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Choosing the BootIt BM Installation Partition Manually

This article explains how to choose the BootIt BM installation partition manually. For general instructions on how to install BootIt BM, please refer to the BootIt BM manual.

When installing BootIt BM for the first time, upgrading from BootIt NG, or upgrading an earlier version of BootIt BM, when asked how you want the partition chosen, if you click No and decide not to have Setup choose the partition for you, then you must manually complete this procedure to prepare and choose the partition:

  1. Read the displayed message indicating that you must ensure that an Extended Master Boot Record (EMBR) exists on hard drive 0 (HD0) and on the drive chosen for installation, and then click OK.

  2. In the Work with Partitions dialog box that appears, in the lower-right corner, you'll see the Setup button which only appears in this dialog box when accessed during installation.

  3. Ensure that the booting drive (usually HD0) is an EMBR type disk: Select the booting drive using the Drives drop-down box (if not already selected). If EMBR Partitions is displayed just above the partitions box, an EMBR exists on the drive. Otherwise, click the Change Disk Type button, then click the EMBR button, and finally click the Yes button to confirm the conversion. 

  4. If the partition that you want to create or use is not on the booting drive, ensure that the desired drive has an EMBR: Select the desired drive using the Drives drop-down box. If EMBR Partitions is displayed just above the partitions box, an EMBR exists on the drive. Otherwise, click the Change Disk Type button, then click the EMBR button, and finally click the Yes button to confirm the conversion.

    Note: Both the booting drive and the drive chosen for installation must have an EMBR.

  5. With the appropriate hard drive selected, click the desired FAT, FAT32, or BootIt EMBRM (Extended Master Boot Record Manager) primary partition for installation. If one doesn't exist, you can create and format it at this time. Ensure the desired partition is highlighted before continuing with the next step.

    • The installation partition cannot be a volume within an extended partition.

    • If you would like to create the small amount of free space necessary to install BootIt BM on its own partition, please refer to the article Creating Free Space for BootIt BM Installation.

  6. Click Setup to continue. Setup will notify you something still needs to be configured.

    If the selected partition is not on HD0 you will be asked if you would like setup to assume the selected drive is the boot drive. Selecting Yes will continue and configure the selected drive to boot into BootIt BM (this can be helpful in cases where HD0 is seen incorrectly as the booting drive or you wish to install BootIt BM independently on a non-booting drive). Selecting No will configure HD0 to boot into BootIt BM.

    If the Setup button is grayed out and unavailable, then it either means that the booting drive does not have an EMBR, the current drive does not have an EMBR, or the partition that you highlighted is not a FAT, FAT32, or BootIt EMBRM type.

  7. When Setup indicates that it has all of the needed information, click OK to begin copying files to your hard drive, and then refer to the Complete the Installation section below.

Complete the Installation

  1. If you installed BootIt BM from a floppy disk, use your operating system's disk copy feature to create a backup copy of the startup disk, and keep it in a safe place. You will need the startup disk to recover from any problems or situations that may arise in the future. If you ever update your startup disk or use a new one, be sure to update your backup disk as well.

  2. Consider changing the BIOS Boot Order to boot from drive C: first if your BIOS can change the boot sequence to C:/A: (hard drive, floppy). If you have a CD or DVD drive, consider setting up the sequence to be C:/CDROM/A: (hard drive, CD/DVD-ROM, floppy) so that you can use the Next BIOS Device option in BootIt BM.

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