Boot.ini gone

[Guest]

Hello all,

I used to have a dual boot system running 98 and XP Prof. The 98 Drive
failed and took with it the boot.ini file. Using a boot floppy, I'm able to
boot the XP partition, but I can't seem to set the the boot.ini file to
recognize on it's own. Right now, XP is on a hard drive on the first
partition (E with two other partitions (F and (G. I also have another
physical hard drive which is (C, but it's only for data storage.

Here's is the current boot.ini text I have:


[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP
Professional" /fastdetect

I've tried the repair option with the Windows XP CD, but kept getting an
error after entering the "/fastdetect" setting when rebuilding through
bootcfg.

Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks for taking the time to look
at this one with me,

Mike

 

[Pegasus \(MVP\)]

Hello all,

I used to have a dual boot system running 98 and XP Prof. The 98 Drive
failed and took with it the boot.ini file. Using a boot floppy, I'm able to
boot the XP partition, but I can't seem to set the the boot.ini file to
recognize on it's own. Right now, XP is on a hard drive on the first
partition (E with two other partitions (F and (G. I also have another
physical hard drive which is (C, but it's only for data storage.

Here's is the current boot.ini text I have:


[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP
Professional" /fastdetect

I've tried the repair option with the Windows XP CD, but kept getting an
error after entering the "/fastdetect" setting when rebuilding through
bootcfg.

Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks for taking the time to look
at this one with me,

Mike

Try this:
- Make your Win98 disk the primary master.
- Set it to "active".
- Create boot.ini on it:
[boot loader]
timeout=3
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(1)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP
Professional" /fastdetect
- Boot the machine with a Win98 boot disk from www.bootdisk.com.
- Run this command: bootpart winnt boot:c:
http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/gvollant/bootpart.htm
- Copy ntldr and ntdetect.com from the i386 folder of your
WinXP CD to the Win98 hard disk.

If this does not quite work, state the precise messages you
see on the screen. Observations such as "but I can't seem to
set the the boot.ini file to recognize on its own" do not tell
us very much.

 

[Kelly]

Hi Mike,

This issue has been traced to an improperly formatted BOOT.INI file. This
is a hidden file, usually in the root directory of the C: drive.

This file can be opened in Notepad. A typical BOOT.INI file looks like
this:

[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP
Professional" /fastdetect
C:\="Previous Operating System on C:"
~~~

Example:

[boot loader]
timeout =4
default = multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WIN
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WIN = "Microsoft Windows XP Home
Edition" /fastdetect
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WIN ="Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition
(#1)"
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WIN ="Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition
(#2)"
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(1)\WIN ="Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition
(#3)" /fastdetect
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(1)\WIN ="Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition
~~~
For only the OS on the first disk to boot:

[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WIN = "Microsoft Windows XP Home
Edition" /fastdetect

For either hard disk to boot (assuming the 2nd drive is bootable):

[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WIN ="Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition"
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(1)\WIN ="Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition
(#2)" /fastdetect

You can edit the text between the quotes to make it read however you want it
to.


--
In memory of our dear friend, MVP Alex Nichol: http://www.dts-l.org/

All the Best,
Kelly (MS-MVP)

Troubleshooting Windows XP
http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com