If your operating system is installed on a drive with only one partition
then most likely the drive letter is C: if this is the case this drive is
the system partition (first primary active partition). You can verify this
by going to Disk Management
Start|Run|diskmgmt.msc
Here you can check which drive letter is listed as 'System'
Then if you already have;
Explorer|Tools|Folder Options|View, then radio button for "Show hidden files
and folders", then uncheck the box for "Hide protected operating system
files" to locate the files in the system partition. Now take a look in the
root [ C:\ ] of that drive. If you find it you can open it with notepad.exe,
copy the text from it and paste in a reply message. If you don't find
boot.ini then it may just be missing for some reason.
If so you can repair the boot sector from the recovery console.
To start the Recovery Console, start the computer from the Windows 2000
Setup CD or the Windows 2000 Setup floppy disks. If you do not have Setup
floppy disks and your computer cannot start from the Windows 2000 Setup CD,
use another Windows 2000-based computer to create the Setup floppy disks.
Press ENTER at the "Setup Notification" screen. Press R to repair a Windows
2000 installation, and then press C to use the Recovery Console. The
Recovery Console then prompts you for the administrator password. If you do
not have the correct password, Recovery Console does not allow access to the
computer. If an incorrect password is entered three times, the Recovery
Console quits and restarts the computer. Note If the registry is corrupted
or missing or no valid installations are found, the Recovery Console starts
in the root of the startup volume without requiring a password. You cannot
access any folders, but you can carry out commands such as chkdsk, fixboot,
and fixmbr for limited disk repairs. Once the password has been validated,
you have full access to the Recovery Console, but limited access to the hard
disk. You can only access the following folders on your computer: drive
root, %systemroot% or %windir%
From the recovery console command line issue the command;
fixboot
Then restart the computer.
--
Regards,
Dave
Dave Patrick ....Please no email replies - reply in newsgroup.
Microsoft Certified Professional
Microsoft MVP [Windows]
http://www.microsoft.com/protect
:
| Dear Dave,
|
| Thanks for your help. I had gotten discouraged because there are so many
| things in your posts that I didn't understand, so I gave up....I'm
returning
| now to try again....
|
| Had already checked Show hidden files and folders.
| Had already unchecked Hide protected operating files.Don't know what a
| system partition is, let alone what its root is....nor what a primary
active
| partition is....(This is all Greek to me...) If I can find the file, I
can
| write in what is needed to match what you have written in your first
| post..... Just need to get to it......If I run a search for boot.ini,
nothing
| comes up....
|
| As regards your second post, I was unfamiliar with about 50% of the
| terms...
....
| Don't know what a command prompt is.
| Don't know how to issue a command.
| I have 2 Windows 2000 CD's: one says "Windows 2000 Professional---Step by
| step Interactive" and the other just says "Windows 2000 Professional". Can
I
| start from one of these? How?
| If not, how would one "use another Windows 2000-based computer to create
the
| Setup floppy disks"?
| I never put in a Administrators password---I'm the only one who uses the
| computer and it came with the OS already installed.
| I'm not sure i'll be clear on what to do at this point (if I ever get that
| far).....
|
| Many thanks,
| Janet