Author Topic: boot.ini file missing (Read 21346 times)

brett74 · « **on:** April 18, 2008, 06:38:50 PM »

Hi I'm new here and I have a slight problem I don't see a ntldr file nor do I have a boot.ini file but my computer boots up just fine it just says invalid boot.ini file and loads windows up. It's been going on for about 2 months with no problems. My question is can I leave it the way it is or do I need to rebuild it. I'm very leary about changing a file like this as I use this computer for college. I have windows xp home sp2. specs are 250 gig sata hdd and a dvd drive.

cryhelp · « **Reply #1 on:** April 18, 2008, 07:10:40 PM »

Check this:http://support.microsoft.com/kb/330184. Personally if my computer was working OK and doing what I wanted, I would leave it alone. However someone much smarter than I will drop by later probably.

Broni · « **Reply #2 on:** April 18, 2008, 07:39:34 PM »

Does it say:
boot.ini file missing
or
invalid boot.ini?

qinghao · « **Reply #3 on:** April 18, 2008, 09:56:26 PM »

Quote from: cryhelp on April 18, 2008, 07:10:40 PM

Check this:http://support.microsoft.com/kb/330184. Personally if my computer was working OK and doing what I wanted, I would leave it alone. However someone much smarter than I will drop by later probably.

I just open the webpage in my IE,and it appears in Chinese
try this in English
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/330184/en-us

qinghao · « **Reply #4 on:** April 18, 2008, 10:09:15 PM »

ceate a new text file named "boot.ini" and save it to you system dirve (like c:\boot.ini)
the following(in blue)is the content of it

[boot loader]
timeout=5
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(1)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition" /fastdetect

comment:
paritions(x)
Which partition the operating system is on. In the above example, the operating system is on the 1st partition of the drive.

brett74 · « **Reply #5 on:** April 19, 2008, 06:37:30 AM »

it says invalid boot.ini file. if I just copy and paste the file will it be okay and I have 1 partition on my drive as I put a new one in last november

brett74 · « **Reply #6 on:** April 19, 2008, 06:38:51 AM »

I also have the oem version of winxp sp2

Broni · « **Reply #7 on:** April 19, 2008, 10:22:52 AM »

If you have Windows CD, check here:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/330184

qinghao · « **Reply #8 on:** April 21, 2008, 07:44:51 AM »

Quote from: brett74 on April 19, 2008, 06:37:30 AM

it says invalid boot.ini file. if I just copy and paste the file will it be okay and I have 1 partition on my drive as I put a new one in last november

I see it in further on some discussion board,
Mybe as they says the SATA hard disk is deferent from PATA(IDE) ones,
my solution of edit the "boot.ini" file can not work so well.

see the webpage I give to you presiously.
the method on that page can surely be Ok
!

cryhelp · « **Reply #9 on:** April 21, 2008, 08:01:12 AM »

ginghao it is very interesting that when you opened web on http://support.microsoft.com/kb/330184. it appeared in Chinese. Mine always opens in English. However what are the results of all the recommendations?

brett74 · « **Reply #10 on:** April 21, 2008, 04:53:38 PM »

Broni I read somewhere that after you use to the cd to do a repair on xp you lose all updates including sp2. Couldn't I copy and paste what ginghao posted earlier.

Broni · « **Reply #11 on:** April 21, 2008, 05:29:18 PM »

Quote

after you use to the cd to do a repair on xp you lose all updates including sp2

Not true.

dahlarbear · « **Reply #12 on:** April 21, 2008, 07:04:18 PM »

The "boot.ini" file is a small "text" file located at "C:\boot.ini" that tells the system which operating system to boot and where to find it. By default it has the file attributes "hidden", "system", and "read-only".

Post a copy of your "boot.ini" and maybe we can spot the problem.

patio · « **Reply #13 on:** April 21, 2008, 08:07:06 PM »

Quote from: Broni on April 21, 2008, 05:29:18 PM

Quote
after you use to the cd to do a repair on xp you lose all updates including sp2
Not true.

