REBOOT. Copyright 1996 Conklin Systems. All rights reserved.
Reboot is shareware. You may use it for evaluation purposes for up
to 14 days.  For details, keep reading.  Unlike most shareware, you
may not redestribute REBOOT in any form.  Because it works on 
partition tables, we want people downloading the latest code directly
from Conklin Systems sites.

***********************************************************
WARNING: REBOOT WORKS ON PARTITION TABLES.  AN ERROR COULD 
EFFECTIVELY ERASE YOUR ENTIRE HARD DRIVE INSTANTANEOUSLY.
USE THIS PROGRAM AT YOUR OWN RISK AND _PLEASE_ READ THE 
INSTRUCTIONS. CONKLIN SYSTEMS ASSUMES NO LIABILITY FOR
ANY DAMAGES TO YOUR SYSTEM CAUSED BY THIS PROGRAM.
**********************************************************

-=-=-=-=-  For POWER USERS: -=-=-=-=- 

Welcome to Reboot, the fast lane out of Windows/DOS. Reboot's sole 
purpose is to safely shut down DOS and reboot to another partition 
on your hard drive, hopefully running another operating system like 
Unix.

To get up and running immediately:

    o    Type REBOOT with no parameters. This will give you the command
	 options and also show you the partition table information.
    
    o    Run FDISK and display the existing partition information.
	 Make sure REBOOT and FDISK both describe the same paritions.
	 (Different slot numbers are fine. FDISK sorts, REBOOT shows raw data)
	 
    o    Use REBOOT to back up your partition table. Type:

		REBOOT -B

	 Which is Reboot, make backup, diag mode, no reboot.  Just pick a 
	 slot number that's a valid partition.

    o    Put a copy of the resulting PARTTABL.BAK file on a diskette.
	 Also copy REBOOT.EXE to the diskette.  Now you have a rescue disk.

    o    You're ready to rock. If you already have another OS installed,
	 just type "REBOOT slot#"  to activate that partition and reboot.

    o    Cough up $10 to the address below if you decide to keep it.


-=-=-=-=-  For EVERYONE ELSE: -=-=-=-=- 

Welcome to REBOOT! Reboot is a handy DOS utility that lets you quickly
change the active partition on your hard drive and then reboot the system.
It's designed for people with Unix or other operating systems besides 
DOS/Windows, and gives you a fast command to get outta DOS.

You can also switch partitions using FDISK and the reset button. REBOOT
is a convenience function that has extra, handy features, and many
internal safety checks.  You can also go with a full-fledged multi-boot
manager such as System Commander or OS-BS.  However, these programs can
cause their own problems, often require extra 'boot' partitions and
drivers.  REBOOT gives you 90% of the functionality and requires no 
modifications to your system or installation of any kind.

Reboot has the following features:

    o     Reboot fast switches the active partition, flushes SMARTDRV
	  and some other disk caches (if any) and reboots the system.

    o     Reboot displays your existing partition table and recognizes
	  many popular operating system partition types.

    o     Reboot can backup and restore partition tables

    o     Reboot is totally configurable with command line switches. 
	  Every feature can be individually disabled.

    o     Reboot's 'quiet mode' allows for transparent batch file use.

    o     Reboot's Erase feature allows you to use permanent swap files
	  with Windows for Workgroups even with other OS's on your drive.


-=-=-=-=-  WHO ARE WE? -=-=-=-=- 

Conklin Systems, a consulting firm specializing in helping with challenging
computer projects, basically a research and development shop along the lines
of the Lockheed skunkworks.  Often we help other software companies develop 
software, but also develop prototypes and new technologies, assist with
management issues, and handle people's hardware needs.


-=-=-=-=-  WHATS IT COST AND WHO DO I SEND IT TO? -=-=-=-=- 

This tool saves you time and grief.  It's not a large program, just a 
specialized tool for a specific job. Its yours to use for 2 weeks. After  
two weeks, either erase it or send a check for $10 to:

     Conklin Systems
     9905 Barnes Hwy
     Eaton Rapids, MI  48827

Be sure to include your mailing address and email address.

