boot options

Hi
I recently formatted a friends hard drive by attaching it to my computer and using the windows xp cd. I then had two boot up options on my computer when I removed his disk. To get rid of his boot up I edited the start up options file to remove his disk. Now when I boot up I still get two options but the other option is "Windows Default ", not his hard drive. Any ideas how I can get rid of this please. I have copied my start up options file below. I would guess I just delete what is after "default=" , and replace it with the line below, or just delete the "rdisk(1)" entry. I dont want to do anything just yet in case my computer wont boot at all.

[boot loader]
timeout=3
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(2)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS= "Microsoft Windows XP Professional" /fastdetect /NoExecute=OptIn

thanks
Steve

 

Change it to this:

[boot loader]
timeout=3
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

 

Tried it thanks by copying and pasting. The windows default option remains, and although listed second, is the one the computer goes to first. It will disappear if I install another hard disk and install an operating system I would think?

 

Get rid of the space in default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOW S.

I don't know if it would cause the problem but the space shouldn't be there.

 

Bmoore1129, you are correct. That space will cause the problem.

Space is thanks to the "50 continuous characters without a space" line wrap feature of the BB software. It makes for lots of problems when trying to display long code strings.

 

Yes that worked thanks. Ive saved a copy for future also.
steve

 

LOL. Glad you got it. I tried to remove the space, but couldn't of course. That has been a curse of this board for a long time and makes it difficult to display long lines. It doesn't occur in other forums I frequent, so I often forget about it.

I assumed that since the space occurred in your original post that you would realize that I hadn't meant a space to be there.

Thanks for the followup.

You might save a copy of this for future, too. Run the program to create a boot floppy, boot from the floppy, and you can edit your boot.ini if it doesn't allow you to boot:

http://users.adelphia.net/~abraxas/dl/BootIniEdit.exe

 

Strangely enough, if you leave that space in there and let the system boot without you taking any action when the menu screen appears, it will try to boot to the corrupt line and fail to load Windows. The error will say:

Windows could not start because the following file is missing or corrupt:

<Windowsroot>\system32\hal.dll

Please re-install a copy of the above file.

Now there's a misleading statement to throw a poor troubleshooter off the scent.

Abraxas, your boot.ini edit tool should be very useful in that situation. As a matter of fact, any freebie that allows for editing any NTFS file would be handy.

It doesn't take a lot of smarts to get the system back to booting if you just fouled up the boot.ini and forgot how it should be. If you can find the means to delete it entirely, the system will boot just fine without it. You'll only get a little error screen telling you that Windows has found a way to boot in spite of you. It's better to have no boot.ini at all than to have one pointing the wrong direction. Perhaps abraxas' boot.ini edit will be that means of access and not require a Recovery Console session. I'll have to explore that possibility.

 

Abraxas, I can't get the file to execute properly. It flashes very briefly and I can see the 1% in the small window (like it was beginning to write to the floppy) just before it disappears. That's as far as it gets, no error screen, it just closes.

ps. If it is programmed to make a "quick boot" disk ala xxcopy Kan Yabumoto type, I'll understand. I just was hoping for too much. A simple boot disk for NTFS editing- what was I thinkin'.

 

OK. I just uploaded a fresh copy in case something got corrupted along the way. The file should be a WinImage file and 756,431 bytes.

See if you like it. It really works well.

EDIT:
Try "Save Target As..." on the link. I just downloaded a working copy and made a floppy with it.

 

Still no luck and the file is:

11/19/2004 09:18 PM 512,000 BootIniEdit.exe



Same results running it right from the gate without downloading.

The "Save Target As.." worked and it's now 756,431 bytes. Presently writing the floppy. I'll see how it does, thanks.

 

My first attempt after uploading got me a 200-something file. The next one with 'Save Target As..." worked. Seems the server had to re-adjust .

 

Voila! It works just fine but of course you knew that. It will be a good tool to have for the times when someone posts up with a problem that points that way. Now if we could just get a little deeper into NTFS for free. I have winternals ntfsdos pro but it's a little pricey for most users.

Thanks for putting me on to this new tool. I'll play around with it and see if I can crash my computer (again). Now I'm back in debt.

The link works straight out now, go figure.

 

I just booted the bootiniedit floppy and deleted the entire contents of my boot.ini file. The system still boots since the MBR is evidently coded to look on the root of the c: drive for the loader files, in the absence of any other directions. So being blank is equal to not existing, since it will boot that way too. I suppose the bottom line of all this is that any time you suspect your boot.ini file is causing you boot problems, just delete, rename, or edit it blank and you'll remove that doubt from the equation.

This bootiniedit floppy makes one of those options quite easy. Rather than blank it, I would suggest REMing the lines so as to preserve them for the later review and fix. It would probably take semicolons to do that.

 

Does that also work if the boot partition is not the first one on the first primary drive?

 

As long as the bootloader files (NTLDR and NTDETECT.COM) are on the root of the active drive, it works. XP searches there when no other instructions are present.

Now if the operating system in on another partition and it isn't set active, it won't boot. The boot.ini must be used to direct XP from the default c: drive root and have it look on the partition with the OS. Normally though, that will be the active drive as well. That's not true on a dual boot system so presumably that scenario would not be bootable without the boot.ini drive.

 

I found something that says it much better than I did:

So...the correct answer to your question is no.

 

I did find out something else. It's not necessary to REM or ; all of the lines. Just any character in front of the bracketed terms will do:

x[boot loader]
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS
timeout=3
x[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS= "Microsoft Windows Whistler Personal" /fastdetect /NoExecute=OptIn

Any character will do since its only function is to corrupt the file.