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

2012-07-06T21:55:35+00:00

Hello,

Run the fixit mentioned below and then try to edit the boot.ini file.

Your CD drive or DVD drive is missing or is not recognized by Windows or other programs(Fixit)

How to edit the Boot.ini file in Windows XP

Hope this information helps.

Can you just pls tell me what to write in the boot.ini file with Win7 on C: and XP Pro on D: ?
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Anonymous

2012-07-06T21:48:11+00:00

Can you reformat your D partition and Reinstall ?

And when u want to set XP as your Default do so from windows 7 partition right click Computer click properties than advanced system settings than start up and recovery and switch that to boot XP first

No cant reformat and reinstall. Have invaluable data that will be erased.
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Anonymous

2012-07-06T21:30:48+00:00

No don't reinstall you're just doing it wrong. Give me a moment leme boot up my win7 to see how to do this since windows7 doesnt have boot.ini but what you need to do is add a windows xp pro entry into your existing win7 boot info file. And in windows xp the boot.ini is stored in the root of the drive not in windows.

This is a winxp boot.ini file

[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 Home Edition" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect

So in your win7 add

multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Professional" /fastdetect

or if thats not possible you'll have to write it in win7 code. then if you only want win xp or your just want it to boot almost immiediatly, change timeout to 2 and change default to partition 2 and also put the xp entry before the win7 entry. Is there an ntldr in D:\ ?

-Alex
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Anonymous

2012-07-06T21:26:34+00:00

Can you reformat your D partition and Reinstall ?

And when u want to set XP as your Default do so from windows 7 partition right click Computer click properties than advanced system settings than start up and recovery and switch that to boot XP first
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