xp pro not booting after changes to boot.ini

Anonymous

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.

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Anonymous

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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43 additional answers

Anonymous

2012-07-07T15:18:02+00:00

it's the first file that is read by a computer to load an OS after the boot sector is read. it is a file with no extension located at the root of your drive. After ntldr is done it reads the boot.ini file to determine which operating system to load. I don't know how this works in windows 7, maybe the boot file is integrated into ntldr or is just located else where.

I need to check on my windows 7 computer where to edit boot options but I'm sure you can do it from msconfig. Simply open msconfig from C:\windows or run and switch to the boot tab.

-Alex

ok I have just opened msconfig in win7 and switched to the boot tab but there is nowhere- no option here to edit the boot file. So what now?

I think we have at least reached the basic conclusion now that we need to work and edit the boot file in win7 to make any changes stick and make them work.

thanks.

Hi Alex, Can you reply to this pls?

Thanks.
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Anonymous

2012-07-07T16:49:42+00:00

Something very funny about this entire thread as the OP continues to ask the same question over and over ignoring the obvious answer. Do you want to fix your issue or are you just playing with us here? I'm beginning to think the whole thread is a game.

Replies like yrs dont help at all because I havent got even a single workable solution as yet.

And Im sorry to say I dont understand whats going on either. None of these replies are helping at all. I still dont know what to do to boot my XP partition. You guys keep giving half answered replies talking in riddles. I dont understand what to do.
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Anonymous

2012-07-07T16:57:57+00:00

How do I edit boot options in win7?

This is what my boot.ini file currently looks like (accesed through win7 on C: and currently located at D:\WINDOWS\pss):

;

;Warning: Boot.ini is used on Windows XP and earlier operating systems.

;Warning: Use BCDEDIT.exe to modify Windows Vista boot options.

;

[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 7" /NOEXECUTE=OPTIN /FASTDETECT /USEPMTIMER

multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Professional" /NOEXECUTE=OPTIN/FASTDETECT /USEPMTIMER

Is it correct? What should I write in this boot file?
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