J
John John
Ok, now your problem is easy to fix. Simply copy the boot.ini file from
the floppy diskette that you made to the root of the System Partition
(copy it to C:\). Keep the floppy boot diskette intact and in a safe
place, if things go wrong with the boot files you can always use it to
boot the computer. You should now be able to boot the computer without
the floppy diskette and you will get the same boot menu.
Now all you have to do is get rid of the invalid entries in the boot.ini
file, you can do it manually, or once the boot.ini file is on the hard
drive msconfig should now see it and be able to clean it up for you.
Your working boot.ini file on the hard drive will look something like this:
[boot loader]
timeout=15
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP"
/noexecute=optin /fastdetect
John
the floppy diskette that you made to the root of the System Partition
(copy it to C:\). Keep the floppy boot diskette intact and in a safe
place, if things go wrong with the boot files you can always use it to
boot the computer. You should now be able to boot the computer without
the floppy diskette and you will get the same boot menu.
Now all you have to do is get rid of the invalid entries in the boot.ini
file, you can do it manually, or once the boot.ini file is on the hard
drive msconfig should now see it and be able to clean it up for you.
Your working boot.ini file on the hard drive will look something like this:
[boot loader]
timeout=15
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP"
/noexecute=optin /fastdetect
John
John - Made the change to the last line to rdisk(1) and tried the disk this
morning when things were quiet around the homestead.
Used the first option and it booted right up without any problem and without
the C: invalid boot.ini showing up on the scree.
I checked msconfig and the boot.ini tab was still missing however I don't
think this was meant to solve that.
I do have two hard disks but the second one is old a totally blank, no data
at all.
All in all I now have a disk that will help to boot up in a normal fashion
and maybe sometime in the near future (after I back up every piece of data I
have) I'll get brave and try the RC panel to repair the missing boot.ini tab
on the msconfig panel.
Thank
:
That looks ok, except that the last line has rdisk(2), change it to
rdisk(1) and give the diskette a try and see if one of the options can
boot the Windows installation. There are four boot options in the file,
it will gives options to boot from two different partitions on two
different hard disks. I'm guessing that you only have one hard disk
with one partition so the first boot option should boot the computer.
You can't break anything trying the diskette, if nothing happens just
take the diskette out of the drive and reboot and the computer will boot
as it does now. If you have more than two disks or if the disks
contains more than 2 partitions post again and let us know.
John
John - This is wrote down for the boot.ini file:
[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 01"
/noexecute=optin /fastdetect
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP 02"
/noexecute=optin /fastdetect
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP 11"
/noexecute=optin /fastdetect
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(2)partition(2)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP 12"
/noexecute=optin /fastdetect
Is this okay?
:
Did you write all of that by hand? To avoid errors you can copy and
paste the contents between the === lines. Just make sure that there are
no hard returns in the multi.... lines these are one line each shown
with their line numbers [#]:
[1] [boot loader]
[2] timeout=30
[3] default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS
[4] [operating systems]
[5] multi ... partition(1)\WINDOWS="...01" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect
[6] multi ... partition(2)\WINDOWS="...02" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect
[7] multi ... partition(1)\WINDOWS="...11" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect
[8] multi ... partition(2)\WINDOWS="...12" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect
Or, for your convenience I have attached a copy of the file to this
post. You can use it, just change the extension from .txt to .ini to
use the file on your diskette.
John
Dave wrote:
John - Followed your instructions to the letter and created the disk. Took a
little time to write the boot.ini file in Notepad. Wanted to be sure I didn't
make any mistakes so went over it three times to be sure.
Will use the disk after the close of business today and let you know what
happens.
Thanks
:
Ok, being that you are a bit reluctant to use the Recovery Console to
repair the boot.ini file we will try another method. If this method
fails you will still be able to boot the computer as you do now, so
there is little risk of damaging the Windows installation. This method
is safe because it changes nothing on the drive when you do the trial.
Build yourself a boot floppy diskette, then try to boot the computer
with the diskette. If you can successfully boot Windows with the
diskette then we will build a new boot.ini file for the Windows
installation.
