User manual

Boot manager Boot-US

Version 4.2.0

July/14/2024

Dr. Ulrich Straub

Copyright © 1999-2024

Table of Contents

1 Introduction...................................................................................................................................................................1

1.3 Update to new version....................................................................................................................................7

1.4 Uninstallation..................................................................................................................................................8

1.6 Advanced function of Boot-US....................................................................................................................11

2 Purchase a license........................................................................................................................................................29

2.1 License..........................................................................................................................................................29

2.2 Registration...................................................................................................................................................30

Table of Contents

2 Purchase a license

3.2 Help...............................................................................................................................................................36

3.3 Keyboard buffer............................................................................................................................................37

3.4 Change configuration....................................................................................................................................37

4 Menu commands (GUI)..............................................................................................................................................41

4.5 Boot manager / Remove................................................................................................................................55

4.6 Boot manager / Show info............................................................................................................................56

4.7 Partitions / Details.........................................................................................................................................57

4.8 Partitions / Create..........................................................................................................................................59

4.10 Partitions / Copy.........................................................................................................................................63

Table of Contents

4 Menu commands (GUI)

4.13 Configuration / Basic settings.....................................................................................................................70

4.14 Configuration / Extended settings...............................................................................................................73

4.17 UEFI / Info..................................................................................................................................................77

4.18 Window / Refresh.......................................................................................................................................78

4.19 Help / Contents...........................................................................................................................................79

4.20 Help / License.............................................................................................................................................79

4.21 Help / Registration......................................................................................................................................79

4.22 Help / About Boot-US................................................................................................................................79

5 Command-line version................................................................................................................................................81

5.1 Overview.......................................................................................................................................................81

5.2 Installation.....................................................................................................................................................83

5.4 Online help....................................................................................................................................................88

5.5 Operations on sector level.............................................................................................................................89

Table of Contents

5 Command-line version

5.7 Operations for boot manager........................................................................................................................94

5.8 Repair MBR................................................................................................................................................101

5.9 Fix GPT table..............................................................................................................................................102

5.10 Set standard disk parameters.....................................................................................................................103

6 Tips.............................................................................................................................................................................109

6.1 In which cases one might face problems ?..................................................................................................110

6.2 Recommendations for safe usage of Boot-US............................................................................................111

6.3 Uninstalling the boot manager Boot-US.....................................................................................................112

6.4 Basic questions about Boot-US..................................................................................................................113

6.5 Unhiding partitions in the boot manager....................................................................................................114

6.6 Error messages on integrity checks.............................................................................................................115

6.7 Double occupied sectors in track 0.............................................................................................................118

6.8 Limitations of different operating systems (BIOS)....................................................................................119

6.9 Check independence and completeness......................................................................................................120

6.17 Linux partition is recognized by Boot-US as non-bootable......................................................................128

6.18 Fast backup of partitions...........................................................................................................................128

6.19 Boot-US does not find SCSI or IDE disks under NT...............................................................................130

6.20 Support for Windows 2000/XP/2003/Vista/2008/7/8/10..........................................................................131

6.21 True partition hiding for Windows 2000/XP/2003/Vista/2008/7/8/10.....................................................132

6.22 Copying (cloning) a Windows 2000/XP/2003 installation.......................................................................133

6.23 Administrator rights under Vista and Windows 7/8/10............................................................................134

6.24 System reserved partition on Windows 7/8/10.........................................................................................135

Table of Contents

7 Glossary......................................................................................................................................................................137

7.7 Master Boot Record (MBR) / track 0.........................................................................................................146

7.8 Primary / extended / logical partition..........................................................................................................147

7.9 GPT disk / GPT partition............................................................................................................................149

7.10 Active partition.........................................................................................................................................151

7.11 Hidden partition / true hidden partition....................................................................................................152

7.12 Bootable partition......................................................................................................................................153

7.13 Which partition IDs are recognized ?.......................................................................................................154

7.19 4Kn disk....................................................................................................................................................162

8 Tech-Info....................................................................................................................................................................163

8.1 Boot-US short overview.............................................................................................................................164

8.2 Installation and update................................................................................................................................166

8.3 Uninstallation..............................................................................................................................................168

8.6 Partition numbers........................................................................................................................................171

The package Boot-US consists of a universal boot manager (fig. 1) and the accompanying configuration program

for the boot manager.

Fig. 1: Boot manager Boot-US (graphics mode)

The configuration program is supplied in two versions. The first is a Graphical User Interface (GUI) version for all

WIN32/64 variants (Windows 95 to Windows 10) (fig. 2). In the second variant the configuration program is available

also as command-line version (fig. 3) for DOS and all WIN32/64 variants.

As a result of the separation in two programs the boot manager itself can be a small and simple program. The boot

manager needs only handle the selection and booting of the desired operating system. The configuration program is

If necessary you can do the uninstallation also "manually". Since Boot-US has created only files in the installation

directory it is sufficient to delete this directory to remove the whole package. Also all configuration settings -- with

the potential exception of the password -- have been stored intentionally in the INI file and not in the registry. This all

together makes a potential uninstallation very easy. When you manually uninstall Boot-US please do not forget to

delete the entries in the Windows Start menu and the entry in the Install/Uninstall menu. The latter entry can be found

In this chapter we show a few simple examples for using the boot manager Boot-US. Since Boot-US is a universal

boot manager there are many more combinations of operating systems which are bootable by the boot manager

Boot-US. In this chapter we restrict ourselves on a few typical examples, and show where the boot manager Boot-US

The aim is to run both Windows systems completely independent of each other. This can be achieved as follows:

The configuration program Boot-US (GUI) is installed on the first Windows system. A second primary

partition for the second Windows system is created, formated and set active.

When you boot one of the two Windows systems the corresponding partition will be made visible

automatically by the boot manager. The other Windows partition will be true hid automatically.

