As promised last week, today we shall look at some of the lower cost boot managers you reported to me in the past few weeks. If yours is left out, it is probably due to the limitations of time and space: I couldn't review and list all of them. I also left out one or two because the author didn't even seem to recognize the existence of OS/2.

Generally, this crop of boot managers were without a lot of fancy bells and whistles, but contained a surprising amount of power packed in a small size. The table below contains a summary of my testing and research. I have also added some notes to provide additional information or clarification where needed.

Finally, an alert reader, Ralph Alvy, pointed out an important omission I made in a previous article regarding BootMagic. I made the statement that "BootMagic was completely dependent on Windows [9x] for support." Mr. Alvy pointed out that the CD containing Partition Magic 5.x also contains a DOS version in the directory "\english\btmagic\dos". That version can be installed by switching to that directory and running the program INSTALL.EXE. The DOS version is essentially a text version of the Windows one, but the behaviour is the same. Thank you, Mr. Alvy for that information.

Boot Manager Comparison

Product Information
Product Name	BootStar	Power Boot	DocsBoot+	BootIt Direct
Manufacturer	Star-Tools	BlueSky Innovations	Docsware	Terabyte Unlimited
Price (in U.S. Dollars)	20.00	25.00	15.00	14.95
Distribution Method	Shareware	Commercial	Shareware	Shareware
OS/2 Specific Features
OS/2 Boot Drive Letter	N	Y	N	N
Features for or sensitivity to HPFS partitions	N	Y	N	N
Requires IBM Boot Manager for some functions.	N	N	N	N
Compatible with IBM Boot Manager.	N	Y	Y	Y
Logical partitions individually identified	N	Y	Y	Y
OS/2 can be installed to and booted from logical partitions	N	Y	Y	Y
OS/2 can be installed to and booted from primary partition	Y	Y	Y	Y
Partitioning Features
Boot Profiles	Y	Y	N	N
Partitioning capability	N	N	N	With utility
Setup can be changed without booting an OS.	Y	Y	N	Y
Restricts use of other partitioners? (e.g. Partition Magic)	Y	N	N	N
Maximum # of partitions	15	63	N.A.	N.A.
Partitions can be hidden/unhidden from program menu	N	Y	N	Y
Security
Password for booting an OS.	N	Y	N	N
Password for changing Setup	N	Y	N	N
Virus/integrity check on boot up	N	Y	Y	N

NOTES:

1. "Shareware" is used in the strict sense of "try before you buy". If a useful, working version of the product could be downloaded before making payment or registration, then I deemed the product to be shareware.

2. None of the products in the table requires a partition in which to install or run, in contrast to the IBM Boot Manager and System Commander Deluxe (its MultiFat partition).

3. Neither a "Y" nor a "N" is necessarily good or bad. It depends on the feature and on you. For example "OS/2 Boot Drive Letter support" for me is a sine qua non, but with "Partitioning capability" I like an "N", since I prefer to partition my disk with a separate program. Your tastes, however, may be different. So when comparing products, please use the table intelligently and think about your own preferences.

4. Boot-Star is different from the others in that the Master Boot Record is copied into another area of the disk. Normally, the MBR is then filled with values that are unrecognizable by programs like Partition Magic, but this can be overridden if desired.

5. BootIt Direct is a member of a family containing two other products, BootIt Lite, and BootIt, both of which are beyond the price range of products I was considering for this article, but which also have a number of additional features.

6. BlueSky Innovations made available a copy of Power Boot v3.50 Beta 2 for review purposes. I have taken due care not to let this affect my evaluation.

1. Boot Profile;

2. Hiding/Unhiding partitions directly from main menu;

3. Numbering of logical drives.

   These are features I perform or need on a regular basis and which are available from PowerBoot with a simple keystroke sequence. Since they are not availaible in System Commander Deluxe, accomplishing them often involves complex menu manipulation, and even invoking additional programs!

—Walter Metcalf

For Further Reading:

Somebody's Gotta Go
"Today's managers are a bunch of whimps who are so afraid of losing employees that they let kids run all over them."

POWER BOOT 2.1
Note that Power Boot 3.x has been improved greatly and many features have been added since the review of this version.