Contents boot ini windows xp. Wrong boot ini

Editing BOOT.INI It is not difficult to perform on a running operating system; you can find it in the root directory of the system drive C:\, you will not see it right away, because the BOOT.INI file is assigned the hidden attribute. You can read how to find the BOOT.INI file in our article. But I suggest something else, let's make it more difficult for ourselves. Let's say you were unable to load Windows XP as a result of an error you made when editing the BOOT.INI file or it was corrupted by some program. How can we now get to our BOOT.INI file and edit it?

Editing BOOT.INI

We will need either a boot floppy disk, how to create and boot Windows XP from it, read Or you can use the Windows XP distribution kit to change the BOOT.INI file directly in, or a simpler option: Live CD - an operating system that boots from removable media ( CD, DVD, USB drive, etc.), which does not require installation on a hard drive to function; if you still don’t have one, you definitely need to get one; such Live CDs are very easy to find on the Internet. We set the BIOS to boot from disk, if you don’t know, read and boot from a Live CD, go to the root directory of drive “C” and find our file there. We open it using any text editor, for example Notepad, it is located in the root directory of the system drive C:\. Here I have provided the transcript and contents of a typical BOOT.INI file and, for clarity, attached a photo of the computer controls.

timeout=20
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Professional RU" /fastdetect

Explanation:

Controls the download process.

timeout=20 time given to the user to choose a system, in this case 20 seconds

multi(0) disk controller, must be set to 0

disk(0) this parameter must also be set to 0

rdisk(0) determines the serial number of the disk that contains the boot partition, note that the numbers start from zero, that is, if you have two hard drives and the operating system is on the first hard drive, then it should be indicated like this rdisk(0), look at photo Disk Management, I have three hard drives

The countdown does not start from one, but from zero, the operating system is located on the disk designated as zero, that is, on the first one. In the photo it is 232.88GB in size.

partition(1) is the number of the boot partition of the hard drive, numbers start from one, in the photo you can see that the operating system is located on partition(1) or, in other words, on the system partition “C” with a capacity of 92.29 GB.

And lastly \WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Professional RU" /fastdetect.

WINDOWS = path to the directory or, more simply, to the folder where the operating system is installed.

" Microsoft Windows XP Professional RU"The name of the operating system, by the way, here you can write any name.

/fastdetect is a special key that disables recognition of devices connected to serial and parallel ports.

At the beginning of the article, we wanted to also edit the BOOT.INI file on a working Windows XP, but it seems to me that after reading everything described above, editing the BOOT.INI file on a working Windows XP will not be difficult for you.

Here I have provided similar parameters key/fastdetect: If you have little experience, be very careful with these parameters.

/basevideo the system will use the standard VGA driver, used if you have problems with your video card
/fastdetect The system does not detect Plug and Play devices during the boot process.
/maxmem is used if the RAM is unstable.
/bootlog is used to find the reason why the system can only boot in safe mode.
/safeboot When installed, the system will boot into safe mode.
/sos includes a list of loaded drivers on the screen, which will help you find out what the system is struggling with when loading.
/crashdebug loads the debugger and remains inactive until a kernel error occurs.
/nodebug does not display debugging information on the screen.
/hal specifies the file that is used as hal.dll after loading.
/kernel specifies the file that is used as ntoskrnl.dll after loading.

Look carefully at where you made a mistake and what you entered incorrectly, make the correct changes and try to reboot and log into your operating system.

In Windows XP, the boot.ini file controls the boot menu for operating systems and specifies where exactly to load operating system files from. If you accidentally or maliciously delete it, Windows will boot, but it will give you an error.

However, if more than one operating system is installed, you will not be able to select them at boot. Restoring boot.ini is quite easy; let’s look at the three most common cases with the contents of the boot.ini file.

What should be done

1. If one Windows XP operating system is installed on the first partition of the hard drive (on the C:), then the file should contain the following lines:

multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS=”Microsoft Windows XP Professional RU” /noexecute=optin /fastdetect

You just need to create a text file and copy these lines into it, and put the file itself in the root folder of the “C:” drive.