The following steps are necessary to setup this configuration:

Linux is installed in another primary partition. A Linux loader must be installed into the boot sector of the

In this section some advanced functions of the package Boot-US are presented.

this case.

In the BIOS you need to change the boot order such that the computer boots from the USB stick. If the USB

stick is plugged in during the next startup the boot manager Boot-US will be displayed.

will be displayed.

You only need to create an empty ESP partition first, then you can later install the boot manager Boot-US on

this ESP partition.

In addition, from version 4.2.0, the boot manager Boot-US can make true hidden ESP partitions visible

directly before booting the system in question.

These functions make it possible to completely separate multiple Windows installations. Each Windows

installation can be true hid together with the associated ESP partition. Only the separate ESP partition on

which the boot manager Boot-US is installed always remains visible.

"configuration/ext. settings..." and turn on and off the assumed aligment on 1 MiB.

1 Introduction 11

In the configuration program Boot-US (GUI) you only need to mark the respective disk as boot disk 1, and

then install the boot manager.

Starting with Boot-US 3.8.0 a new option "Boot MBR with GRUB from disk 2" is availabale when installing

the boot manager Boot-US.

Using this option the boot manager Boot-US loads GRUB from the MBR of disk 2, which loads the Linux

installation on disk 2.

12 1 Introduction

- saving and restoring selected UEFI variables

Fixes:

- update and preselect command fixed in command-line version

- report fixed (Feb/13/2024)

Boot-US 4.1.5: created on September/01/2023

- size of dialogs can now be changed

- more reliable support for mouse and touch screen in UEFI boot manager

- optional RTC timer in BIOS boot manager

- backup of C: partition under Windows PE

Fixes:

- file check in DOS command-line version fixed

- support for mouse and touch screen in UEFI boot manager

- encrypted partitions are now not modified during true hiding of partitions

- improved reading of serial number of NVMe drives

Boot-US 4.1.0: created on January/22/2023 (fixed on Jan/31/2023 and Feb/12/2023)

Improvements:

- true hiding of ESP partition simplifies multiple Windows installation on one disk

- change, save and restore UEFI variables

- better compatibility of UEFI text mode and UEFI graphic mode

Fixes:

- reading unknown UEFI values from ini file fixed

- display position of UEFI boot manager corrected (Jan/31/2023)

- initialisation of english language for boot manager fixed(Feb/12/2023)

Boot-US 4.0.3: created on July/22/2022 (fixed on Aug/18/2022)

Improvements:

- better error handling in BIOS boot manager for removable disks (e.g. card readers)

- dialog size scales now with size of start screen

1 Introduction 13

- command-line version supports now installation of UEFI boot manager

Fixes:

- improved disk recognition in UEFI boot manager

- reading partition names from INI file fixed

- display of special characters in 32 bit version fixed (Aug/18/2022)

Fixes:

- export of colors to ini file fixed

- help buttons did not open online help

- partition name could not be changed for GPT partitions (Mar/08/2022)

The most important extension is the support for booting by UEFI.

Improvements:

- support for UEFI

- simplified configuration in BIOS mode

- backup and restore of single partitions and whole disks

Fixes:

- UEFI: boot manager installation required BMP file (Feb/17/2022)

- UEFI: true hiding of gpt partitions in boot manager fixed (Feb/17/2022)

- UEFI: boot manager installation could create multiple boot options (Feb/17/2022)

- UEFI: configuration changes were not saved (Feb/17/2022)

- none

Fixes:

Boot-US 3.9.4: created on February/14/2021 (fixed on Feb/16/2021)

Improvements:

- option for reducing display size of boot manager

Fixes:

- update of background for more than 11 entries in boot manager fixed

- warning W001 appeared for NTFS partitions with small cluster size (Feb/16/2021)

Boot-US 3.9.3: created on February/03/2021

Boot-US 3.9.2: created on May/02/2020

Improvements:

Boot-US 3.9.1: created on April/07/2020

- installation of boot manager to MBR fixed

Boot-US 3.9.0: created on April/05/2020

- background image for boot manager

- new chapter 'boot manager' in documentation

- boot manager colors can be changed

- partition can be overwritten and deleted with random numbers

Fixes:

- none

- display of partition list failed in version 3.8.5 when boot disks were ignored (Feb/04/2019)

Fixes:

- it could happen that a new created log. partition overlaps with the next log. partition sector

- new version of true hiding is present now also in test version

Boot-US 3.8.4: created on September/30/2018

Improvements:

- display of drive letters for hidden partitions improved

- drive letters of true hidden partitions can now be removed in Boot-US (GUI)

Fixes:

- version check of preselection in command-line version was too strict

- start problem of boot manager 3.8.2 fixed

Boot-US 3.8.2: created on August/31/2018

Boot-US 3.8.1: created on April/29/2018

Improvements:

Boot-US 3.8.0: created on April/22/2018

- true hiding of exFat partitions

Boot-US 3.7.2: created on February/04/2018

Improvements:

- under virtual machine the boot manager only uses standard BIOS display functions

Fixes:

- improved fix for 'access denied' problem when true hiding partitions on Windows 10

Boot-US 3.7.1: created on January/28/2018

Improvements:

- fixed 'access denied' problem when true hiding partitions on Windows 10

- program used current directory instead of actual program directory

- retrieval of disk info by scsi commands fixed

- added missing license texts in dutch language

Boot-US 3.7.0: created on June/12/2017

Improvements:

- individual simple and true hiding of GPT partitions

- true hiding of partitions extended for Windows 10 version 1703

- support for font scaling on high resolution monitors

Fixes:

- none

Boot-US 3.6.2: created on Sept./11/2016

Fixes:

- none

Boot-US 3.6.1: created on May/30/2016 (fixed on June/10/2016 and June/18/2016)

Boot-US 3.6.0: created on January/30/2016

Boot-US 3.5.3: created on December/23/2015

- none

Boot-US 3.5.2: created on October/08/2015 (fixed on Oct/13/2015 and Oct/20/2015)

Improvements:

- display of whole lines in list control while changing column width improved

- enter relative paths in bootus.ini

Fixes:

- check active partition when installing boot manager to non-active primary partition

- typo in setup program fixed

- too large font in startup tip fixed

- scrolling in list control fixed (Oct/13/2015)

Improvements:

- none

Fixes:

- display of serial number for Seagate disks fixed

What's new?