     Internet support is available at:
	  http://www.mich.com/~conklin

     Email:
	  conklin@mich.com

     Online support is provided exclusively via Club Network:

     The Club         (517) 372-3131       support, updates.
     The Club II      (810) 334-8877       updated files, 2nd tier support.

     Or via fax:

     Conklin Systems  (517) 663-5802

REBOOT cannot be redistributed in any form. Parties interested in licensing
REBOOT contact us for extremely reasonable terms.

Registered users get notification of the next major release, so be sure
to include a name & mailing address.  Support is via email, the BBS 
and fax lines.


-=-=-=-=-  USING REBOOT -=-=-=-=- 

REBOOT works with partition tables.  There are a lot of good discussions
about partition tables available, and if you don't already know what a 
partition table is, you probably shouldn't be using REBOOT.  In short, 
a partition table is where you describe how you want to allocate your
hard drive.

Most of the time, people want to use the entire drive for DOS/Windows.
In this case, the whole drive is just 1 partition.  But if you want to 
try a new operating system, it usually needs to have it's own hard drive.

Instead of buying two drives, you can "divide" the drive you have into
multiple chunks called "partitions", up to four.  Each partition is treated 
as if it was a physical hard drive.   The partition table is where you tell 
the computer how many partitions you want to break the drive into, and how 
big each one is.  You can then install DOS/Windows on one partition and say
Unix on the other.

Of the up-to-four partitions on your hard drive, one of the partitions is
the "active" partition. This is the partition that will be loaded when the
computer starts up.  If you have both DOS & Unix partitions, this is how
the computer knows which one to load.  Only one partition can be active
at a time (because you can only load one DOS at a time.)

REBOOT automates the task of switching the active partition and hitting 
the reset button, so that if you're in DOS, and want to switch to Unix,
you can do it quickly and easily.


-=-=-=-=- RUNNING REBOOT THE FIRST TIME -=-=-=-=- 

To run REBOOT the first time, just type

REBOOT

Reboot, without any options, will show you your existing partition table
and give you a help menu.

Assuming your partition table looks like this:

      Boot    Partition  Cyl/Hd/Sect Cyl/Hd/Sect Partition
Slot Status     Type        Start        End     LBA start  Size in Mb
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
  1            Unused     0/  0/ 0     0/  0/ 0         0         0
  2            Unused     0/  0/ 0     0/  0/ 0         0         0
  3  Active  FAT16>32M    0/  1/ 1   259/ 63/63        63       511
  4           Unix/386  260/  0/ 1   786/ 63/63   1048320      1037

We're currently using slot 3, which is a DOS partition (DOS FAT16 type file 
system with >32 Meg) and let's say we want to come back up on the Unix 
in slot 4. The command is simply:

REBOOT 4


-=-=-=-=- BEFORE YOU BEGIN USING REBOOT -=-=-=-=- 

BEFORE you rush off to try it, you'll want to verify REBOOT understands
your partition table and back up your partition table just in case.

STEP 1:

Run FDISK and display the existing partition information.  FDISK is a 
utility that comes with DOS that is used for editing partition tables.
One of the commands allows you to "Display partition information"
option 4 typically.)

Look at the FDISK display. It should show the same number of active
partitions as REBOOT, and they should be the same size. For example,
given the REBOOT output about, FDISK shows the follow for the same
partition table:

   Current fixed disk drive: 1

   Partition  Status   Type    Volume Label  Mbytes   System   Usage
    C: 1         A    PRI DOS                  512   UNKNOWN     33%
       2              Non-DOS                 1038               67%

Note that FDISK shows the partitions as slots 1 and 2, where REBOOT
shows them as 3 and 4. That's ok. FDISK sorts the list, where REBOOT 
shows you the actual table.  Also note that REBOOT reports slightly
different sizes than FDISK. It's not important, all we're testing here is
that REBOOT and FDISK have both found the same partition table.
(This test is just in case there's some mutant hardware out there with
a non-standard partition table)

STEP 2:

Use REBOOT to back up your partition table. Type:

    REBOOT -B

Which is Reboot, Backup.  A copy of your partition table will be
written out to the file PARTTABL.BAK.  