To build the boot diskette do the following:
1- Format a floppy diskette with your Windows XP installation, do not
format the diskette using a Windows 9x installation, if you do the
diskette will fail to boot Windows XP. The diskette has to have an NT
boot sector, the boot sector is written when the diskette is formatted,
if you format the diskette with Windows 2000/XP the format utility will
write an NT boot sector to the diskette, if you format it with a W9x
operating system it will not contain the proper boot sector. To format
the diskette put a diskette in the drive and open a Command Prompt
(cmd), at the command prompt issue the following command:
format a: /u
2- *Copy* the files NTDETECT.COM and ntldr onto the floppy diskette.
These are hidden system files in the root of the system partition. To
see the files you may have to go in the Folder Options and enable the
option to see hidden and system files. On standard Windows XP
installations the files will be in the root folder C:\, copy the files
to the diskette, making sure to leave the original files in their
current location.
3- Create a Boot.ini file and copy it to the diskette. To create a
boot.ini file create a new Notepad file (text document) and copy the
text between the == lines to the file:
================================================
[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 01"
/noexecute=optin /fastdetect
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP 02"
/noexecute=optin /fastdetect
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP 11"
/noexecute=optin /fastdetect
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(2)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP 12"
/noexecute=optin /fastdetect
============================================
Rename the text file to boot.ini and copy it to the diskette.
Now try to boot the computer with the floppy diskette, insert the
diskette in the drive and reboot the computer. If the computer boots to
the diskette properly you will be shown a boot menu, if you do not see
the boot menu and if the computer boots directly to the hard drive you
will have to go in the BIOS and change the boot order so that the
diskette drive is the first boot device. When the computer boots to the
boot menu try the different boot options. Can you boot the computer
with one of the boot options? Most likely the first option should boot
to Windows.
John
Dave wrote:
Yes I do.
:
Do you have a floppy diskette drive on your machine?
John
Dave wrote:
Mark - Wanted to say thanks for your help. I loaded the RC disk at boot up
and read the information on the screen. Most of the warning messages were
serious in nature talking about potential loss of information/data, etc. I
felt that using the RC console at the moment was beyond my technical capacity
so I stopped the program.
Since my system still boots to windows with just a quick "C:/ invalid
boot.ini message on the screen, then opens windows i think I'll just leave it
alone. I have quite a bit of valuable business related data on my system that
I can't afford to lose.
Thanks again for your help.
:
Yes. Boot to CD. The one I used had a menu.
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Mark L. Ferguson
.
Mark - Downloaded and burned the RC to disk. How do I use it? Do I insert
in
the CD drive then restart ? What will I see and what do I do?
Sorry to be a pain.........Thanks.
:
If you can't open the recovery console it is more than just boot.ini that
is
damaged. Since your Windows does start, there should be nothing stopping
the start or even total install of Recovery Console. You probably have
damaged original setup media.
There is a burnable CD that has the RC on it.
How To Create a bootable CD to access the Recovery Console:
http://www.webtree.ca/windowsxp/tools/bootdiscs/xp_rec_con.zip
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Mark L. Ferguson
..
Mark - Thanks for your reply. I've tried that process the service
bullentin
talks about and no luck. I press R in the welcome/setup window and it
refuses
to go to the recovery console and opens up the windows program.
:
330184 - Invalid Boot.ini or Windows Could Not Start Error Messages
When
You
Start Your Computer - hal-dll:
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;330184
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Mark L. Ferguson
.
Have Windows XP Home Edition upgrade from prior OS Windows ME.
Noticed during boot process error message appears quickly that says:
Invalid Boot.INI then it goes on the open windows without a problem.
I have tried several times to get to and install the recovery
console
but
it
won't take and keeps saying the boot.ini is invalid or could not be
found.
A well meaning friend said that the recovery console is not include
with
the
XP home edition upgrade pack.
The installation disk also says it includes service pack 2 , version
2002.
I've tried looking and following several MS service bullentins to
install
or
find the recover console but noth8ng works.
I'm not an expert or advanced user by any means and everything still
works
in XP so it's not like I can't use my PC. Any advice would be
greatly
appreciated.
Thanks