boot.ini questions

Before I ask a question, I've used the malware forum several months ago and y'all helped me with a problem ... thanks, great forum, great advice. I have recommended the site to a number of friends and colleagues.

For the last few days I've noticed that my machine (Gateway laptop with Celeron processor and Windows XP Home Edition (SP3)) has been displaying a message "invalid boot.ini" upon startup. The message goes away, and then the system seems to boot normally. It seems to operate 98% correctly (am making this post from the affected machine), have noticed a few "hanged" shutdowns, and have also had problems with a USB camera application (not sure these issues are related to the boot.ini).

After a very brief google search, the Microsoft site has some recommendations which discuss the use of the "Windows XP CD." Problem is, the laptop did not come with one of these CDs.

I also checked the "how to edit the boot.ini file in Windows XP" at the Microsoft site ... so I tried to view the file. When I followed the instructions, a dialog box appeared and stated "cannot find the C:\boot.ini file ... would you like to create one?"

Not sure how to proceed at this point, need some assistance please. I don't want to turn my machine into a glorified paperweight.

Thanks in advance for any assistance.

 

How many partitions do you have on the laptop?

Try Right-clicking on my Computer>Properties>Advanced tab>Startup and Recovery>Edit button.

Use File>Save As and save a copy of the file as boot.txt on your desktop. [***Use Save As to keep the original file untouched***] Upload as an attachment and let us have a look.

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My guess is you have more than one partition and the boot.ini is not in the standard place. Have you done anything like try to put your paging file on a different partition?

 

1 partition. There are "C:\" and "D:\" drives.

I tried this. As I mentioned in my post, the computer tells me the file cannot be found.

It would appear that I can't do that, as the file evidently does not exist.

I'm not an expert, I don't know what a paging file is or why I would move it. Some explanation would help me quite a bit.

 

The Boot.ini is a hidden file. You need to unhide hidden files to find it. Try F11 when booting up to access the recovery partition, or in the All Programs menu when Windows has booted. There should be an option to make recovery discs under one of those options. That's what I remember with mine. Mine actually came with a Gateway branded OS installation disc and you might be able to buy one from them for a reasonable fee.

If you run the recovery operation, it will erase any files you have on it currently so back up pictures, docs, and other stuff first.

 

Hi,

I didn't realize that Windows would let you start up without a boot.ini, I thought you might have put boot.ini on a different partition during installation. I see that is not the case and that Windows searches your HD at startup for a valid installation and boots from that. I don't think it is effecting your programs.

The following is more complicated then it has to be because I want to make absolutely sure that you are not creating an invalid boot.ini...

You could create a boot.ini to get rid of the error. You have two partitions C: and D: [drive letters denote partitions]. Your Windows installation is probably on C: and it should be partition 1. The following text is a boot.ini that has two possible boot partitions (1 and 2) with 2 being in case your installation is not standard. Partition 1 is set as the default. If you follow the MS guide on editing the boot.ini and click to create one then Notepad will open and you would paste the below text and save the file.

Then Start>Run>type in msconfig> on the boot.ini tab >click the button for Check all paths. You should get a message about "multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS" not being valid--let it be deleted.

Make sure before leaving System Configuration Utility(msconfig) that the default line shows partition 1 ("multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS") as the boot partition.

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If for some reason after checking paths, partition 1 is not set as default or there is no default then before Restarting you must delete the newly created boot.ini. Don't restart unless there is a partition listed as default...

My Computer>Tools>Folder Options>View tab> Check "Show hidden files" and Uncheck "Hide System Files". Then delete C:\boot.ini You will be back to where you are now.