To clarify what Broni is stating is 1) If you have XP with SP2 installed the only CD you can use without slipstreamin your XP CD would be an XP CD that already has SP2...otherwise the repair install will stop with an error message saying you need XP CD with SP2 to continue.

What you lose is any updates Post SP2...those will have to be DLoaded and re-installed.

Of course those can also be slipstreamed into an SP2 CD using nLite or a few other programs out there designed for slipstreaming updates and service packs into an XP install CD.

Broni · « **Reply #14 on:** April 21, 2008, 08:26:00 PM »

Thank you, my friend

patio · « **Reply #15 on:** April 21, 2008, 09:03:41 PM »

Anytime.
You've done more on my behalf...

Broni · « **Reply #16 on:** April 21, 2008, 09:24:32 PM »

Are you talking about screwing your Vista?....LOL

patio · « **Reply #17 on:** April 21, 2008, 10:00:12 PM »

No.

brett74 · « **Reply #18 on:** April 22, 2008, 01:56:45 AM »

the problem dahlar bear is that when I go into startup and recovery and everything there is no boot.ini file at all

dahlarbear · « **Reply #19 on:** April 22, 2008, 04:03:01 AM »

1. Boot Files. Humour me. You should have the following three "boot" files on your Windows XP Home Edition system in the "C:\" directory:
o Ntldr
o Ntdetect.com
o Boot.ini

By default I believe their file attributes are: "Hidden", "System", and "Read-Only".

2. To See Boot Files.

Quote

Windows hides all system files and files marked hidden by default. To view these files:
1. Click Start, then My Computer

2. From the toolbar open the Tools menu, select Folder Options, then click the View tab

3. In the Advanced settings option for Hidden files and folders, ensure the Show hidden files and folders option is selected and Hide protected operating system files is unchecked. Click OK

4. You should now be able to see hidden and system files

3. Sample boot.ini. If yours is missing you can manually replace it or use "Recovery Console" to create a new one. The following text should work for an IDE hard drive with a single partition (you may cut and paste it):

Quote

[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="Windows XP Home" /fastdetect

The Recovery Console command would be: "bootcfg /rebuild". See Bootcfg

4. Boot Floppy. If you have a floppy drive on that system, you can make a boot floppy with the "boot.ini" file to verify it works before placing it on your hard drive. See How to create a bootable floppy disk for an NTFS or FAT partition in Windows XP

Broni · « **Reply #20 on:** April 22, 2008, 08:33:00 AM »

Quote

No.

I was just kidding

brett74 · « **Reply #21 on:** April 22, 2008, 02:27:20 PM »

what about with a sata drive can I still use that file

dahlarbear · « **Reply #22 on:** April 25, 2008, 07:58:53 PM »

Quote from: brett74 on April 22, 2008, 02:27:20 PM

what about with a sata drive can I still use that file

Yes, but it would be better if you could find and "post" the contents of your existing/missing one. There might be additional options on the operating system invocation line for other capabilites/features that your system supports.

As I pointed out earlier, if you have a bootable floppy drive you may create a boot floppy to test the "boot.ini" file.
How to create a bootable floppy disk for an NTFS or FAT partition in Windows XP

brett74 · « **Reply #23 on:** April 26, 2008, 10:38:40 AM »

that's the problem I can't find it anywhere and when I go into msconfig it says that it has encountered a problem and needs to shutdown

brett74 · « **Reply #24 on:** April 26, 2008, 02:16:55 PM »

what would like for me to post I can't do it right now because I'm working on my brothers computer right now. Do you want me to post where the boot.ini file should be?

dahlarbear · « **Reply #25 on:** April 27, 2008, 12:51:39 AM »

1. Post the Contents.

Quote from: brett74 on April 26, 2008, 02:16:55 PM

Do you want me to post where the boot.ini file should be?

No. I'm hoping you will post the contents of the "missing" boot.ini file. Of course if it doesn't exist, that's not going to happen.