STEP 3:

Copy  the resulting PARTTABL.BAK file onto a bootable DOS diskette,
and copy the REBOOT.EXE file too.  Now you have a bootable rescue
disk you can use to restore the original partition table in an emergency.

STEP 4:

You're ready to go! If you already have another OS installed, (as in
the example) just type "REBOOT slot#"  to activate that partition and reboot.

STEP 5:

Enjoy the ease and convenience of REBOOT, it's handy safety features,
and cough up $10 to the address above if you decide to keep it.


-=-=-=-=- REBOOT COMMAND OPTIONS -=-=-=-=-

The REBOOT command line options are organized around a simple idea.
Reboot is designed to be used, so BY DEFAULT, REBOOT IS GOING TO 
DO IT'S JOB.  The command line options allow you to disable specific
steps of the Reboot process.  In fact, REBOOT -Q -N -S -D -H instructs 
Reboot to do nothing!

Commands can be in either upper or lower case, and are preceeded with
a dash.  Reboot is normally used by just typing REBOOT and the partition
table slot number that you want to switch to. Partition tables aren't filled 
in order.  The FDISK display partition table command sorts the table
entries, whereas REBOOT shows you where things really are.

Reboot has a lot of options, but almost all are used to disable some 
built-in step that REBOOT takes.  When REBOOT runs, it will:

     * Look at any command options you specify and Report what it recognizes
       
       Read the existing partition table in, check that it's valid and that what you've
       asked for makes sense.
     
     * Figure out which partition you wanted to make active, and make it so.
     
     * Attempt to detect disk caching, and attempt to cause any disk caches to be
       written out.
     
     * Will attempt to reboot the computer.  This is by default a cold boot, almost
       the same as hitting the RESET button.

REBOOT has command line options to shut off each of these steps.

    Option        Function
===============================================================
     -Q        Quiet mode. Suppresses all output from REBOOT. It's intended
	       for use in batch files.  Note that -q takes effect as the command
	       line is being read. If you want total silence, it has to be the first
	       option.  Otherwise REBOOT acknowledges each option listed.

     -D        Diagnostic mode.  This stops REBOOT from actually writing
	       anything back to disk.  It's often used in conjunction with
	       options like Backup to allow the other features to run without
	       making any partition table changes, or as a 'dry run' mode.

     -S        Suppress SMARTDRV and other disk cache flushing.  REBOOT
	       tests to see if DOS SMARTDRV is running, and if so, orders it
	       to write any cached data out, then uses another approach to
	       attempt to flush any non-SMARTDRV compatible caches.
	       Since REBOOT will reboot very quickly, you normally want to
	       be sure that everything is written to disk.

     -N        No Reboot.  This stops REBOOT from resetting your computer.
	       Like Diagnostic mode (-D), it's often used in conjunction with 
	       other options like backup.  Remember, REBOOT _will_ reboot
	       your computer, so IF YOU INTEND TO COME BACK TO THE C>
	       PROMPT, you have to specify -N.  (Unless you're running 
	       REBOOT with no options to just get the help/table display)

     -W        Warm reboot. Normally, REBOOT attempts to cold boot the
	       computer.  This instead simulates a warm boot (Ctrl-Alt-Del).
	       Warm boots can be easily intercepted by programs such as
	       DOS-under-Windows, Desqview or VMOS/3.
	       (BETA release note. Warm boot isn't working mostly.)

     -H        Supresses the command help display.  Using REBOOT this
	       way, with no other options, is a handy way to get the partition
	       table displayed.  The table itself can be redirected to a file for
	       batch files.

     -B        Create partition table backup.  This tells REBOOT that after it's
	       read in the partition table, write it out to disk.  It's stored in a
	       file called PARTTABL.BAK, and it's a binary file, so you can't
	       edit it.  If you specify REBOOT -b by itself, reboot just makes
	       the backup and then exits.

