|
First Boot Device
Options : Floppy, LS/ZIP, HDD-0, SCSI, CDROM, HDD-1,
HDD-2, HDD-3, LAN, Disabled
This feature allows you to set the first device from which the
BIOS will attempt to load the operating system (OS) from. Note that if the
BIOS is able to load the OS from the device set using this feature, it
naturally won't load another OS, if you have another on a different device.
For example, if you set Floppy as the First Boot Device, the BIOS
would boot the DOS 3.3 OS which you have placed in the floppy disk but won't
bother loading Win2k even though it may be residing on your hard disk drive
C. As such, this is useful for troubleshooting purposes and for installing
an OS off a CD.
The default setting is Floppy. But unless you boot often from the
floppy drive or need to install an OS from a CD, it's better to set your
hard disk (usually HDD-0) as the First Boot Device. That will shorten the
booting process.
Second Boot Device
Options : Floppy, LS/ZIP, HDD-0, SCSI, CDROM, HDD-1, HDD-2,
HDD-3, LAN, Disabled
This feature allows you to set the second device from which the
BIOS will attempt to load the operating system (OS) from. Note that if the
BIOS is able to load the OS from the device set as the First
Boot Device, any setting toggled by this feature will have no effect.
Only if the BIOS fails to find an OS on the First
Boot Device, will it then attempt to find and load one on the Second
Boot Device.
For example, if you set Floppy as the First Boot Device but left the
floppy disk out of the drive, the BIOS will then load Win2k which you have
installed on your hard disk drive C (set as Second Boot Device).
The default setting is HDD-0, which is first detected
hard disk, usually the one attached to the Primary Master IDE
channel. Unless you have a removable drive set as the First Boot
Device, this feature has very little use. HDD-0 is a perfectly
fine choice although you can set an different device to serve as
an alternative boot drive.
Third Boot Device
Options : Floppy, LS/ZIP, HDD-0, SCSI, CDROM, HDD-1, HDD-2,
HDD-3, LAN, Disabled
This feature allows you to set the third device from which the
BIOS will attempt to load the operating system (OS) from. Note that if the
BIOS is able to load the OS from the device set as the First
Boot Device or the Second Boot Device,
any setting toggled by this feature will have no effect. Only if the BIOS
fails to find an OS on the First Boot Device
and Second Boot Device, will it then
attempt to find and load one on the Third Boot Device.
For example, if you set Floppy as the First Boot Device and the LS-120
drive as the Second Boot Device but left both drives empty, the BIOS will
then load Win2k which you have installed on your hard disk drive C (set as
Third Boot Device).
The default setting is LS/ZIP. Unless you have a
removable drives set as the First and Second Boot Devices, this
feature has very little use. LS/ZIP is a perfectly fine choice
although you can set an different device to serve as an
alternative boot drive.
Boot Other Device
Options : Enabled, Disabled
In older motherboards, this feature determines whether the BIOS will attempt to load an OS from
the Second or Third Boot Device if it fails to load one from the First
Boot Device.
The default is Enabled and it's recommended that you leave it as
such. Otherwise, if the BIOS cannot find an OS in the First Boot Device, it
will then halt the booting process with the error message "No Operating
System Found" even though there's an OS on the Second or Third Boot
Device.
However, in present-day motherboards, this feature determines if the BIOS
is allowed to boot from devices other than the three listed in First,
Second and Third
Boot Devices. When this feature is disabled, the BIOS will only
attempt to boot from the three boot devices set in the First,
Second and Third
Boot Devices options. If enabled, the BIOS will check for unlisted
boot devices after it has failed to boot from the three listed boot devices.
If you have no idea how to set boot devices and there's only one bootable
device, you can enable this feature just to ensure that your system will
boot even if you fail to correctly set the boot devices. This is because the
BIOS will try to boot from every storage device in the system.
Alternatively, you can set your bootable devices properly and disable
this feature. That will prevent the BIOS from booting other bootable media.
This is useful if you have multiple bootable devices in your system and just
want to boot from one from them.
Many thanks to Lars Hederer
for pointing out to me that this feature had a different meaning with newer
motherboards! :)
Swap Floppy Drive
Options : Enabled, Disabled
This feature is useful if you want to swap the logical arrangement of the floppy drives. Instead
of opening up the casing to do it physically, you can just set this feature to Enabled.
Then, the first drive will be mapped as drive B: and the second drive, mapped as drive A:;
which is the opposite of the usual convention.
This feature is also useful if both the floppy drives in your system are of different
formats and you want to boot from the second drive. That's because the BIOS will only boot
from floppy drive A:.
Boot Up Floppy Seek
Options : Enabled,
Disabled
This feature controls whether the BIOS checks for a floppy drive while booting up. If
it cannot detect one (either due to improper configuration or physical inavailability), it
will flash an error message. It will also detect if the floppy drive has 40 or 80 tracks
but since all floppy drives in use today have 80 tracks, this check is redundant. This
feature should be set as Disabled for a faster booting process.
Boot Up NumLock Status
Options : On, Off
This feature controls the functionality of the Numeric Keyboard at boot up. If set to
On, the Numeric Keyboard will function in the numeric mode (for typing out numbers) but if
set to Off, it will function in the cursor control mode (for controlling the cursor).
The setting of this feature is entirely up to your preference.
|
