xp pro not booting after changes to boot.ini

Anonymous
2012-06-29T08:25:26+00:00

The problem is my C: partition has Windows 7

D: Has XP Pro

These should be seen as partition 1 and 2 resp. right?

I wanted XP pro to boot first as the default partition.

A few days ago I made a change to the boot.ini file. But since then XP Pro has not been booting at all.

I wanted XP Pro to boot first as the default partition.

Since XP Pro and my D: drive have not been booting, I accessed the boot.ini file through the C: partition, that is Windows 7 and I changed the order (i.e. partition no.) in the boot.ini file and saved it to the necessary location, i.e. D:/WINDOWS/pss/

through my working C: drive, i.e. the Windows 7 partition, but it is still not working because apparently even though I am saving it here, the actual values and partition paths are not actually being changed on the system. I confirmed this by going into the CMD shell switching to D: and running the command D:>bootcfg.

Apparently no matter what values I am saving in the boot.ini file which I am saving as a text file or "All files" in D:/WINDOWS/pss/  it is not actually changing in the system because whenever I run the bootfg command the values are remaining just the same and not being able to be changed, because apparently it is not being saved in XP Pro and the D: partition. No matter what I do and what values I put into the boot.ini file accessed through the windows 7 partition, the values which bootcfg returns to me are always the same and it refuses to change the path name or anything else. Regardless of what commands I put into bootcfg itself also.

These are the values that bootcfg is giving me:

default:multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS

Boot entries:

Boot entry ID: 1

OS friendly Name: MS Windows XP Professional

Path: multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS

OS Load options: /NOEXECUTE=OPTIN/FASTDETECT /USEPMTIMER

My XP Pro partition is just not booting and it is my primary partition and has all my work. It is imperative that it boots.

My Windows CD is also not booting because apparently my DVD drive is not working properly, I had the anti malware program threatfire (threatfire.com) installed on my D:Windows XP drive but have uninstalled just it in case it was blocking my changes to the system.

On C:Win7 I set the default OS option in the advanced tab to Win7 and on the D:XP Pro to XP Pro , when it was booting and working. Now I can only access my D:XP Pro files thru the C:Win7 drive. But XP just isnt booting. What shd I do? Thks.

Windows for home | Previous Windows versions | Performance and system failures

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Anonymous
2012-07-08T13:06:35+00:00

I do have a windows CD handy but my CD/DVD drive is not reading it and not working properly.

Seems like your initial post stated your cd/dvd isn't working.

With all due respect, you're gonna keep on with these hap hazard fixes and your computer isn't going to boot at all. I am going to try to help you one more time. Please follow closely.

Start your computer by loading Windows 7. Click HERE and download EasyBCD. Install the the software in the trial version. After the installation has completed open EasyBCD. You will see an interface like the image below. Click on Add a new entry.

A new screen will appear as in the image below. Use the drop down menu to select Windows NT/2k/XP/2k3 as shown below. Type the name of the operating system in the field below. Of course this will be Windows Xp (you can add Home or Pro to the name if you want). Now make sure there is a check mark in the box to "Automatically detect correct drive". Once you have completed those steps click "Add Entry". That's it!! You're done. If all went well, and if you followed these instructions carefully it will have, you now have a dual boot system.

You can now begin working on your cd/dvd issue.

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  1. Anonymous
    2012-07-13T14:44:20+00:00

    Actually Dave, a Windows CD is a boot CD.

    Obviously.

    That is why I used quotation marks. None of us here has any idea what this CD that OP is referring to is! For all we know it might be a Service Pack 3 installation CD made from this .iso:

    http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=25129

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  2. Anonymous
    2012-07-13T13:36:18+00:00

    nilanjang,

    Press F10 when you turn on your computer and take note of any options to do with your cd-rom or dvd-rom drive and report them here. Please do not change anything yet if you are unsure.

    -Alex

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  3. Anonymous
    2012-07-13T13:35:11+00:00

    Actually Dave, a Windows CD is a boot CD. It needs to have a boot sector in it to begin setup. Without it, setup would not run and the computer wouldnt load anything. An ntldr or some other type of boot code is needed to start setup.

    -Alex

    {EDIT} I see I see, you should have directly asked what the "windows cd" looks like.

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  4. Anonymous
    2012-07-13T00:13:53+00:00

    My Windows CD is also not booting because apparently my DVD drive is not working properly

    To say that something "is not working properly" is kind of vague. What does that mean? Does it make loud noises? Is the tray stuck? Is it turned off? Does it work when in Windows only? Are you merely having problems booting off a CD or DVD?

    It is only playing audio CDs, and sometimes even that is not being detected by wmp, thats all. It is not playing any DVDs at all - movie, video or software. It is not booting any OS or software from the DVD at all. There is no other problem at all. Thks.

    Please describe your "Windows CD" IN DETAIL. For all we know this is not a bootable CD, which would certainly explain why you can't boot off it.

    Also, with HPs, I believe you can press Esc to get a special boot menu where you can select the CD-ROM device as the booting object, as shown here:

    from http://forums.majorgeeks.com/showthread.php?t=245715

    Make sure you have your Windows XP cd in the Cd/DVD-Rom drive.

    Now reboot your system.

    At the HP splash screen (screenshot below)

    Press the Esc key on your keyboard.

    This takes you to the Boot Menu

    Select your Cd-DVD rom device and press ENTER

    Be ready to press ANY KEY ON THE KEYBOARD (multiple times if you'd like) when you see the following:

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