2. If two Windows XP operating systems were installed, on drives C: and D:, then the contents will change to this:

default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS

multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect

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

3. If your computer has “ Recovery Console", then the following line is added to both first cases:

c:\CMDCONS\BOOTSECT.DAT=”Microsoft Windows XP Recovery Console” /CMDCONS

Using the parameter timeout you can specify the waiting time for selecting from the menu, it only works if there is more than one item, the minimum value is 3.

You can restore the boot.ini file in semi-automatic mode; for this you will need a Windows installation disk, with which we enter “ Recovery Console».

In the console we perform the following actions:

enter: bootcfg /rebuild

After searching for available operating systems, the console will ask:

“Add system to boot list? (:"

press "Y"

to request:

"Enter your download ID:"

enter “Microsoft Windows XP Professional RU” or whatever you want it to appear in the menu.

to request:

"Enter boot parameters:"

enter " /fastdetect»

That’s it, now we enter “exit” to reboot, the boot.ini file has been created anew. And I wish you good luck, be careful not to delete system files.

PS: depending on the version and language of the operating system, the messages may differ, but the meaning is the same.

The boot.ini file contains information about the operating systems that are on your computer. If you have multiple operating systems installed on your computer, there will be multiple entries. Each entry is responsible for a specific operating system (C).

In Windows XP and Windows 7 the situation is slightly different.

File locations

In Windows XP, this file is located in the root folder "C:\". The path may be different. It all depends on what hard drive or local drive your computer boots from.

In Windows 7 this file does not exist at all. The situation there is a little different.

File contents

You can view the contents of the file, find out the number of OS and other parameters in various ways. For example, there is a special method provided by any Windows.

To do this, you need to call the “Run” utility. You can find it through “Start” or press “Windows” + “R” on the keyboard. Enter the command "msconfig" there.

The “System Configuration” window will open:

This is what information about the bootable OS looks like. If there are several of them, then the “Delete” button will be available.

In Windows XP the contents will be as follows:

As you can see, it says:

Which hard drive and local drive to boot from;

Operating system header. For example, there may be two OS (1 - “Window #1”, 2 - “Window #2”).

Timeout time. Default is 30 seconds.

Which system to boot by default.

Editing the bootloader

In Windows XP editing was very easy. The timeout could also be done in "msconfig".

But, you can completely edit the file by simply opening it in a text file. Its path is "C:\boot.ini".

In Windows 7 the situation is more complicated. If you go to "C:\boot.ini" you won't find anything because this file doesn't exist. Many different programs have been invented for this. For example, EasyBCD.

It is free and very easy to find online. As you can see, the content here is more detailed than showing the content using "msconfig".

Here you see:

Timeout 30 seconds;

Default OS;

OS name - Windows 7;

Device volume - "C";

Path to the bootloader;

Windows folder.

The display format can be changed using the following radio buttons.

When viewing in detail you will see the following:

The management of this program is very simple. When you click on "Change settings" you will see the following general settings:

When you click on "Add/Remove Entries" you will see a window with operating system boot entries:

Adding a new entry is simple. There is a special block for this. Here you can select the type you need, specify a name, specify the local drive and then click on "Add Entry".

There are also additional settings:

In addition, you can overwrite the bootloader file in the “Manage Bootloader” item. You can make a backup copy or restore data from a previously created copy.

Using the Command Line

The Windows operating system provides the ability to edit bootloader data in more detail. In fact, all programs work on this principle.

To do this you need to launch the command line. Call the “Run” utility. Enter the command "cmd".

Now you need to enter the command "bootcfg /?".

For each command you can call up additional help. How to do this is indicated in the screenshot.

Bootloader recovery

Sometimes it happens that this file is damaged or deleted intentionally for personal gain. You can also restore it using the command line, but you will have to run it from the installation disk.

For those who don’t understand what we’re talking about, I’ll show you everything in pictures:

This is what the boot menu looks like when installing the latest Windows 8 OS.

And this is what the menu looks like when installing the latest Windows Vista, 7.

