Boot.ini file

  • Thread starter Thread starter David Young
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David Young

On startup get a message that the boot.ini file is invalid
and that it is booting from C:WNNT. From the Control
Panel 'System' the boot.ini file cannot be opened. Any
advice on how to get a valid boot.ini file installed again.
 
David said:
On startup get a message that the boot.ini file is invalid
and that it is booting from C:WNNT. From the Control
Panel 'System' the boot.ini file cannot be opened. Any
advice on how to get a valid boot.ini file installed again.
Click to expand...

Just create with a texte editor a file looking like this one:

[boot loader]
timeout=3
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(3)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(3)\WINDOWS="WINDOWS XP" /fastdetect

Just replace the "3" in brackets both times after "partition " depending
on the configuration of your system. I suppose that if you have only one
boot partition (I have three), just replace 3 by 1 in both instances. If
you get an error message like NTLDR not found, adjust that number by
increments of 1 until you succeed.

If your windows directory is not \Windows but \Winnt for instance,
correct accordingly. The "windows XP" after the = sign is not important,
replace as wished.

Be sure to save the file in text format as boot.ini in the root directory.

Hope this helps.

Regards
 
Hi, John - and David.
Just replace the "3" in brackets both times after "partition " depending
on the configuration of your system. I suppose that if you have only one
boot partition (I have three), just replace 3 by 1 in both instances.
Click to expand...

In Boot.ini, hard drives are numbered starting with zero; partition numbers
start with one on each HD. So "rdisk(0)partition(3)" is the third partition
(includes both primary partitions and logical drives) on the first HD -
probably Drive E:, but maybe not.

Note that this points to the "boot volume" (where the "boot folder" \Windows
or \WinNT resides), NOT to the "system partition" (almost always Drive C:).

WinXP includes the bootcfg.exe utility (in \Windows\system32) which handles
this job automatically. I haven't tried using it in Win2K; if you can find
a copy, it might be worth a try because WinXP and Win2K use Boot.ini just
alike.

RC
--
R. C. White, CPA
San Marcos, TX
(e-mail address removed)
Microsoft Windows MVP

John Doue said:
David said:
On startup get a message that the boot.ini file is invalid
and that it is booting from C:WNNT. From the Control
Panel 'System' the boot.ini file cannot be opened. Any
advice on how to get a valid boot.ini file installed again.
Click to expand...

Just create with a texte editor a file looking like this one:

[boot loader]
timeout=3
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(3)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(3)\WINDOWS="WINDOWS XP" /fastdetect

Just replace the "3" in brackets both times after "partition " depending
on the configuration of your system. I suppose that if you have only one
boot partition (I have three), just replace 3 by 1 in both instances. If
you get an error message like NTLDR not found, adjust that number by
increments of 1 until you succeed.

If your windows directory is not \Windows but \Winnt for instance,
correct accordingly. The "windows XP" after the = sign is not important,
replace as wished.

Be sure to save the file in text format as boot.ini in the root directory.

Hope this helps.

Regards
Click to expand...
 
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