JP5085493B2 - Information processing apparatus and boot control method thereof - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to an information processing apparatus, and more particularly to a boot control method using a removable medium.

  In general, in a portable information processing apparatus such as a notebook personal computer (PC), the computer is managed by software called an operating system that provides basic functions commonly required for each application. Usually, after the computer is turned on, the operating system stored in the hard disk or the like is read into the memory, so that the user can operate.

  The operating system read at this time can be selected by a user's key operation after turning on the computer, or by setting in advance. For example, the user selects the operating system stored on the device by key operation, or selects which operating system to start from the multiple operating systems stored on the same device. It is also possible to do.

Patent Document 1 discloses a data processing that can automatically execute power-on of a device and system startup by an operating system simply by inserting a floppy disk ("floppy" registered trademark) in which the operating system is recorded into the device. An apparatus is disclosed.
JP-A-4-165525

  In recent years, with the increase in flash memory capacity, USB memory, SD cards, and the like have become widespread instead of floppy disks, and some of them have a capacity comparable to that of hard disks. For this reason, there have been increased opportunities to store an operating system in a removable medium represented by a USB memory or an SD card, carry around the user's own computer environment, and start and use it from the removable medium. Therefore, in addition to a device such as a hard disk built in the computer in advance, a mechanism that can use a function for booting from an arbitrary removable medium with a simple operation is desired.

  On the other hand, the above-described method is intended to be able to automatically boot by detecting that a floppy disk is inserted, and the boot priority between a plurality of devices is not considered.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION An object of the present invention is to provide an information processing apparatus and a boot control method thereof that allow a user to easily start an operating system from an external device without being aware of the boot priority.

The information processing apparatus according to the present invention in order to achieve the above object, an information processing apparatus having a first storage device in which the first operating system is stored, a second storing a second operating system Means for performing a power-on process of the information processing apparatus connected to the storage device , reading the second operating system and performing a boot process, and the second storage device in which the second operating system is stored. Means for setting a boot priority higher than that of the first storage device.

  ADVANTAGE OF THE INVENTION According to this invention, the information processing apparatus which can start an operating system more easily from an external device without being aware of boot priority can be provided.

  Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. In this embodiment, a notebook computer will be described as an example of the information processing apparatus. FIG. 1 is an external perspective view showing a computer according to an embodiment of the present invention. The computer 1 includes a main body housing 2, and a display housing 3 is rotatably attached to the main body housing 2 via a hinge portion 4. The display housing 3 can be rotated between an open position where the upper surface 2 a of the main body housing 2 is opened and a closed position where the upper surface 2 a of the housing 2 is covered. A display device including an LCD (Liquid Crystal Display) 3 a is incorporated in the display housing 3.

  A circuit board (not shown) on which a plurality of electronic components are mounted is accommodated in the main body housing 2. A touch pad 5 and a keyboard 6 for performing an input operation by a user are attached to the upper surface 2 a of the main body housing 2. A power switch 7 for turning on / off the computer 1 is also provided on the upper surface 2 a of the main body housing 2. The side surface 2b of the main body housing 2 is provided with a USB connector 8 for connecting a USB device and an SD card slot 9 into which an SD card is inserted.

  FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing the configuration of the computer according to the embodiment of the present invention. The computer 1 includes a CPU 10, a north bridge 11, a main memory (RAM) 12, a graphics controller 13, a south bridge 14, a hard disk drive (HDD) 15, an optical disk drive (ODD) 16, a BIOS-ROM 17, an embedded controller / keyboard controller. An IC (EC / KBC) 20, an LCD 3a, a touch pad 5, a keyboard 6, a power switch 7, and the like are provided.

  The CPU 10 is a processor that controls the operation of each component of the computer 1. The CPU 10 executes an operating system and various application programs / utility programs loaded from the HDD 16 to the main memory (RAM) 12. The main memory (RAM) 12 is also used for storing various data buffers.

  The CPU 10 also executes a basic input / output system (BIOS) stored in the BIOS-ROM 17. The BIOS is a program for hardware control. The BIOS includes a group of BIOS drivers, and each BIOS driver includes a plurality of function execution routine groups corresponding to these functions in order to provide a plurality of functions for hardware control to the operating system and application programs. It is out.

