Conference 7.286::multia

    Probably one of those C and D drive things
    
    Jim Z

    I (thought) I had my system finally set up close to the way I wanted.
    
    FDISK'd to make C: larger, RMF'd to install Multia software, accounts,
    networking, Office 95 installed, NT SP5 applied, D: to NTFS, ...
    
    I just tried to boot it into DOS mode (ie select RMF off the boot menu,
    with the intention of selecting "Exit to DOS") and received an error
    message about 'Unable to find ... BOOTSECT.DOS' and the system hung.
    
    GOD I HATE PCS!!!

    Ok, I've calmed down some...
    
    Anyone know what the problem is? 
    
    Did applying SP5 or converting D: to NTFS break something?
    
    The only files I can find called BOOTSECT are a .NT and a .FLP; no .DOS
    
    Dave

	There should be a Bootsect.dos in the top level directory
of the C drive.  Applying SP5 and or converting D to NTFS should not
have caused this file to disappear.

	Joel

    Definitely not there; examination of rmfmain.bat shows some lines 
    dealing with bootsect.dos that are commented out.
    
    I've been doing lots of RMF's using the RMF bits on drive C, but the 
    most recent one was the first one using the RMF floppy I built using
    the mkflp.bat that was on drive C when I received the unit. As it so
    happens, I had troubles with this RMF floppy; the first time I tried
    to boot it, I got a bunch of errors with it trying to access files off
    drive C, setting the path to drive C, etc. I traced this down to some
    logic in rmfmain.bat that keyed off the presence of /rmf/config/floppy.
    The presence of this file tells rmfmain.bat that it is being executed 
    from a floppy rather than drive C, and my floppy didn't have it. After 
    creating this file I was able to RMF using the floppy, however I just 
    tried again (letting it partition the disk etc) and confirmed that even
    without SP5 or converting D: to NTFS, the system can't be booted into DOS.
    
    I'm going to try building a new RMF floppy off the admin CD and see
    what difference that makes. Note I've already found one problem; the
    AA-QPNWB-TE doc says to go to \Vnnn\RECOVERY\MAKERMF on the CDROM
    (page 125) but there ain't no such directory. AA-QC1PC-TE says to
    go to \Vnnn\FILES\RMF\MAKERMF (page 131) which does (hurray!).
    
    ...
    
    WOW! Just booted off the new RMF floppy, and the dialogue so far is
    completely differant. I don't know what was FIS'd on drive C when I
    got the unit (drive D had V032), but it wasn't this RMF version! It
    even offered me the 'from local CD' option, too! I'll give it a try.
    ... Bummer, already a hiccup - it offered a default location for the
    RMF command file of E:\V032\FILES\EDR\QSRMF.SYS   EDR?? Sheesh.
    
    More Later,
    	Dave

    Tried a couple experiments, and RMF'ing from the 'new' RMF floppy 
    seems to work ok; bootsect.dos exists, and I can boot into DOS 
    successfully. Besides the 'EDR' hiccup mentioned in .-1, I ran 
    into one other; if D: was converted to NTFS, then when RMF boots
    the CDROM comes up as D: which left me a bit puzzled as to where
    to tell it to find the RMF files. I went with E: (even though 
    there was no E: when the question was asked) which seemed to work
    since after the re-partitioning and reboot step it appears as E:
    
    So now I'm off to reload/reconfig all the software yet again.
    
    Dave

	If you converted your D partition to NTFS
then you should only use the floppy for RMF. not
what's on the C drive.  Otherwise, you will
run into the problem you described (DOS 
does not understand NTFS so when you boot RMF (DOS)
from the C partition, then the D partition is not visable
and therefore you see the CD appearing as D.

We recommend that RMF is always started from the 
floppy.  You should always make a new floppy
for RMF from the CD when a new release of
software is distributed.  This guarentees
you are using the latest and greatest RMF.

    I WAS booting RMF from the floppy, and it was an RMF floppy 
    built from the V3.2 Admin CD. The point in .6 is that at the
    time the floppy-based RMF asked where to find QSRMF.SYS, the
    cdrom appeared as D:, and this was the default it offerred.
    
    After it asks this question however, it re-partitions the disk
    and reboots, and after the reboot, the cdrom is now E: If I had
    accepted the default, the later stages of the RMF would have failed
    because (1) the device letter it supplied in the default answer was 
    incorrect, and (2) the directory path in the default was incorrect.
    
    Having been through RMF a number of times, I knew what the correct
    drive and path should be, and I over-rode the default answer that
    the RMF procedure supplied with the prompt. As I said, a 'hiccup',
    but one that will probably catch someone else at some time...
    
    Dave