boot.ini file missing

[patio]

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

[Broni]

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

[patio]

No.

 

[brett74]

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

[dahlarbear]

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.

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):

[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]

No.

I was just kidding

[brett74]

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

[dahlarbear]

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]

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]

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]

1.  Post the Contents.

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?

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.

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]

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]

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

[brett74]

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

[dahlarbear]

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:

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?