The most important extensions are the support for Windows 10, the usage of 64-bit variables for disk and partition

sizes and the recognition of gpt partitions.

Improvements:

- support for Windows 10

- support for 64-bit LBA numbers (disk size up to 8 x 10

TiB)

- gpt partitions are recognized

- display of disk signature

- boot manager remembers last booted partition

- empty disks are ignored by the boot manager

- boot manager avoids ext. INT 13h for better compatibility

Fixes:

- for disks with > 1023 cyl. and < 255 heads the part. size was sometimes displayed wrong

- installing boot manager in primary partition sometimes required to uninstall it before

Boot-US 1.2.2 (GUI): created on July/11/1999

Improvements:

- unchanged passwords were corrupted at second installation of boot manager

Improvements:

- explicit support for booting DOS, Windows 95/98/ME from 2nd, 3rd.. hard disk

- boot manager now passes appropriate disk number (80h, 81h...) in DL register

- password protection for partitions

- by default hiding of partition is not activated

- by default boot manager is installed in primary partition

Improvements:

- determination of LBA mapping selectable (from BIOS or partition table)

- automatic hiding of C: partitions can be disabled

Fixes:

Improvements:

- boot manager supports disks up to 2048 GB with extended INT 13h

- Windows 9x and NT are recognized from their boot sector

- trace output much faster than before

Fixes:

- none

- many additional partitions are recognized

- menu command for refreshing partition list

- support for trace output

Fixes:

- first version for general public

Fixes:

Users and testers:

First of all I like to thank all users who reported errors or suggested improvements or took part in the beta tests:

D. Arold, M. Bach, J. Boenisch, N. Brauer, H. Buchta, J. Cook, R. Curtis, A. Deinlein, D. Deutzer, J. Ebend, M.

The background images in the subdirectory images were downloaded from the web site https://unsplash.com/. The

images come from the following photographers:

Tolga Ahmetler, Mark Boss, Liam Briese, Boris Misevic, Paul Taton, Alex Gurung, Martin, Ryan Lum, Christine Roy,

Shayantan Ghosh, Matthew Ronder-Seid, Emily Campbell, Denis Linine, Tor Boine, Asoggetti, Sean Lee, Carl Nenzen

Loven, Jennifer Rogalla, Gayetano Gil, Rodrigo Soares.

The whole package Boot-US (GUI and command-line version) with all accompanying programs (boot manager, etc.)

may be used in the non-licensed version on private PCs for free. This allows a broad usage of the program. Public

schools may also use the non-licensed version of Boot-US for free.

Additionally, the whole package Boot-US may be tested in the non-licensed version during a trial period of one month

for free. If you want to use Boot-US after this trial period on commercially used PCs, you must purchase a license.

The license purchased entitles the licensee to use Boot-US on the corresponding number of PCs and it entitles the

licensee to use the forthcoming versions of Boot-US for free.

All future versions of Boot-US together with an old license allow to use the previously available functions. Please

note that new functions in future versions of Boot-US might not be available with an old license. The author

reserves the right to determine whether new functions in future versions are available free of charge, or are available

Version 4.x.x Complete configuration of invisible start

Version 4.x.x Password protection in boot manager

Version 4.x.x Full password protection for configuration program

Version 4.x.x Support for mouse/touch screen in UEFI boot manager

Owners of a 3.x.x license can continue to use this licese also in Boot-US 4.x.x. However this old license only supports

booting by BIOS and not by UEFI. If you want to use one of the licensed functions when booting by UEFI you need a

4.x.x license.

The Windows command-line version is intended especially for larger installations. The installation and uninstallation

of the boot manager requires at least a 5-PC license. All other functions (except the report function) require at least a

single PC license. Only the report function may be used without a license.

2 Purchase a license 29

problems become quickly evident and can also be repaired completely.

This software is provided on an "AS IS" basis, without warranty of any kind, including without limitation the

warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose and non-infringement. The entire risk as to the quality

and performance of the software is borne by you. Should the software prove defective, you alone assume the entire

SOME STATES DO NOT ALLOW EXCLUSIONS OF AN IMPLIED WARRANTY, SO THIS DISCLAIMER

MAY NOT APPLY TO YOU AND YOU MAY HAVE OTHER LEGAL RIGHTS THAT VARY FROM STATE TO

STATE OR BY JURISDICTION.

UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES AND UNDER NO LEGAL THEORY, TORT, CONTRACT, OR OTHERWISE,

SHALL THE PRODUCER OF THIS SOFTWARE OR ITS SUPPLIERS OR RESELLERS BE LIABLE TO YOU

OR ANY OTHER PERSON FOR ANY INDIRECT, SPECIAL, INCIDENTAL, OR CONSEQUENTIAL

DAMAGES OF ANY CHARACTER INCLUDING, WITHOUT LIMITATION, DAMAGES FOR LOSS OF

GOODWILL, WORK STOPPAGE, COMPUTER FAILURE OR MALFUNCTION, OR ANY AND ALL OTHER

COMMERCIAL DAMAGES OR LOSSES. IN NO EVENT WILL THE PRODUCER OF THIS SOFTWARE BE

LIABLE FOR ANY DAMAGES IN EXCESS OF THE LIST PRICE FOR A LICENSE TO USE BOOT-US, EVEN

If you like Boot-US, you are allowed to distribute it. The whole package Boot-US (non-licensed version) may be

copied and distributed without restriction. The licensed version of Boot-US, especially the license file bootus.lic, is

excluded from the distribution. The license file may not be distributed at all.

