Resolved Ability to access boot.ini

I know that the boot.ini is in the C directory (NTLDR missing error that I'm trying to fix). I have a cd with the files ready to copy, but I want to rename the old ones before copying the new ones. But I can't find them. On both a working and the problem XP laptop, I can't seem to get those files to be visible in Explorer. I can bring them up to edit them (via Control Panel, System, Advanced, Startup). Should I just open the problem files up that way, copy and paste the contents from a working file, and leave it at that? Or do I have to actually copy the good boot.ini file over? Should I copy the good files and just let Windows over-write the old ones?

XP is set to show hidden system files, on both computers.

Recommended course of action?

 

In Folder Options you need to check Show hidden files and folders to see boot.ini. Also uncheck Hide extensions for known file types.

 

I had already done that. But I realized that there was another one---hide protected operating system files, which was still checked. Unchecking that one revealed boot.ini.