     -R        Restore partition table from backup file.  This tells REBOOT to
	       use the partition table data in the PARTTABL.BAK file in the 
	       current directory.   REBOOT then reads from the file instead of
	       reading off of the hard drive, in effect changing where it gets
	       it's information, but nothing else.
		     
	       The -R option can be used by itself.  It could also be called 
	       Read partition table from file.  Just typing REBOOT -R is the
	       equivalent of REBOOT with no parameters. It'll show you the
	       table and help, except in this case the table comes from the 
	       PARTTABL.BAK file instead of the drive.

	       To actually RESTORE a partition table, REBOOT needs to
	       be making changes. So to read in a backup file, and then
	       use it to overwrite a damaged or missing table, you would
	       type REBOOT -N -R slot#  which would read in the old file,
	       and allow you to specify which partition to make active.

     -E        Erase partition table entry.  This tells REBOOT to ERASE the
	       specified slot #, making that partition CEASE TO EXIST.  It 
	       was designed as a workaround to a 'bug' in Windows for
	       Workgroups. See below.  In this case, the typical command
	       use would be REBOOT -N -E slot#  since you probably don't
	       want to reboot after changing the table.
			  
	
-=-=-=-=- SPECIAL REBOOT FEATURE - ERASE PARTITION ENTRY  -=-=-=-=- 
(Windows for Workgroups Permanent Swapfile fix)

If you're running Windows for Workgroups, one feature you want to
use is a permanent swap file.  Windows for Workgroups (we'll refer
to it as WfW from now on) added many of the 'new' features that are
being touted as parts of Windows 95,  including 32-bit Disk and 
32-bit File access.

In WfW these features were new, and had some restrictions on their
use.  Spefically, you have to create a permanent swap file (which
you wanted to do anyhow) in order to enable 32-bit File Access. 
With all 3 features activated WfW is significantly faster.

However, there's a bug/feature in the permanent swap file code. If, 
when creating a permanent swap file, WfW detects _any_ other data
in the partition table for the hard drive, it will refuse to create a 
permanent swap file and returns an error, EVEN IF THE DATA IS IN 
A DELETED PARTITION.  It's checking to be 'extra safe,' in theory.

Internally, we installed UnixWare on a machine, had problems, and 
deleted the entire partition and repartitioned the entire machine as a
WfW machine. WfW recognized old UnixWare data in deleted partition 
table entries and refused to create the permanent swap file.   We 
even went so far as to delete ALL the parititions and start from scratch,
to no avail. In the end, we had to use an old DOS 3.3 edition of Disk
Manager in its manual mode to erase the table.  And finding out about
the permanent swap file creation error took days.

Enter the development of REBOOT. Well, not everyone has a 10 year
old copy of Disk Manager.  And even Disk Manager wouldn't help if
you _already_ had Unix or another OS installed on your drive! If you
can clear the partition table (except for the DOS/WfW partition) 
temporarily, you can create the permanent swap file.

Thus the REBOOT (e)rase entry feature.  Using REBOOT's ability to back
up and restore partition tables, and erase, you can get around this 
obnoxious WfW bug.  Specifically:

  1.    Use REBOOT to back up your partition table.
  
  2.    Use REBOOT -n -e slot# to erase the non-DOS partition information.
	Repeat as needed until the only partitions showing are DOS 
	partitions.
  
  3.    Run Windows. Control Panel. Enhanced 386 settings. Virtual Memory.
	Create a permanent swap file.  (Trivia: there's a Microsoft tip 
	somewhere that it shouldn't be more than about 18Meg long for best 
	performance.)
  
  4.    Exit and restart Windows so the permanent swap file is actually
	created.  Don't forget to turn on 32-bit File access, and 32-bit 
	Disk if you can. (Some hard drives require a special driver for 
	32-bit Disk Access.)
  
  5.    Use REBOOT -N -R to restore your partition table from the backup.
  
  6.    With any luck, enjoy an across the board performance increase.


Copyright 1996 Conklin Systems. All Rights Reserved.
