DOS FAT"-something. OS/2 and Windows NT partitions might show up as "HPFS /
NTFS" instead. Then make up a name for it, under 10 chars and without spaces
(let's call it <name>). Then run "PARTITA /#:<name> /t:.1 /y", replacing # and
<name> as appropriate. That's it! Do not worry about the text that shows up
during boot: this is normal, and cannot be removed.


(C) 1995-2000  CYNERGI  (http://www.cynergi.net)
(C) 1995-2000  Pedro Freire  (http://www.pedrofreire.com)
