jim said:
On Sun, 19 Feb 2012 14:58:21 -0500, in
jim wrote:
windows xp sp3
Without long explanations, I have 3 disks, each of which has a
boot.ini.
I do not want to boot any disk besides my current C. [previous sentence edited]
Other programs (AVG, for one) are recognizing the other boot.ini
records on system disks and I want that to stop.
My file manager, Ztree, shows the boot.ini residing in the root
directory of the system disks. (as well as the one that I want to
retain in C: disk)
My question is if I:
1.) rename the system disk boot.ini's to, say, root.ini, will it no
longer be recognized and will the Windows XP installation on that
system disk with the renamed boot.ini be just a series of flat files.
And,
1.) If C: fails to boot, and i go into recovery console and RENAME
"root.ini" to be "boot.ini" and EXIT recovery console, will that disk
boot?
jim
You may have more than one Windows system but there is only one "system"
disc. You can see which it is via Computer Management/Disk Management. It
is normally the firtst primary disc on the primary channel, don't know if it
can be elsewhere or not.
Boot.ini is just a text file that Windows uses to give you a boot menu when
you have multiple operating systems installed. After you select the install
you want to boot, Windows uses the info in the file to find the correct OS
and load it.
There is no need to have more than one boot.ini, others are superfluous, no
idea how/why you have them..
Here is a simplified version of my boot.ini...
[boot loader]
timeout=6
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(4)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(4)\WINDOWS="XP Main - Bitsy"
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(4)\WINDOWS2="XP2 Basic"
C:\CMDCONS\BOOTSECT.DAT="XP Recovery Console" /cmdcons
Note that there are two XP installs. The first is on the fourth partition
of disc 0 and is the default. The second is on the fourth partition of disc
1. I can also boot to the recovery console. The quoted strings are what is
displayed in the boot menu. The boot.ini is on drive C: which is THE system
disc.
.
In what way do other programs "recognize" the superflous boot.ini files and
what do they try to do with them?
Thank you for the reply.
I have noticed that AVG as the first step of checking 1.2million objects
says 'checking boot.ini files' or similar wording and quickly checks them
on hdd0 and hdd2.
I have noticed that after making a complete XP installation on hdd2, where
it previously would allow a dismount and disk check with the /f switch in
session it now requires a system shutdown to do so at startup. The same
new activity occurs with hdd1 after the XP installation on hdd2.
Previously that only happened with hdd0.
hdd0 boot.ini --
~~~~
[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"
~~~~
jim
Your BIOS has a disk boot order. That specifies the order to check
the disk drives, for an OS to boot.
On each disk, is the primary partition table. There is a flag which
can be set on the primary partitions, the boot flag. The code in
the MBR (first sector), can, if so designed, check the boot flag,
as a means of determining which partition would be used to load
files from.
But with respect to other software, looking at your system, and
deciding whether the partition is "data" or "OS", its up to that
software to decide which is which. Scanning everything, is erring
on the safe side.
If this bothered you so much, you could use PTEDIT32, and change
the partition type on those partitions, to a "hidden" one. Which
may prevent Windows from mounting the volumes in question. But
whether that will stop an AV program, I don't know for sure.
I wouldn't change the partition type to "00", because you might
forget you've done that, and erase the partition by accident.
ftp://ftp.symantec.com/public/english_us_canada/tools/pq/utilities/PTEDIT32.zip
(Note - if running that in Windows 7, try "Run as Administrator",
if it is giving you an "error 5".)
The color changes to red, if you type over a field in there. And
when you "save" the resulting changes, that will affect how the
system sees the partitions.
http://www.vistax64.com/attachments...n-partiton-recovery-dell-xps-420-dell-tbl.gif
You can see in this old article, that "07" is NTFS.
http://www.win.tue.nl/~aeb/partitions/partition_types-1.html
07 OS/2 IFS (e.g., HPFS)
IFS = Installable File System.
07 Windows NT NTFS
17 Hidden IFS (e.g., HPFS)
27 Windows RE hidden partition
PTEDIT32 also has a table of values store in it. If you
click on the partition type field, the table will pop up
so you can look at it. It shows 17 as a hidden NTFS. It
also shows some FAT32 alternatives, if your partition is
FAT32 instead. (Obviously, don't change from FAT32 to NTFS
or vice versa
That would be dumb. Stick with modifying
the hidden attribute, or you've be very confused, later.)
http://img837.imageshack.us/img837/4835/pteditpt.gif
*******
OK, now the day comes, your primary Windows install is broken.
If you change the BIOS boot order to one of the other disks, now
with a hidden partition on it, can that boot ? I don't know the
answer to that. You can certainly unhide it again, with the
right tool set. For example, using a Linux LiveCD, I can do
"sudo fdisk /dev/sda" to edit the partition table, in the same
way as PTEDIT32 can. (Hard drives are sda, sdb, sdc or hda, hdb, hdc
etcetera.) And I could change the partition type field,
back to the "visible" value again. So it can be fixed. Eventually.
Paul
