Boot.ini problem

[Guest]

I had 3 operating systems before and I followed the steps in MS support to
delete 2 of them by editing the boot.ini. When I rebooted, Windows wouldn't
open and my only option was to install Windows XP on another drive. Now I
have access to all my files before but none of the applications work! I tried
to change the boot.ini back to the old one but it doesn't work. Please help.

 

[Guest]

I tried but it says there werent any restore points before I reinstalled

 

[John John]

A discussion about the Bootcfg command and its uses
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/291980

Description of the Windows XP Recovery Console
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/314058

Are the "drives" you speak of 2 separate hard disks or are they just
separate partition on the same disk? If on different hard disks did you
have the first drive plugged in when you did the reinstall on the second
one? Was Windows installed on the first partition of the first hard
disk? Post the contents of the boot.ini file here along with the
answers to the above questions and someone should be able to figure out
the ARC path of the installations. Or use the bootcfg tool to rebuild
the file.

John

 

[Guest]

The first Windows was installed on D: Drive and the new one was installed on
C: same hard disk.

The old boot.ini-
[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS.0
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS.0="Microsoft Windows XP Home
Edition" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Home
Edition" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP
Professional" /

The new one-
[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS.0
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Home
Edition" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP
Professional" /

Any advice is much appreciated. Thankyou!

 

[John John]

You said you had 3 Windows installed, so you had 2 Windows on one
partition and one on another? Do you have more than 2 partitions? Are
the folder names correct? If the installations are on the same disk
then the only variable in the boot.ini file will be the partition(x) and
the \foldername= where x is the partition number and foldername the name
of the folder where windows is installed. You should also complete the
switch (/noexecute=optin /fastdetect) on the partition(2) path line.
The files suggests that you might have a Windows installation in folder
named WINDOWS.0 ? Is that correct? Try this:

[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS.0
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS.0="Microsoft Windows XP Home
Edition" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Home
Edition" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP
Professional" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect


Then use the msconfig tool to verify the path validities.

John