Where is my boot.ini file? 1

[MikeMoss]

Hi

Today I started getting a message at startup just before the Windows screen while the screen is still black that says "Invalid boot.ini"

The computer then boots up as normal.

I have a back up of my boot.ini file so I thought that I would just replace the bad one.

I have view set to show hidden files and folders on drive C.

When I run a search of the Windows directory the only boot.ini it finds is my backup one. boot.ini.backup.

Where is it supposed to be and why does my computer boot without one?

Here is a copy of my backup one....

[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 Media Center Edition" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect

I know that there is a procedure for rebuilding it but I thought that since I have a backup both this one and the one in my Norton Ghost backup that I could just replace it or use Ghost to restore it from there.

I just don’t know where to put it.

Mike

 

[MikeMoss]

PS the actual message says...

"Invalid boot.ini"
"Booting from C:\Windows"

It flashes on and off so fast I had a hard time reading it.

Mike

 

[IllogicallyLogical]

There are a couple of ways to edit the Boot.ini file. You could right-click 'My Computer' and select 'Properties'. Click the 'Advanced' tab and click 'Settings' under 'Startup and Recovery'. Click 'Edit' under 'System startup' to access the contents of the file. Compare the contents of your good backup Boot.ini file to the one that is currently in use and make the appropriate changes.

You can also access the Boot.ini file from the Msconfig utility. Go to Start >Run >type msconfig and hit Enter. Using this utility you can click the 'Check All Boot Paths' button to have the Msconfig utility to check all the lines in the Boot.ini file and verify if they are valid. If it detects and invalid path it will ask if you would like to remove it. Choose yes to remove the invalid entry.

Joey
CCNA, MCP, A+, Network+, Wireless#

 

[MikeMoss]

Hi

Thanks for the Info.

When I tried to access it through My Computer it said that it did not find the boot.ini file and asked if I wanted to create a new one.

I pasted in the contents of the backup and saved it.

Then I accessed it through msconfig, and ran the check which came up good.

The error message is gone and everything is normal.

The real mystery is what happened to my original boot.ini file I had not been changing of deleting anything so where did it go?

Thanks again

Mike

 

[GrimR]

I was bored

I just don’t know where to put it.

In the C: drive [Root]

Start -> Run -> CMD
cd\
cls
C:\>dir /ah /s boot.ini
If found under C:\>
C:\>attrib -r -h -s boot.ini
Want to view it in DOS
C:>type boot.ini
it should show you the details here
If you want to edit it.
Just type
C:>notepad boot.ini
To backit up
C:>copy boot.ini boot.txt

To hide it again
C:\>attrib +r +h +s boot.ini

or script it

strComputer = "."

Set objFSO = CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject")
Set WshShell = CreateObject("Wscript.Shell")
Set env = WshShell.environment("Process")
SysDrive = env.Item("SystemDrive")
BootIni =  SysDrive & "\boot.ini"

'Remove file ReadOnly, Hidden, System File state    
If objFSO.FileExists(BootIni) Then
    WshShell.Run("cmd /c attrib.exe " & BootIni & " -r -h -s"),0 ,True
	'BackITUP
	objFSO.CopyFile bootIni, sydrive & "\boot.txt"
	else
	wscript.echo "File Not Found"
End If