  The north bridge 11 is a bridge device that connects the local bus of the CPU 10 and the south bridge 14. The north bridge 11 also has a function of executing communication with the graphics controller 13 via a PCI Express bus or the like. Further, the north bridge 11 also includes a memory controller that controls the main memory (RAM) 12.

  The graphics controller 13 is a display controller that controls the LCD 3 a used as a display monitor of the computer 10. The graphics controller 13 sends a video signal corresponding to display data written in the video memory (VRAM) 131 by the OS or an application program to the LCD 3a.

  The south bridge 14 is connected to a PCI (Peripheral Component Interconnect) bus and an LPC (Low Pin Count) bus, respectively, and controls PCI devices, LPC devices, and the like. An HDD (Hard Disc Drive) 15 stores an OS, various application programs / utility programs, and data files. An ODD (Optical Disc Drive) 16 reproduces data read from the optical disc and writes data to the optical disc.

  The south bridge 14 also includes a controller for controlling the USB memory 18 connected to the USB connector 8 of the computer 1 and the SD card 19 connected to the SD card slot 9. In the present embodiment, the USB memory 18 and the SD card 19 are collectively referred to as a storage device, an external device, an external storage device, or the like.

  The computer 1 is provided with a CMOS memory 141. The CMOS memory 141 holds various setting information necessary for starting up the computer 1. Information such as a boot priority is stored in the nonvolatile memory 142 in the BIOS-ROM 17.

  The embedded controller / keyboard controller (EC / KBC) 20 is a one-chip microcomputer in which an embedded controller for power management and a keyboard controller for controlling the touch pad 6 and the keyboard 7 are integrated. The EC / KBC 20 performs a process of powering on / off the computer 1 in response to an operation of the power switch 7 by the user in cooperation with the power controller 21. The power supply controller 21 supplies power to each component in the computer 1 using power from the battery 22 built in the computer 1 or power supplied from the outside via the AC adapter 23.

  FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing an example of the boot priority control operation according to the embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 4 is a diagram schematically showing a change in boot priority according to the embodiment of the present invention.

  The computer 1 is turned on by the user pressing the power switch 7 or connecting an external storage device (step 1-1). Here, the USB memory 18 will be described as an example of the external storage device. When a function called USB wakeup is used, the computer 1 is turned on by the connection of the USB memory 18, and various processes necessary for activation including the POST process of the BIOS are performed. For example, when an external storage device such as the USB memory 18 is connected, the operation is notified that the external storage device is connected to the EC / KBC 20 through a hardware switch on the circuit board. This can be realized by the EC / KBC 20 executing the power-on process.

  When the power of the computer 1 is turned on, the BIOS is activated, and the boot priority stored in the nonvolatile memory 142 is read (step 1-2). After reading the boot priority, the BIOS reads the value of a register indicating whether or not the computer 1 has been started with the connection of the external storage device, so that whether the computer 1 is powered on by the connection of the USB memory 18 or not. It is determined whether or not (step 1-3). When the power is turned on by connecting the USB memory 18 (Yes in Step 1-3), the boot priority read from the nonvolatile memory 142 is changed by the BIOS, and the boot priority of the USB memory 18 is set to the first (Step 1). -4). The BIOS writes the changed boot priority in the nonvolatile memory 142 again.

  When the boot priority of the USB memory 18 is first, the BIOS searches the USB memory 18 to check whether the operating system is stored, and determines whether the computer 1 can be booted from the USB memory 18 ( Step 1-5). If booting from the USB memory 18 is possible (Yes in step 1-5), booting is performed by the USB memory 18 (step 1-6). If it is decided to perform the boot process by the USB memory 18, the boot priority is saved (step 1-7).

  At this time, as shown in FIG. 4A, the boot priority in the order of HDD, FDD, CD-ROM, and LAN is the state in which the USB memory is ranked first as shown in FIG. 4B. Will be saved. The storage of the boot priority is performed during the boot process or after the boot process.