Amount Version 4 Upgrade from V3 School license

1 24.50 EUR 10.50 EUR

5 59.50 EUR 19.50 EUR yes

Your license order must include the following data:

Please send your order by e-mail or standard mail to the following address:

E-Mail: [email protected]

in advance is required.

Processing your order takes about half a business day.

2 Purchase a license 31

After purchasing a license you receive a license file bootus.lic. This license file can be used both for the GUI

version and the command-line version of the configuration program Boot-US. Please copy the license file unchanged

into the installation directory of Boot-US. In this directory you will find either the executable bootus.exe or

Boot-US automatically change any data on the disk. All data written to the disk is generally controlled by the user.

In case of orders, questions, suggestions for improvements or problems contact us at the following addresses:

E-Mail: [email protected]

Postal address: Dr. Ulrich Straub

The following screenshot (fig. 13) shows the configuration program Boot-US (GUI). This program runs under

Windows XP to Windows 11 (32 and 64 bit).

Configuration

Base settings... Specify basic parameters in INI file

UEFI

Restore variables... Restore UEFI variables

Window

Refresh Refreshes the display

The menu command File / Login... allows to enter the password for the configuration program Boot-US. This menu

command is only active when the password has been specified and the correct password has not yet been entered.

The menu command Boot manager / Install... opens a wizard to configure and install the boot manager. If the boot

manager is already installed on the hard disk the data of this installed boot manager is used to initialize the wizard.

Otherwise the wizard is initialized with standard values. The wizard consist of 6 pages to lead you through the

44 4 Menu commands (GUI)

option is useful especially for Linux systems where GRUB is installed in the MBR of the respective disk. Such a

Comment:

To change an entry double click on it or press the space bar or the F2 key. Additionally the entry can be changed by

the context menu (right click).

To specify a password you must enter the password twice. The new password is only accepted when both entries

occupy the same position on an english and german keyboard. When using special characters like '!', '#', '-',

'_', ... on a non-english keyboard the boot manager maps the pressed key to the corresponding special character.

Comment:

When you install the boot manager without password protection on a diskette or USB stick you can boot the

Unlimited:

change this setting also in the configuration menu of the installed boot manager.

Preselect last booted entry:

keys can be combined with <Ctrl> and <Alt> or both. All together roughly 200 key combinations are possible.

You can decide to show or disable a progress indicator displayed after the hint text. Please note that the non-licensed

version of Boot-US does not allow full control about this setting.

color variation. You may easily change this position, if you like. Also the transparency of the main window of the

UEFI text mode:

When booting by UEFI you can configure the boot manager to run in simple UEFI text mode. This option is useful

Input device:

The UEFI boot manager can be configured to support a mouse or touch screen additionally to the keyboard.

In graphics mode Boot-US uses one of two predefined color schemes for showing the boot manager texts and

windows background colors. The texts are shown in dark color for background images of light color and vice versa.

Comment:

When booting by BIOS it is not possible to use a background image and install the boot manager to the MBR. The

track 0 is too small for storing the background image additionally to the boot manager code.

The menu command Boot manager / Show info... determines the data of an installed boot manager and displays

them. Only a boot manager installed to the boot disk 1 will be checked, a boot manager installed to another disk or

diskette is ignored.

The menu command Partitions / Details... opens a dialog which shows a list of all partitions on all hard disks. All

details like partition ID, partition type, beginning and end of partition, etc. are shown (see following table). The

displayed data can be saved in a report (see below).

Comment:

To change a value please double click the corresponding entry or right click it to open the context menu (fig. 14) or

press the space or F2 key.

Fig. 14: Partition details with context menu

Comment:

When a partition is true hid both the partition ID and the partition's boot sector are modified.

Attention:

When a partition is activated/deactivated or made hidden/visible then the corresponding entries in the partition table

on the respective hard disk are changed. The result of these modifications become evident only at the next boot

process. Only experienced people should perform these modifications, since the system might become unbootable if

The column "bootable" is shown only when booting by BIOS. This column indicates whether the boot sector of the

partition is formally valid. When booting by UEFI the boot sector is not used at all, hence this column is redundant in

this case.

58 4 Menu commands (GUI)

The menu command Partitions / Create... opens a wizard which guides you through all steps in creating a new

partition. The wizard consists of the following pages:

Page 1: Select free space Select the free space where the partition is to be created

Page 2: Partition style Specify the style of the new partition

Page 3: Partition size Specify the size of the new partition

Page 4: File system Specify the file system for the new partition

Page 5: Create partition Show parameters of new partition and create it

On the first page of the wizard for creating partitions (menu command Partitions / Create...) you can select the free

On the second page of the wizard for creating partitions (menu command Partitions / Create...) you can select the

partition style .

In many cases the partition type is already determined by the position of the new partition. For example, a new

partition within an extended partition is always a logical partition. When an extended partition is already present on

the corresponding disk you cannot create another extended partition on it.

Please note that Boot-US does not support mixing of partition styles on one disk. Boot-US allows you only to create

partitions of the same style (MBR or GPT) on one disk.

MBR partition (primary/extended/logical partition):

The position of a MBR partition is specified by a 32 bit sector number. Hence MBR partitions always lie below 2 TiB.

The MBR table has space for four entries. This can be up to four primary partitions or up to three primary partitions

sector and extends over all sectors of the drive. A FDD style partition can be created only on a removable drive (e.g.

usb stick).

4 Menu commands (GUI) 59

system and the partition type of the new partition.

However you can choose whether the remaining sectors of the new partition are to be overwritten or not. When you

select the quick format then only an empty FAT will be created, but the other sectors of the new partition will remain

unchanged. When you do not select the quick formating then all sectors of the new partition will be changed. In this

case an empty FAT will be created and all other sectors of the new partition will be overwitten with a fixed pattern.

