Should I have a boot.ini? How can I set SAFEBOOT without boot.ini?

[Guest]

Dear Sirs:
I have read thoroughly all the posts related with boot.ini. Apart from that,
I have been an information technology professional for 20 years (although not
a windows specialist, as you see ...) , so You can believe me when I say that
I have no boot.ini file on my XP Home SP2 desktop PC (one physical drive, two
logical drives C and D, both NTFS, both ACTIVE).
And the PC works fine.
Just to be sure: if I run SYSDM.CPL, Advanced, and then the boot settings (I
have an italian edition, I don't remember the english captions) I get a
message saying something like "boot.ini file cannot be opened - You cannot
save timeout and operating system settings".

I think I know how i lost my boot.ini - maybe it was when I changed my C:
logical drive to NTFS (it was FAT before). Or maybe when i cloned my disk to
a backup drive I keep ready in my drawer, resized the partitions on the clone
(that was made "on the fly" with norton ghost), and then cloned back the
resized volume to my usual drive.

Now, I would like to set the /SAFEBOOT option, and I can't.

Can anybody help me?

Thank You for Your attention.

 

[Jon]

Dear Sirs:
I have read thoroughly all the posts related with boot.ini. Apart from
that,
I have been an information technology professional for 20 years (although
not
a windows specialist, as you see ...) , so You can believe me when I say
that
I have no boot.ini file on my XP Home SP2 desktop PC (one physical drive,
two
logical drives C and D, both NTFS, both ACTIVE).
And the PC works fine.
Just to be sure: if I run SYSDM.CPL, Advanced, and then the boot settings
(I
have an italian edition, I don't remember the english captions) I get a
message saying something like "boot.ini file cannot be opened - You cannot
save timeout and operating system settings".

I think I know how i lost my boot.ini - maybe it was when I changed my C:
logical drive to NTFS (it was FAT before). Or maybe when i cloned my disk
to
a backup drive I keep ready in my drawer, resized the partitions on the
clone
(that was made "on the fly" with norton ghost), and then cloned back the
resized volume to my usual drive.

Now, I would like to set the /SAFEBOOT option, and I can't.

Can anybody help me?

Thank You for Your attention.

Are you saying that you have no boot.ini on BOTH drives or just on one?

Jon

 

[Jon]

"Cesare Brizio - Italy" <Cesare Brizio - (e-mail address removed)>
wrote in message


Are you saying that you have no boot.ini on BOTH drives or just on one?

Jon

Actually thinking about it, using another drive's boot.ini to boot into a
second should still enable you to edit it in the manner you described, so
that question isn't relevant. You must be using some alternative bootloader.

Jon

 

[Squire]

Boot.ini is a hidden file.

If you make any changes to it, you will not be able to boot into Windows.

Are you sure you want to do this ?

Jerry

 

[chrispsg]

go to command prompt and type the following commands:

cd\
attrib -r -h
edit boot.ini

Make your changes and save the file. Close the editor and type:

attrib boot.ini +r +h

 

[David Candy]

If there is no boot.ini it guesses Windows or WinNT folder. So if defaults were chosen during setup a boot.ini isn't strictly necessary.


[boot loader]
timeout=3
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" /fastdetect /sos /NoExecute=OptIn
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Professional Bootlog" /fastdetect /bootlog /sos /NoExecute=OptIn
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Professional Safe Mode" /fastdetect /safeboot:minimal

 

[Jon]

Yes, true. Would be a message about an invalid boot.ini, each boot, in that
case, before booting into Windows.

Jon


"David Candy" <.> wrote in message
If there is no boot.ini it guesses Windows or WinNT folder. So if defaults
were chosen during setup a boot.ini isn't strictly necessary.


[boot loader]
timeout=3
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" /fastdetect /sos /NoExecute=OptIn
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP
Professional Bootlog" /fastdetect /bootlog /sos /NoExecute=OptIn
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP
Professional Safe Mode" /fastdetect /safeboot:minimal

 

[Guest]

Dear Friends:
thank You for the help You are trying to give.
My PC works perfectly fine without a boot.ini.
Yes, I have absolutely no boot.ini on BOTH logical drives C and D.
Yes, every time I boot the PC I get a message saying that no boot.ini was
found, but the message lasts less than a second, then the PC boots perfectly,
regularly.
I am absolutely sure that no boot.ini is present on both my dirives. Please
read my original post: it's not just me who can't find BOOT.INI, Windows XP
itself cannot find a BOOT.INI, and apparently it works just fine.

No, I don't want to tamper with boot.ini. I just would like to set the
/SAFEBOOT option, and I cannot, because no BOOT.INI folder exists in
MSCONFIG.EXE.

And, NO, I haven't (consciously) installed any alternative boot manager.
Maybe (but probably I'm wrong) the BIOS itself manages the boot ....?!?!

I have only XP Home on the disk.

 

[Steve N.]

Dear Friends:
thank You for the help You are trying to give.
My PC works perfectly fine without a boot.ini.
Yes, I have absolutely no boot.ini on BOTH logical drives C and D.
Yes, every time I boot the PC I get a message saying that no boot.ini was
found, but the message lasts less than a second, then the PC boots perfectly,
regularly.
I am absolutely sure that no boot.ini is present on both my dirives. Please
read my original post: it's not just me who can't find BOOT.INI, Windows XP
itself cannot find a BOOT.INI, and apparently it works just fine.

No, I don't want to tamper with boot.ini. I just would like to set the
/SAFEBOOT option, and I cannot, because no BOOT.INI folder exists in
MSCONFIG.EXE.

And, NO, I haven't (consciously) installed any alternative boot manager.
Maybe (but probably I'm wrong) the BIOS itself manages the boot ....?!?!

I have only XP Home on the disk.

Do this:

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;330184

Why do you want/need the Safeboot anyway?

Steve N.

 

[Jon]

...........No, I don't want to tamper with boot.ini. I just would like to
set the
/SAFEBOOT option, and I cannot, because no BOOT.INI folder exists in
MSCONFIG.EXE.

Unfortunately, tampering with boot.ini (ie creating a suitable such file) is
precisely what you would need to do to resolve the problem.

Jon

 

[Guest]

Dear Steve:
Thank You, the article linked to Your answer is very useful, ant that will
be precisely what I'll do to recreate my boot.ini.

The reason to "safeboot" was very trivial: I just wanted to set the
"Adninistrator" password.
I did safeboot anyway, simply by clicking "F8" at boot time and then
choosing the appropriate boot modality.

Thanks once again, Your answer solved my problem.

 

[David Candy]

I gave you a boot.ini, that includes safemode options at that, 19 hours before Steve N replied. Is there a reason you are pointedly throwing my effort in my face. Or are you just a complete idiot.