Boot from firewire drive

[Guest]

Has anyone happened upon a motherboard that supports a boot from firewire option?
I have a couple of contracting jobs at a time, the environments are so different that I would like to just load it all on seperate firewire attached harddrives and boot to the one I need.
Any help would be greatly appreciated.

B.

 

[Crashman]

Wouldn't that rely on the firewire card having boot BIOS?

What's the frequency, Kenneth?

 

[Guest]

From what I have come across so far it seems like the MB bios must support firewire directly. Below is an bit from Microsoft's site... (http://www.microsoft.com/windows2000/techenthusiast/features/ieee1394.asp)
"You can use IEEE 1394 hard disks for the Windows 2000 system and boot partitions, as well as normal storage. To use these drives for the system or boot partition, the computer's BIOS must have IEEE 1394 boot support."

So I suppose I am looking for motherboards with IEEE 1394 boot support.

 

[Crashman]

The argument I can make here is that firmware on a 1394 card could report itself as a mass storage controller, allowing standard boards to boot from it. I think MS's response assumes that your controller is BUILT IN to your motherboard.

What's the frequency, Kenneth?

 

[Guest]

Argh. Well after another day of searching high and low the only additional information I could really find was this knowledge base article from adaptec (last updated 7/18/01):

Because of the lack of firmware (or BIOS) on the FireConnect AFW-4300, you cannot make this card the primary controller and you cannot make a hard drive or CD-ROM attached to this controller bootable.

Unfortunately the controller does not have a BIOS option and thus, cannot be upgraded to support bootable devices.

Adaptec does not carry and currently does not have any information of any another company that has a 1394 controller that will support this capability. If you are looking for a boot-capable 1394 FireWire controller, then you may want to contact your local vendor to see if one might be available

 

[Crashman]

Yes, I knew this all along, MS assumes that you'd be using an onboard 1394 controller, and does not take firmware on an add-on card into account in their answer. They provide an answer that can only be construed as right in the minority of circustances, so that they can provide a simple answer as opposed to an accurate one.

What's the frequency, Kenneth?