On the last page of the wizard for creating partitions (menu command Partitions / Create...) the parameters of the

partition to be created are shown.

When you press the Create button and the new partition is to be formatted, then a confirmation of this operation will

be requested. During formatting the sectors of the new partition will be changed irrecoverably. Only when no

formatting is to be carried out the new partition will be created without requesting further confirmation. And only

in this case the previous state can be recovered by restoring the partition table.

When the partition is formatted a progress dialog is shown. The first step is to create an empty FAT. This task is

finished within a few seconds. When the partition is to be completely formatted the second step is to overwrite all

The menu command Partitions / Delete... opens a wizard for deleting partitions. Only single partitions can be selected

and deleted. The wizard consists of the following pages:

Page 1: Select partition Select the partition to be deleted

Page 2: Delete method Select the method for deleting the partition

Page 3: Delete partition Show selected partition and delete it

On the first page of the wizard for deleting partitions (menu command Partitions / Delete...) you can select the

partition to be deleted.

Only a single partition can be selected. To delete an extended partition you need to delete first all logical partitions in

the corresponding extended partition, and then the extended partition.

On the second page of the wizard for deleting partitions (menu command Partitions / Delete...) you can specify the

In this case the partition is deleted in the partition table and additionally all sectors of the partition are overwritten

with zeros. When the partition has been deleted by this method the data within the partition are lost. By restoring the

deleted entry in the partition table the deleted partition re-appears in the old size, but all sectors of the partition still

contain only zeros and not the previous data.

Complete delete (overwrite with random numbers):

In this case the partition is deleted in the partition table and additionally all sectors of the partition are overwritten

with random numbers. When the partition has been deleted by this method the data within the partition are lost. By

restoring the deleted entry in the partition table the deleted partition re-appears in the old size, but all sectors of the

partition still contain only random numbers and not the previous data.

When you have selected the complete delete method a progress dialog is shown while the sectors of the partition are

overwritten. The overwriting can be aborted at any time since the partition has already been deleted from the partition

table in the first step. When you abort the overwriting the partition is nevertheless deleted, but of course only the

4 Menu commands (GUI) 61

corresponding part of the partition has been overwritten.

The menu command Partitions / Copy... allows you to copy existing disks or partitions. You can either copy

disks/partitions directly or alternatively, save a disk/partition to a file and later restore a disk/partition from this file. A

wizard is opened to guide you through the task of copying the disk or partition. Depending on the selected action only

Select action Select the desired action

Source disk/partition Select source disk or partition

Source file Select source file

Target disk/partition Select target disk or partition

Target file Select target file

Options Select options

Summary Show summary and start selected action

operation, but the operation is carried out also when locking is not possible.

On the first page of the wizard for copying partitions (menu command Partitions / Copy...) you can select the type of

copy operation.

Copy disk or partition directly:

This allows you to copy a source disk or partition to a target disk or partition. When copying a disk all partitions of the

source disk are copied to the target disk. The target disk will be overwritten completely. When copying a single

partition then the target partition can be either free space on the disk or an existing partition. In the latter case the

target partition will be overwritten with the data from the source partition. On the following pages you can selected

the source disk or partition and the target disk or partition.

The target partition can be either free space on a disk or an existing partition. In the latter case the target partition will

be overwritten with the data from the source file.

4 Menu commands (GUI) 63

source file the data of the saved disk or partitions will be displayed.

and partitions. Depending on the source you can select either a single disk or a single partition as target.

Selection restrictions:

The target must be different from the source. When directly copying data this means that the target disk or partition

must be different from the source disk or partition, When restoring data this means the disk or partition where the

source file resides cannot be the target disk or partition. Furthermore the size of the target must be larger or equal to

the source size.

Furthermore the C: partition cannot be selected as target, because this would overwrite the Windows installation

during operation.

The target file must reside on another disk or partition than the source disk or source partition.

VHD/VHDX format:

Starting with version 4.1.7, you can select a VHD/VHDX file as the target file. This format allows you to open the file

after the backup with standard programs. This allows you to easily check that all important files are included in the

backup.

On the fourth page of the wizard for copying partitions (menu command Partitions / Copy...) you can select certain

options controlling the copy operation.

Copy only occupied sectors:

sectors will be copied. This option is only available for the following file systems: FAT16, FAT32, exFAT, NTFS,

Ext2, Ext3, Ext4. Enabling this option is especially advantageous the less occupied a partition is. For example if a

Save data compressed:

This option reduces the size of the target file typically by a factor 2. As a side effect the write speed to the target file is

increased. On the other hand the cpu load will also be increased. However modern processors usually have enough

power so that effectively this option increases the throughput. The reduction of the amount of data is especially

advantageous when the target file resides on a relatively slow medium.

On the last page of the wizard for copying partitions (menu command Partitions / Copy...) a summary of the selected

action is shown.

Please note that it is not possible to change the physical order of the disks in this dialog. The order of the hard disks

can be modified only in the BIOS or by replugging the disk connectors.

When selecting this option you only need to specify the boot disk 1, i.e. from which disk the pc is started. On this disk

the boot manager will be installed. It is not required to specify the order of the higher boot disks 2, 3, etc. When

This option is avlaible only when all disks have a different disk signature.

Simple boot disk configuration not selected:

In this case you need to assign the boot disk numbers to all disks. The boot manager will then use these boot disks

The menu command Configuration / Extended settings... allows setting of non-standard options. This comprises all

options which one never or seldom modifies during normal operations. All options are stored in the INI file

bootus.ini in the installation directory of Boot-US. The INI file is read on every start and each time the options are

The following warnings are affected:

On the other hand the units KiB, MiB, GiB and TiB are specified as powers of 1024, for example 1 GiB = 1024

On this page you can specify which convention for aligning the partition is expected by Boot-US.