2. Hidden Boot Files. That being said, which of the following "hidden" boot files can you see?

Quote from: dahlarbear on April 22, 2008, 04:03:01 AM

1. Boot Files. Humour me. You should have the following three "boot" files on your Windows XP Home Edition system in the "C:\" directory:
o Ntldr
o Ntdetect.com
o Boot.ini

By default I believe their file attributes are: "Hidden", "System", and "Read-Only".

2. To See Boot Files.
Quote
Windows hides all system files and files marked hidden by default. To view these files:
1. Click Start, then My Computer

2. From the toolbar open the Tools menu, select Folder Options, then click the View tab

3. In the Advanced settings option for Hidden files and folders, ensure the Show hidden files and folders option is selected and Hide protected operating system files is unchecked. Click OK

4. You should now be able to see hidden and system files

3. Floppy Drive. Do you have a bootable floppy drive on your computer?

brett74 · « **Reply #26 on:** April 27, 2008, 09:25:45 AM »

no but i do have a external one though. I'm gonna do a little more looking around on my computer later on cause I'm working on my brother's computer right now.

brett74 · « **Reply #27 on:** April 27, 2008, 11:39:35 AM »

what have is dmboot, net bios and netbt I don't see netdetect nor netldr

brett74 · « **Reply #28 on:** April 27, 2008, 03:41:08 PM »

I did what you told me but I do not see any of those folders

dahlarbear · « **Reply #29 on:** April 29, 2008, 02:11:07 AM »

Suggest you look harder. Once again, the boot files are:
o NTLDR
o NTDetect.com
o Boot.ini

Although I didn't think it was possible, I have found a reference suggesting you can boot without a "boot.ini". You still need NTLDR and NTDetect.com to boot a Windows XP system. That being said, I still believe you will find your boot.ini hiding with the other two files.

The following quote is from the reference The BOOT.INI File of Microsoft Windows NT/2000/XP/2003:

Quote

One thing specific to NT-Type boot-up issues: If you incorrectly edited or deleted your BOOT.INI file, the older NT-Type OSs (Windows NT, 2000 and we believe original versions of XP) will no longer boot up! We purposely deleted our BOOT.INI file under Windows XP SP2 to see what would happen, and the OS was still able to boot up; if that doesn't work for you, we'd like to know about it! So, how do you boot up one of the old systems if boot.ini is missing? Well, you either already have a boot diskette for this purpose, or you'll have to create one from another system or download the files from the Net.

The only other thing I can think of is that you don't have sufficient permissions to see the files. Is your user account the Administrator or a member of the Administrator's group?

brett74 · « **Reply #30 on:** April 29, 2008, 07:03:05 AM »

I have admin rights since this is my own computer

patio · « **Reply #31 on:** April 29, 2008, 08:08:59 AM »

Quote from: brett74 on April 29, 2008, 07:03:05 AM

I have admin rights since this is my own computer

This isn't always true...have you tried in safemode ? ?

brett74 · « **Reply #32 on:** April 29, 2008, 08:52:32 AM »

nope not yet but I will. I bought the oem version of winxp sp2 from a computer store I'm not sure if it's the same thing as being already installed on a computer when you buy one or not.

brett74 · « **Reply #33 on:** April 29, 2008, 09:23:02 AM »

okay I'll tell you guys what happened about 3 months ago I was over at a friends house and I turned on my computer without anything plugged in the mouse key board anyways when I realized that i turned it off immediately within a few seconds. Now would that have anything to do with what is happening now or is it just a coinincedence. that it happened

brett74 · « **Reply #34 on:** April 29, 2008, 09:35:08 AM »

okay I did a search and I did find the I386 folder where the boot file should be but it's not there. I have a ntbtlog but other than that unless it's under a different name.

brett74 · « **Reply #35 on:** April 29, 2008, 12:35:23 PM »

I have a question when I go into driver cache then into the I386 folder I see a sp2 file there does that mean it's installed or do I have to install it. It's a winrar archive

patio · « **Reply #36 on:** April 29, 2008, 02:03:23 PM »

