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 Young wrote:

> 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.

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

--
John Doue

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.

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 Removed)
Microsoft Windows MVP

"John Doue" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed)...
> David Young wrote:
>
> > 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.
>
> 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
>
> --
> John Doue