This allows you to set the alignment on 1 MiB boundaries. If this option is not selected then the old alignment on

cylinder boundaries is used.

The actual alignment of already existing partitions remains unchanged by this choice. The selected alignment will be

Starting with Windows Vista and Windows 7 a new convention for aligning partitions was established, namely

aligning partitions on 1 MiB boundaries. Especially for SSD drives the new alignment allows faster access to sectors

within partitions. If partitions were aligned according to the old cylinder boundaries on SSD drives the sectors reside

on "odd" addresses and such positions cannot be accessed with the highest speed. For traditional magnetic drives

Windows.

Comment:

The boot disk numbers displayed by Boot-US begin with the number 1 as before.

The menu command UEFI / Info... opens a dialog showing all UEFI boot variables. Additionally the description of

individual boot options and their order can be changed. Also the value of BootNext can be set. This command is

available only when Windows was booted by UEFI.

The menu command UEFI / Save variables... opens a dialog for saving the most important UEFI boot variables. This

command is available only when Windows was booted by UEFI.

The menu command UEFI / Restore variables... opens a dialog for restoring UEFI boot variables. This command is

available only when Windows was booted by UEFI.

selection.

The menu command Window / Refresh rebuilds the complete partition list and refreshes the display. In general this is

done automatically when necessary. A manual refresh of the display is normally not required.

The menu command Help / Contents... opens the online help.

Comment:

The command-line program (fig. 15) --- program name bootusc.exe --- is used to configure, install and remove the

boot manager Boot-US. Additionally the command-line program allows you to hide and activate partitions and it

the same set of operations as the GUI version.

The command-line program bootusc.exe contains a short online help for all supported commands. This help is

invoked by

bootusc help <cmd>

When a command <cmd> has different variants <subcmd> you get the online help by using

The following commands can be applied to single or groups of sectors:

The command for saving the complete track 0 of boot disk 1 to a file is:

bootusc save track0 [file=<filename>]

Examples:

bootusc save track0

bootusc save track0 file=c:\temp\track0.bin

Otherwise the track 0 is saved to the specified file <filename>.

Comment:

The above command is identical to the corresponding command of the GUI version. The created file containing the

bootusc save sector {chs=c/h/s | lba=x} [num=n] [drive=d] file=<filename>

c/h/s = cylinder / head / sector number

It is necessary to specify the sector(s) to be saved in the CHS or LBA format. Additionally the file name must be

specified where the sector data are to be stored.

By default the command for saving sectors refers only to a single sector on the first disk. If required the command can

be extended to multiple sectors by the option num. Additionally the option drive allows to access sectors on other

position information. In addition to using Boot-US to restore the file to disk any disk editor can be used as well.

bootusc save partsec file=<filename>

Example:

bootusc save partsec file=c:\temp\backup.sec

It is necessary to specify the file name where the sector data are to be stored. This target file contains the binary sector

data together with disk positition information for each data block. Due to the additional sector data only Boot-US can

be used for restoring the file to disk.

partition and boot sectors can be restored both by the command-line version and the GUI version of Boot-US.

The following command restores the complete track 0 of the boot disk 1 from a file:

bootusc restore track0 [file=<filename>]

Examples:

The above command is identical to the corresponding command of the GUI version. The file containing the track 0

bootusc restore sector {chs=c/h/s | lba=x} [num=n] [drive=d] file=<filename>

c/h/s = cylinder / head / sector number

x = LBA number

n = total number of sectors (1..127)

d = disk d (0|1..127) or diskette (A|B)

Examples:

bootusc restore sector LBA=0 num=1 drive=A file=c:\temp\mbr.bin

bootusc restore sector CHS=0/0/1 drive=2 file=c:\temp\mbr.bin

It is necessary to specify the sector(s) to be restored in the CHS or LBA format. Additionally the file name must be

specified where the sector data are to be read from.

The file where the binary sector data are stored contains only the plain sector data. This file does not contain any

position information. Additionally to using Boot-US for restoring the file to disk any disk editor can be used as well.

It is necessary to specify the file name where the sector data are to be read from. This file contains the binary sector

Comment:

The above command is identical to the corresponding command of the GUI version. The file containing the partition

The following commands can be applied to whole partitions:

The command for hiding a partition is:

bootusc partition hide {label=<label> | partnr=n | lba=x}

[true] [drive=d] [batch]

d = disk d (0|1..127)

n = partition number (see report)

x = LBA number of partition (see report)

Examples:

bootusc partition hide drive=1 label=WIN_10 batch

bootusc partition hide drive=1 label="WIN 10"

The specified partition on the disk d will be hidden. When true is specified the partition will be true hid. The partition

to be hidden must be identified either by the volume label <label>, the partition number or the LBA number x of the

Examples:

bootusc partition unhide

bootusc partition unhide drive=2

all partitions.

bootusc partition activate {label=<label> | partnr=n | lba=x}

[drive=d] [batch]

The specified primary partition on the disk d is activated. Only primary partitions can be activated. Partitions must be

activated individually, i.e. the respective partition must be specified either by the volume label <label>, the partition

The following commands are available for the administration of the boot manager:

bootusc bootmanager install [file=<filename>] [batch]

Examples:

The configuration parameters of the boot manager are read from a separate configuration file specified by the

parameter file. The default configuration file is called bmgrus.ini residing in the same directory as the

94 5 Command-line version

Set CapsLock to on or off in the boot manager.

changed.

Use RTC clock in BIOS boot manager? Default is

NO (use BIOS timer with 18 ticks per sec.). This

option fixes problems with the BIOS timer in some

motherboards.

Display hide state in the boot manager? Default is

NO (show hide state). When YES is specified no

hide state is displayed.