The boot.ini file should reside in the root directory of C:...
It won't be in the i386 folder as it hasn't been created yet.
Boot into safemode following our instructions...next open Windows Explorer and go to folder properties and uncheck "hide system folders and files"...
Then use Windows Search to locate the boot.ini.....
If it still isn't showing up i'm afraid you're looking at a format and clean install of XP so back up your data and report back for instructions...

brett74 · « **Reply #37 on:** April 29, 2008, 02:58:27 PM »

sorry guys I was doing the wrong thing and I found ntldr and netdetect there was one more check mark that I had to uncheck and I found them. I was going to try and post the file but it won't let me. I do have a file for config settings that's a boot file but that's empty too I also was able to look in msconfig today and for some reason i was able to look at the boot.ini file and that was empty too.

dahlarbear · « **Reply #38 on:** April 30, 2008, 01:53:51 AM »

1. Hide file extensions for known file types. If you go back to the "Folder Options -> View" settings you were at earlier, "uncheck" the "Hide file extensions for known file types" settings and apply it to all folders; you will see the "file extensions" for every file that has one in Windows Explorer. Within the "C:\" directory you should see the following files (upper/lower case doesn't matter) listed with their file extensions:
o NTLDR
o NTDetect.com
o Boot.ini

If you don't see "Boot.ini", I guess you don't have one. If you see "Boot.ini", what is it's "size" in bytes?

2. Post contents of Boot.ini:
a. Use "Start -> Run -> type "notepad c:\boot.ini" without quotes followed by Enter key.
b. Notepad should open the "boot.ini" file (probably in read-only mode).
c. From "Edit" pull-down menu of notepad, choose "Select All".
d. Entire contents of boot.ini file should be selected (highlighted).
e. Cut the file contents (via CNTRL-C key combination)
f. Paste the file contents into your post (via CNTRL-V key combination).
g. Close notepad without applying changes to boot.ini

brett74 · « **Reply #39 on:** April 30, 2008, 06:23:37 AM »

that's the thing there's nothing there. I see the file and when I clicked it to open there's nothing there. It says 0 bytes

brett74 · « **Reply #40 on:** May 03, 2008, 04:39:46 PM »

I see the boot.ini file icon and when I open it there's no text in there. So what I'm asking if I can find a boot.ini file can I just copy and paste it there I'll edit it if necessary.

dahlarbear · « **Reply #41 on:** May 04, 2008, 03:26:42 AM »

The short answer is "yes", but you need to get the syntax correct and may have to temporarily remove the "read-only" attribute of the file, if set. If the operating system is installed to the first partition (1) on your first or only hard drive (0), the following basic "boot.ini" should work:

Quote

[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="Windows XP Home" /fastdetect

To identify your operating system, you can replace the string "Windows XP Home" with any text you wish; e.g. "Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition". If you do the background reading, you'll see that you can add additional lines to invoke the same operating system with different options. A useful addition would be an invocation line that starts the operating system in "Safe Mode".

If you read very carefully, you'll find you can install the Recovery Console to your hard drive as an additional boot menu option. The advantage being you may be able to boot to Recovery Console without breaking out the Windows XP CD.

As mentioned in an earlier reply, you can also use the "bootcfg /rebuild" command from the Windows XP Recovery Console to generate a "boot.ini" file.

Some background references:
How to rebuild the Windows boot.ini
Additional information and help with the boot.ini
Display a Custom Boot Menu Every Time You Boot Windows XP

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Author Topic: boot.ini file missing (Read 21346 times)

brett74

cryhelp

Broni

qinghao

qinghao

brett74

brett74

Broni

qinghao

cryhelp

brett74

Broni

dahlarbear

patio

Broni

patio

Broni

patio

brett74

dahlarbear

Broni

brett74

dahlarbear

brett74

brett74

dahlarbear

brett74

brett74

brett74

dahlarbear

brett74

patio

brett74

brett74

brett74

brett74

patio

brett74

dahlarbear

brett74

brett74

dahlarbear