  On the other hand, when an appropriate operating system is not stored in the USB memory 18 and the USB memory 18 cannot be booted (No in step 1-5), whether there is another device that can be booted is determined according to the boot priority. The device is examined in order (step 1-8). When a device that can be finally booted is found, the boot processing is performed by the device, and the boot priority of the device that has performed the boot processing is saved as the first place. (Step 1-7).

  In the case where the operating system is stored in both the USB memory 18 and the SD card 19 that are external storage devices, and both the USB memory 18 and the SD card 19 are connected to the computer 1. There are a plurality of external storage devices that can boot the computer 1. In such a case, the user may select which device of the USB memory 18 or the SD card 19 is used for boot processing.

  As described above, according to the embodiment of the present invention, the user can boot the computer without being aware of the boot priority only by connecting a removable medium such as a USB memory or an SD card. It becomes. By automatically setting the boot priority of the removable media used last time to 1st, even if you reboot or turn off the power once, you can remove the removable media without having to remove and reconnect it. The computer can be automatically booted from the removable media again while connected.

  In addition, when a removable medium is not connected, a device that can be booted from the remaining boot devices is stored as the first boot priority, so that the user can boot without setting the boot priority. .

  If there are a plurality of removable media that can be booted, it is naturally possible to select and boot from a plurality of removable media.

  As described above, according to an embodiment of the present invention, it is possible to provide an information processing apparatus that allows a user to more easily start an operating system from an external device without being aware of the boot priority.

  The present invention is not limited to the above embodiment as long as it does not depart from the gist of the present invention, and various modifications are possible.

1 is an external perspective view showing a computer according to an embodiment of the present invention. The block diagram which shows the structure of the computer which concerns on embodiment of this invention. 6 is a flowchart showing an example of a boot priority control operation according to the embodiment of the present invention. The figure which shows typically the change of the boot priority which concerns on embodiment of this invention.

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Computer, 2 ... Main body housing, 3 ... Display housing, 5 ... Touch pad, 6 ... Keyboard, 7 ... Power switch, 8 ... USB connector, 9 ... SD card slot, 10 ... CPU, 11 ... North bridge, DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 12 ... Main memory, 13 ... Graphics controller, 14 ... South bridge, 15 ... HDD, 16 ... ODD, 17 ... BIOS-ROM, 18 ... USB memory, 19 ... SD card, 20 ... EC / KBC, 21 ... Power supply controller, 22 ... Battery, 23 ... AC adapter

Claims (8)

An information processing apparatus having a first storage device in which a first operating system is stored,
It performs power-on processing of the information processing apparatus connected to a second storage device that stores a second operating system, means for performing a boot process reads the second operating system,
Means for setting a boot priority of the second storage device stored in the second operating system higher than that of the first storage device;
An information processing apparatus comprising: The information processing apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the boot priority of the second storage device connected to the information processing apparatus when the power-on process is performed is set to the highest priority.   The information processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the first storage device in which the first operating system is stored is a hard disk drive built in the main body. Means for storing the setting contents in which the boot priority of the second storage device is set higher than that of the first storage device;
The information processing apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising: A main body housing provided with a power switch for turning on the information processing apparatus and a connector for connecting an external device;
A first storage device that is housed in the main body housing and stores a first operating system that is activated when the power switch is pressed;
Along with the connection of the second storage device in which the second operating system is stored to the connector, the power-on process of the information processing apparatus is performed, the second operating system is read and the boot process is performed, Means for setting a boot priority of the second storage device stored in the second operating system higher than that of the first storage device;
An information processing apparatus comprising: 6. The information processing apparatus according to claim 5 , wherein the boot priority of the second storage device connected to the information processing apparatus when the power-on process is performed is set to the highest priority. A boot control method for an information processing apparatus having a first storage device in which a first operating system is stored,
Performing a power-on process of the information processing apparatus connected to a second storage device that stores a second operating system, reading the second operating system, and performing a boot process;
Setting a boot priority of the second storage device stored in the second operating system higher than that of the first storage device;
A boot control method for an information processing apparatus including: Storing the setting contents in which the boot priority of the second storage device is set higher than that of the first storage device;
The boot control method for an information processing apparatus according to claim 7, further comprising:

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