How do I determine the ARC path for a particular drive letter in Windows?

Question

I'm trying to edit my BOOT.INI file but I'm unsure what ARC path I need to use to reference a particular drive letter. There is a kb article that almost seems like it tells you how to do this but instead is useless at http://support.microsoft.com/kb/155222

Answer 1

I am researching this for you. In the mean time, I found the following reference.

multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)        = "Primary Channel, C:"
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(0)        = "Primary Channel, System Partition"
multi(0)disk(0)cdrom(%u)                   = "CD-ROM, Variable"
ramdisk(0)                                 = "RamDisk"
net(0)                                     = "Network"
multi(0)disk(0)fdisk(0)                    = "Diskette A:"
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(0)        = "Secondary Channel, Partition 0"
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(%d)       = "Secondary Channel, Variable Partition"
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(1)        = "Secondary Channel, Partition 0"
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(%d)       = "Primary Channel, Variable Partition"
multi(0)disk(0)fdisk(1)partition(0)        = "Diskette B:, Partition 0"
multi(0)disk(0)fdisk(0)partition(0)        = "Diskette A:, Partition 0"
multi(0)video(0)monitor(0)                 = "ConsoleOut, Monitor"
multi(0)key(0)keyboard(0)                  = "ConsoleIn, Keyboard"
multi(0)disk(0)fdisk(1)                    = "Diskette B:"
eisa(0)disk(0)fdisk(0)                     = "EISA Diskette A:"
eisa(0)disk(0)fdisk(1)partition(0)         = "EISA Diskette B:, Partition 0"
eisa(0)disk(0)fdisk(0)partition(0)         = "EISA Diskette A:, Partition 0"

Will list the related links I find below:

• Admin XP
• Windows XP ARC naming conventions
• ARC boot path question SATA vs IDE boot order -- interesting reading on a Microsoft group.

Answer 2

This page explains all about ARC paths, the info is old, but appears to still be relevent. This may guide you in the right direction.

Answer 3

There is no need to read long manuals, postings and guides anymore. Download ArcPaths utility and run, it will show you exactly the ARC paths for your partitions/drives.