How I fixed my missing or corrupt BOOT.INI file

[wahnula]

Howdy folks,

I noticed the last few days when I start-up my PC (trying to save energy by powering off every morning while I'm at work) that after POST I received a notice: "Boot.ini is missing or corrupt. Booting from C:\Windows". The system would boot fine, but there was no BOOT.INI tab in msconfig and I could not access Startup and Recovery Settings in My Computer==>Properties, receiving instead a warning that BOOT.INI was missing or corrupt and I could not access nor change any of the settings within.

After a little research, I simply opened Notepad, inserted the text from MS' website for proper BOOT.INI text and syntax:

[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="Microsoft Windows XP Professional" /fastdetect

...saved the file as C:\boot.ini, rebooted and the system was back to normal. I have no idea what caused the glitch, System Restores were useless. Now I have a Boot.ini tab back in msconfig and I am able to access Startup and Recovery options just as before. I hope someone can benefit from this in the future.

Tony

Users helping Users...

 

[G0AOZ]

Thanks for sharing that one with us Tony - glad you fixed your problem!

Not sure how relevant this will be, but have you added the file attributes Read Only, Hidden and System?

ROGER - G0AOZ.

 

[wahnula]

Roger,

Check on Read Only and Hidden but on my XP setup I don't see any permissions options in file Properties. How the original file was deleted I have no clue, nobody but me touches this system.

Tony

Users helping Users...

 

[linney]

Maybe you are running XP Home, in which case you only get the Security Tab when in Safe Mode.

 

[G0AOZ]

Tony,

I have to admit to using my old favourite, File Manager, to quickly look at or change file attributes!

Further to a previous post of mine regarding running File Manager under Vista, I see someone has written some DLLs which will now make it function, although there is still a problem trying to display and read the Windows folder. Here's the URL although it appears to be down at the moment:-

http://people.ee.ethz.ch/~davidsch/vistafm/

ROGER - G0AOZ.

 

[wahnula]

Maybe you are running XP Home,

The only XP Home I run is back & forth under my car tires ...XP Pro all the way, have to log on to (and join via VPN) my remote work domain. Home if for ho...never mind. I'd also be lost without RDP on my home machine.

Booted into safe mode and the security tab was there. I checked my other XP Pro machine, same same. No matter, that file's not being messed with anyway. I decided to publish my results because all the research I did on this not-so-uncommon event led me to doing a lot of convoluted steps and I know this BOOT.INI file is just a notepad script. Check the previous entries on this topic on this site: bupkus.

I'm not sure I would not want the ability to edit this file in the future; setting its attributes to system only might prevent that, but as admin I can take ownership of any file anyway, just an extra step that I don't see as being necessary. Thanks to you both for helping refine this tip.

Tony

Users helping Users...

 

[Freestone]

Set boot.ini attributes:

Start, Run..., cmd then
c:
cd \
attrib boot.ini +a +s +h

boot.ini easily editable from My Computer properties, Advanced tab, Startup and Recovery Settings button, System Startup Edit button.

 

[wahnula]

Thanks Freestone for going commando on me...

Worked great.

Tony

Users helping Users...

 

[Freestone]

lol, Tony, going commando You're welcome!