mucked with system files - trying to recover - HELP (please)!!!

[Guest]

i STUPIDLY mucked around with one of the system files - i think it was the
boot.ini - the file you get to from control panel>system>advanced>then
selecting the system start up options. i made what i thought was a small
edit, but now my system will not start at all. i've got 2 (or 3)
issues/questions now:
- i am able to get into DOS-mode on the machine. is there ANY way to find
the file and fix it in DOS? i tried a few searches on another machine, but
cannot find which file this is (but i am clearly not too experienced at this).
- if not - i have tried to boot from the XP disk to go into repair mode, but
i can;t boot off the disk. in the BIOS setup, the cd-rom is the first boot
option, but for some reason, this does not seem to do anything. what am i
doing wrong?

THX!!!

 

[DatabaseBen]

yeh,

you can make "emergency
boot disks" off of another
functional pc with the
same o.s.

afterwards you can
access the o.s. and fix the boot.ini and or
maybe a initiate a restore point or
do a fixboot.

since you like the hands on
method, what you can also do since
you can get into dos is to:

copy the boot.ini onto
a floppy or usb or something.
then go to a functional pc and open
"your" boot.ini with notepad and then
open the boot.ini on the functional
pc with another notepad window.

Compare them and reverse your changes.

 

[Guest]

looked in c and few other sub-directories, but can't find a boot.ini file.
where should i be looking? thx - susan

 

[DatabaseBen]

hmm, thats not good news.
but the good news is that
you can still recover

firstly, you should be able
to boot from the setup cd and
do a new install, then say yes
to repair the installation loaded on
the hd.

to boot you need to go into your
cmos/bios and ensure that your
cd is set as the boot up drive.
the cmos menu options are likely
to open when you press the del key
or f1 as you power up the pc.

the other method i suggest is to boot
with an emergency bootup disk and
run the fixboot program....

 

[Patrick Keenan]

looked in c and few other sub-directories, but can't find a boot.ini file.
where should i be looking? thx - susan

In the root - c:\boot.ini. You can't see it because its attributes are
set to system and hidden. You should have the attrib command available from
the recovery console, and use this command

attrib boot.ini -s -h

edit the file and when done save and issue this command:

attrib boot.ini +s +h

HTH
-pk

 

[Guest]

thanks. unfortunately, this brings me to another issue - i don;t seem to be
able to boot from my cd-drive. the cd IS set as my first boot drive in the
BIOS setup utility, but i do not seem to be able to boot from it (tried a
couple of different disks just to make sure it was not the disk). the light
on the drive goes on momentarily, but the disk never spins. any suggestions
on this? What am i missing?

re: the hidden file commands - i will try this this evening - thanks

Susan

 

[DatabaseBen]

the disk(s) you may be using
might not be bootable ones, eventhough
they may have data.

if the cd drive worked inside
a windows enviroment, then
it may not be a "physical" problem
with the drive.

But if the drive
did go bad, it may have
been causing issues for windows as well
as directly booting from it.

The cd drives are not really super
realiable and are relatively cheap.
However, they are vitally needed.
So you may have to buy a new one.

In order to help diagnose a couple of things,
make an emergency boot cd from a functional
pc with the same o.s.

At the same time make a emergency boot
floppy too - that is if your pc can boot
from floppy as well.

Booting with the emergency cd that has
been formatted with a readiable boot record and
contains the required booting files, will
tell you if the cd drive is functional.

If so, then you'll get a c prompt.

If not, then booting from a floppy
and successfully accessing your
c prompt can tell you that
your cd drive "is" broke.

If neither the cd drive or the
floppy can take into the c prompt
then you will get a error message about
the harddrive or some other message.
(No messages is a message to us as well)

It is quiet possible that
you didn't screw up your boot.ini
but instead was a conincidence when
trying to figure out a problem your
were previously experiencing...

let usknow what your results are....

 

[Guest]

no luck with the attrib command - i get a 'bad command or file name' error.
i am working on getting an emergency boot disk - was not able to take care
of that today - so will try this next (i can read from a floppy) and give an
update - hopefully tomorrow (if not sooner). thanks!!!

 

[Patrick Keenan]

no luck with the attrib command - i get a 'bad command or file name'
error.
i am working on getting an emergency boot disk - was not able to take care
of that today - so will try this next (i can read from a floppy) and give
an
update - hopefully tomorrow (if not sooner). thanks!!!

The attrib command is in the windows\system32 folder so you may need to
phrase it this way if it isn't available on the CD or if the path isn't set
to include those locations:

c:\windows\system32\attrib boot.ini -s -h

and at the end

c:\windows\system32\attrib boot.ini +s +h

 

[Guest]

when i try this, it says 'this program cannot be run in dos mode'.

found a link to a microsoft site for downloading xp start up disks - any
thoughts on whether this will work? also, if not, how exactly do i create an
"emergency boot disk"? (i don;t have a floppy on my laptop, so maybe it is
obvious if i could get to a floppy drive)

one other note - my version of XP home is an upgrade from Win 98 - not sure
if this matters, but something else to add to the mix

Thx - susan

 

[John John]

Try here: http://www.nu2.nu/bootdisk/ntboot/

You HAVE to create it with an NT operating system (Windows NT/2000/XP).
It won't work if you create it with a Windows 95/98/ME machine!

Copy NTDETECT.COM and NTLDR from your Windows XP CD to the diskette.
Copy the all purpose boot.ini file from there to the diskette. Try to
boot your computer with it, you have to set the computer to boot to the
diskette first (in the BIOS).

John

 

[Guest]

All - thanks much for you help. turns out that by re-installing my cd-rom
drive as a master drive, rather than as a slave drive, i was able to boot
from the cd. with this, i was able to get to the Recovery Console, and use
'bootcfg' to fix the boot.ini file, which fixed the immediate issue. now to
fix the problem that caused me to muck around with the system files in the
first place (i'll probably be back!)

Susan