BootIt BM is Installed, but the System Boots Directly into an Operating System
- If you enabled IT mode in BootIt BM's options, then you should hold down the Insert key (or the right Ctrl key) as your system boots up.
- If you had previously been using BootIt BM and have just installed a new operating system, then you may just need to reactivate BootIt BM. See the Installation & Recovery Boot Menu section of the manual.
- The BIOS boot order may have been changed. This can happen on some systems as they reconfigure the order depending on the drives/devices connected. Check the BIOS settings and verify the correct drive is set as the default booting drive.
- If this is a new installation, the problem may have to do with your BIOS mapping of hard drives and/or the boot order.
If you have an ATA66 or SATA drive enabled along with standard EIDE drives, and you have the boot sequence to boot the ATA66 or SATA drive first, then your BIOS may have a problem which can change the hard drive order depending on what device is booted. For example, let's say your BIOS boot sequence is as follows:
- Floppy Diskette
- ATA66 or SATA Drive
- EIDE Drive
When you boot from the ATA66 or SATA drive, it becomes HD0 and the EIDE drive becomes HD1. Should you boot from the diskette drive, then the ATA66 or SATA drive becomes HD1 and the EIDE drive becomes HD0. What happens when you try to install BootIt BM (or an operating system) is that it sees the EIDE drive as HD0 and installs the required files to that drive, but when you reboot the computer, the ATA66 or SATA drive is booted instead.
If you have this problem, first check for a BIOS update from your motherboard manufacturer or OEM. Failing that, you can do one of the following:
- Setup the boot sequence so that the EIDE drive is booted before the ATA66 or SATA drive.
- Make all drives use ATA66.
- Make all drives standard EIDE.
- Make all drives SATA.
- Disable the idle EIDE drive in the BIOS during installation or updates and re-enable it afterward.