5 Command-line version 95

Admin password of configuration program

Boot-US (encrypted or plain text). The specified

password is stored in the boot manager. It protects

Accepted only in licensed version. Default is

empty string.

Admin password of boot manager (encrypted or

plain text). The specified password protects the

configuration menu of the boot manager (F10 key).

Accepted only in licensed version. Default is

empty string.

PRI_TRUE |

PRILOG_TRUE |

Specifies the method for hiding partitions. Starting

with version 1.7.0 it is possible to specify an

PRI or PRI_TRUE will hide primary partitions

unchanged. PRILOG and PRILOG_TRUE will

hide primary and logical partitions automatically.

Remark: The previous values AUTO (same as PRI)

and AUTO_TRUE (same as PRI_TRUE) are still

recognized.

RESERVED_LBA <nn>

BIOS mode: LBA sector in track 0 used by

Are the disk numbers 0- or 1-based? Default is NO

(disk numbers start with 1).

5.7.1.3 Keywords in section [GRAPHIC]

GIF_Filename <name>

BMP_Filename <name>

96 5 Command-line version

5.7.1.4 Keywords in section [ENTRY_<nn>]

Keyword Values Explanation

DESCRIPTION <descr> Specifies the partition description (33 or 48 ch.). Default is empty string.

BootOption <nnnn> UEFI mode: Specifies the boot option number (4 hex digits).

PASSWORD <xxx>

Password for partition (encrypted or plain text). Accepted only in licensed version.

Default is empty string.

PARTNR <nn> BIOS mode: Identifies the partition by the partition number (see report).

POSITION

<nn> MB

| GB

BIOS mode: Identifies the partition by its disk position. The specified position must lie

somewhere inside the partition.

PTABLE <nn>

BIOS mode: Identifies the partition by its partition table entry (0...3). Usage if the

keyword PTABLE is not recommended.

Note:

BIOS mode: Exactly one of the keywords LABEL, PARTNR, LBA, POSITION or PTABLE must be specified to

Example:

To hide three partitions selectively you would specify the prefixes HIDEPART_1_, HIDEPART_2_ and

HIDEPART_3_.

HIDEPART_<n>_DRIVE <xxx> Drive where the partition to hide resides.

HIDEPART_<n>_PARTNR <nn> Identifies the partition to hide by the partition number (see report).

HIDEPART_<n>_LBA <nn> Identifies the partition to hide by its LBA start sector (0...N).

HIDEPART_<n>_POSITION <nn> MB | GB Identifies the partition to hide by its disk position.

The command to set a new disk signature in the MBR of a certain disk is:

A report about all partitions on all disks can be displayed by the following command:

The following command allows you to look up the encrypted form of a password:

The following command allows you to reboot the PC:

When batch is specified the user is not prompted for confirmation.

The command-line program bootusc.exe returns the following exit codes:

The following problems affect mostly booting by BIOS. When booting by UEFI many of these problems do not

exists. Disk managers:

This case affects only booting by BIOS. When disk managers are installed on the first hard disk e.g., the OnTrack or

In such cases you should be careful when you install the boot manager Boot-US. The boot process differs from the

one for which Boot-US has been designed.

Whne booting by BIOS and the disk number of the boot partition is changed, for example if a new disk is inserted or

removed, it is necessary to take this change into account during the boot process. The boot manager Boot-US does

contain special support for changing the disk order during the boot process, see a "second" hard disk, nevertheless

problems are conceivable in special cases.

Please pay attention to the following recommendations. They will help you to avoid problems when setting up a

multi-boot system. If you face a problem please try to find the cause of the problem and then take the appropriate

measures. Even if at first glance the whole system seems to be corrupt usually only a small part of the data are

Save partition and boot sectors

the boot manager Boot-US to a primary partition.

Installation in MBR

You should install the boot manager of Boot-US to the MBR only if this is necessary i.e. when you need the boot

manager partition for other purposes. The advantage of the installation in the MBR is that no additional partition is

occupied. The disadvantage is that for repairing problems more effort is required.

The boot manager Boot-US can be uninstalled by any of the following three methods:

Sometimes it might be necessary to uninstall a boot manager by standard tools, especially when the accompanying

Boot manager in MBR

This type of installation can also be removed with standard tools. Again a DOS boot diskette with the standard FDISK

program is needed. By the command fdisk /mbr a standard boot loader code is written to the MBR. The purpose of

Does Boot-US work under a 64 bit Windows?

The answer is yes. The configuration program Boot-US exists as a WIN32 and a WIN64 version. Boot-US does not

work under the very old 16 bit Windows like Windows 3.x.

(unchanged!) into the installation directory of Boot-US. The file name must be bootus.lic. When Boot-US finds a

The boot manager Boot-US allows you to boot and use multiple operating systems independently of each other. This

requires, however, that the operating systems have been installed independently and completely each into a separate

partition. When a new operating system is installed (see chapter Tips / section Windows) this is automatically the

Test:

You must check whether an operating system installed in a primary partition can be booted independently from the

remaining operating systems respective partitions (without using an external boot manager). For this check please

Recommendation: All partitions to be booted by the boot manager Boot-US should be checked whether they pass the

above test. Partitions with operating systems which pass this test are installed completely and independently. They can

Select "FAT32" as the file system and "EFI System part." as the partition type. Format the partition and assign

it the volume name "BMGRUS", for example.

When you subsequently install the boot manager Boot-US, you can select this partition as the target ESP

partition.

Comment: The ESP partition containing the boot manager Boot-US must always be visible. Only then can the UEFI

firmware start the boot manager Boot-US when the computer is started.

Overview:

DOS, Windows 95/98/ME/NT/2000/XP/2003/Vista/2008/7/8/10 can be installed multiple times without any problems

onto different primary partitions on the first hard disk. In principle you have the choice between two setup strategies:

Windows 10 is to be installed twice in two separate primary partitions on the first hard disk. Both partitions should be

By the same procedure other combinations of DOS, Windows 95/98/ME/NT/2000/XP/2003/Vista/2008/7/8/10 can be

installed multiple times on the first disk.

