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Multiple-Boot Bios

 Have a Bios capable of booting with several different settings
 
(+1, -1) 		  [vote for,
against]

When you boot up a PC it goes through the POST then usually on to the operating system. If you hold down Del, F2 or whatever your motherboard specifies, it lets you into the setup where you can mess with settings.

My Idea would be that you can hold down a certain key during boot that would boot the computer with certain characteristics. For example, you set the key "F1" in the BIOS to be your Super high-performance, all fans at maximum CPU at maximum, memory at max,everything.

Then perhaps you set up "F2" in the BIOS with a clocked down processor but full memory speed, the processor is producing less heat so you turn the fans down etc. This would be your word processing and web browsing button.

As a 3rd option, you set up "F3" as a ultra-quiet, low-power setting, for example you wanted to leave your PC downloading, this would underclock your RAM, Processor, turn everything way down.

You should then have an option in thenBIOS to select which of these is default, for the others you simply hold down a key while it is booting. "I want to play a game"=switch on, hold down F1.

—bs0u0155, Sep 14 2006

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       I'm not much of a hardware afficionado, but can't you do this fairly easily by creating four partitions on your drive, three for OS's with the relevant customised hardware settings/software and one for data? You can then boot to whichever one you require. Are you suggesting that this can all be done on one partition? In that case you'll need an OS that can deal with multiple hardware profiles, or is all that stuff dealt with by the BIOS? I'm sure someone clever will turn up in a minute and explain that RedHat does all of this and more.
—wagster, Sep 14 2006
   

       it's ideas like these that make me love my Macintosh so much... come to bed sweetheart - let me show you my hard drive.
—xenzag, Sep 14 2006
   

       I see no practical application. All these things can be changed without restarting my box.
—ironfroggy, Sep 15 2006
   

       These are all controllable in software, why go all the way back to bios?
—Galbinus_Caeli, Sep 15 2006
   

       WHY?   

       Baked also in a limited fasion. Most modern BIOSes have a "failsafe" mode.
—webfishrune, Sep 15 2006
   


 

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