Re: RFC: specification for probing other OSes

[Christian Perrier <bubulle@debian.org>]

> IIRC for my Windows 2k system, the Windows installation creates a bootsector
> on both the rootpartition _and_ the partition on which the /winnt directory
> is created.
> Unlike Debian, you don't have a choice :-(
> 
> For older versions (95/98) I've had to recreate the bootsector.
> 
> Note that for Windows NT/2k and maybe XP, the default installation is in
> /winnt, not /windows and I think you have the option of changing the name of 

While discussing earlier with Joshua, we ended with this set of
criteria:

-if exist /io.sys, then partition is Win 9x/Me boot partition
-if exist /ntldr, then partition is  WinNT/W2K/XP boot partition

Seems pretty simple and does not depend on file names. *these* cannot
be changed


> the directory in which windows is installed (although most people will accept 
> the default).
> 
> To recreate the Windows 98 bootpartition, I used the shareware program
> bootpart (see http://www.winimage.com). If it's that 'easy' to create
> bootsectors, should it not be possible to look for signatures in the
> bootsectors of partitions themselves? (Although I guess they could be
> leftovers from deleted OSs.)
> Maybe the guy that developed this program could help...

French guy, from memory.