Comment:

If Windows 2000 or higher is involved you must true hide all partitions, see Windows tip 5. If only DOS or Windows

95/98/ME or NT is involved then simple hiding of partitions is sufficient.

Microsoft installation:

The Microsoft method for installing multiple Windows systems on one disk works as follows:

boot option with the label "Windows Boot Manager" will be created in the UEFI NVRAM.

When you boot one of the two Windows systems the corresponding Windows partition and the associated

ESP partition will be made visible by the boot manager. The other Windows partition and ESP partition will

be true hid. Only the ESP partitions containing the boot mananger Boot-US must always be visible.

Comment:

The important step of this procedure is to change the partition type of the hidden ESP partition. Only then Windows

will ignore the hidden ESP partition when performing a second installation. This requires Boot-US 4.1.0 (or higher).

Remark 1: Please make sure that you know the installation limits of all involved operating systems.

Remark 2: The disk parameters "number of heads" and "sectors per track" must not change between

installation of an operating system and the later usage. The simplest solution is to configure in the BIOS all

If Windows 2000/XP/2003/Vista/2008/7/8/10 is involved you must true hide all partitions, see Windows tip 5.

To install Windows 10/11 multiple times on different disks the following procedure should be employed:

\efi\microsoft\boot\bootmgfw.efi. The actual Windows files lie in a separate partition. Windows (on disk 1 or

Fast Startup:

The fast startup was introduced with Windows 8. It exists therefore also in Windows 10. The fast startup is enabled by

default. When Windows is shut down and the fast startup is enabled, the current state (Windows kernel, loaded

Linux:

Linux can be installed on a primary or logical partition on any hard disk. Usually GRUB is additionally installed in the

MBR of the respective disk. Starting Linux is done by loading GRUB first, which in turn then starts Linux.

Linux uses the following drive and partition names:

Example:

grub-install /dev/sda2

If you erroneously specify the target sda then GRUB would be installed to the MBR of the sda drive.

Boot-US considers a Linux partition as non-bootable when the Linux partition does not have a valid boot sector.

Such a partition is indicated as non-bootable by Boot-US. Boot-US requires a valid boot sector to boot that partition

directly.

Remark: The fast backup of partitions and disks can protect against malicous programs. However, it is then necessary

feature can speed up the backup enormously.

Example:

The following hardware is used:

An Ext4 partition of size 155 GB will be saved to a file. The file resides on disk 2 on a NTFS partition. This allows a

simultanouos access to both disks. The Ext4 partition is 8 percent full. In the backup only the occupied sectors are

taken into account, the data is saved compressed. The following screenshot shows the throughput just before close

before the end of the backup.

5. Partition / partition sector / boot sector

8. Primary / extended / logical partition

14. LBA and CHS format, LBA mapping

19. 4Kn disk

The BIOS on x86 computers provides functions necessary for booting the machine. The BIOS functions are stored in

a chip, hence they are available immediately after switching on the machine.

The UEFI firmware is the successor of the BIOS. Similar to the BIOS the UEFI firmware is stored in a chip and

therefore the UEFI firmware is available immediately after switching on the computer. UEFI is used since around

2010. Since around 2020 booting by UEFI has largely replaced booting by BIOS. Contrary to BIOS there exist

BootOrder

This variable contains the order of the boot options. The UEFI firmware first tries to boot the first entry (Boot0017). If

that fails it tries the second entry (Boot0013). These tries are continued until a working boot option is met.

Boot####

The individual boot options are stored as UEFI variables with the names Boot####. Here #### is a four digit hex

The UEFI specification defines a so called "fallback boot mode" which allows booting an efi file from disks or

removable disks (e.g. USB sticks) without a corresponding boot variable existing in NVRAM.

\bootx64.efi

The purpose of a boot manager is to allow a user to boot different operating systems from the same PC (one at a time).

Many operating systems contain an integrated boot manager, for example "BCD" (boot configuration database) on

Windows or "GRUB" for Linux. The main disadvantage of these built-in boot managers is that they can be used only

Partition:

A partition is a set of adjoined sectors on a disk. Any sector of the disk belongs either to no partition or it belongs to a

specific partition, but it must not belong to more than one partition at the same time. In other words, partitions must

Partition table and partition sectors:

on the operating system. A certain boot sector can therefore be used only for booting a particular operating system but

not for booting any other operating systems.

When booting by UEFI the boot sector code is not used.

MBR partition sector describe MBR partitions, i.e. they contains the information about the position, size and type of

the MBR partitions.

------------------------------------------------------

MBR partition entry (length 16 bytes)

------------------------------------------------------

Off. Bytes Meaning

06h 1 end of partition (sector number) [*]

07h 1 end of partition (cylinder number) [*]

08h 4 rel. sectors (# sec. to begin of partition)

0Ch 4 number of sectors in partition

-----------------------------------------------------

[*] Remark:

The byte for the sector number (offset 2 respectively 6) contains

the CHS sector number in the bits 0-5.

Hence in the CHS format the sector number occupies 6 bits.

The remaining two bits 6+7 belong to the CHS cylinder number,

Obviously that there are two ways to specify the position of a partition. Namely the CHS format and the LBA format.

In the CHS format the position of a partition is specified by cylinder/head/sector numbers specifying begin and end of

the partition (24 bit each). In the LBA format the position of a partition is specified by specifying the relative sector

(begin of partition) and total number of sectors (32 bit each).

For disks up to a size of 8 GB the 24 bit of the CHS format are sufficient to specify all partitions.

For larger disks these 24 bits are not any more sufficient. The 32 bit of the LBA format allows addressing of all disk

sectors up to a maximum disk size of 2048 GB (2 TB).