Invalid boot.ini

I recently had to re-install XP on my system which has 2 hard drives, C: & D:. I installed Windows on the D:, but the boot.ini file (along with ntdetect, ntldr, etc) is located on the C: drive. When I boot the system, it gives me an "Invalid boot.ini file, Booting from c:\windows" (which is interesting considering this is no \windows directory on the c: drive) error. How can I fix this? Can I re-locate the boot files to the D: drive where XP is installed?

My current boot.ini file reads as follows:

[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 /NoExecute=OptIn
c:\ubuntu.bin= "Ubuntu Linux "

I'll save the questions for dual-booting XP & Ubuntu for another thread, but the important thing to note is that the 'Invalid boot.ini' error was ever-present and is not related to the Ubuntu install.

 

[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(1)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(1)\WINDOWS= "Microsoft Windows XP Professional" /fastdetect /NoExecute=OptIn
c:\ubuntu.bin= "Ubuntu Linux "

Edit your boot.ini file as shown above and you should be good to go.

The files you mentioned that are on your C: drive root are necessary and must remain on that drive in order to boot XP, regardless of where it is installed.