Before Windows Vista (Windows 2000, XP), all changes to downloads were made to the file boot.ini. Boot.ini is a system file that contains information about the Windows operating systems installed on your computer. This data is displayed while the computer/laptop is booting. In order to change the boot parameters, just open the boot.ini files with any text editor and make changes.
Starting with the Windows Vista operating system (Windows 7, 8, 10), the boot.ini file has been replaced by the Boot Configuration Data (BCD) file. This file is more versatile than boot.ini and can be used on platforms that use a means other than the BIOS to boot the system.

But how do you make changes to boot options in Windows Vista 7, 8, 10? There are two ways for this provided by Windows developers:

1 Using a graphical interface;

2 Using the command line.

Change boot options using GUI in Windows Vista, 7, 8.

To use this method, press the key combination "Win" + "R", In the "Run" line, type msconfig, and press Enter.

It must be said that quite a few settings are available this way, but for most users this will be quite enough. This tool will allow you to:

1) Get information about the current and default boot systems.
2) Edit time (timeout). After this time, the operating system set to boot by default will be loaded without user intervention. To do this, specify the time (in seconds) in the "Timeout" field.

3) Change the default system to boot. To do this, select which system you want to boot by default (without external intervention) and click the "Set as default" button.

4) Remove unnecessary entry from boot menu. Select the entry you want to delete and click the "Delete" button.

All changes will take effect after pressing the "OK" button and rebooting the system.

Change boot options using command line (bcdedit) in Windows Vista, 7, 8.

The bcdedit utility provides more extensive options for changing boot parameters. Bcdedit is a command line tool designed to manage boot configuration data. It can be used for a variety of tasks: creating new repositories, modifying existing repositories, adding boot menu options, and much more.

To get to know this command better, launch a command prompt with administrator rights and run the command:

/bcdedit/?

In this article I would like to go into more detail on examples of using the bcdedit command .

Example of using bcdedit.

Before you start making changes to the Windows boot loader, you must first create a backup copy of it. To do this, create a BootBackup folder on any disk and enter the following command at the command line (the command line must be run as Administrator):

bcdedit /export D:\BootBackup\bcd

If you feel that something went wrong, in order to return everything to its original state, run the BCD restore command:

bcdedit /import D:\BootCopy\bcd

Where is D:\ drive where the BootBackup folder is located.

The next step is to find out basic information about your BCD. To do this, run the command bcdedit.

Where:
identifier– ID of a particular record;
device– shows the partition on which the download files are located (this can be the operating system or the BOOT folder);
osdevice– shows the partition on which the operating system system files are located. Typically, the values of the device and osdevice parameters are equal;
path– if device defined a disk partition that contains operating system files, then this parameter defines the rest of the path to the operating system loader;
default– shows the ID of the operating system that is loaded by default, if the operating system in which the command line was launched is loaded by default, the default parameter is assigned the value (current);
displayorder– shows the order in which records about bootable systems are located;
timeout– timeout (see above), the value is shown and set in seconds;
locale– specifies the language of the boot menu or the advanced boot options menu;
description– shows the name of the operating system displayed in the boot menu.

How to change the default operating system.
Specify the value /default and the ID of the OS that should boot by default.
bcdedit /default (ID)
Now the operating system with the specified ID will boot by default.

How to change the boot delay value
To change the delay before the operating system starts loading, run the following command:
bcdedit /timeout XX
where XX is the number in seconds, the default is 30 seconds.

Removing an entry from the BCD and boot manager done with the command:
bcdedit /delete (ID)
There is a peculiarity in executing the command: if a known record is specified as the ID, for example (ntldr), then the command must be executed with the /f key:
bcdedit /delete (ntldr) /f
If the ID is written in alphanumeric code, the /f key is not needed.

In order to obtain more detailed information about the capabilities of the bcdedit utility, you must use the help bcdedit/?

When loading Windows XP, an error appeared on the screen wrong boot ini, booted from the Live CD and edited it, but apparently incorrectly, since the computer stopped booting completely, several operating systems were installed, I confess I worked for several days without anti-virus software, they say the recovery console cannot be avoided, but what else can be done? Denis.

Wrong boot ini

Copying the boot ini file from another system and manually editing it to suit the configuration of your computer.
Restoring the boot ini file in the recovery console.

In no case should you be afraid of the recovery console, as well as working on the command line, believe me, friends, you just need to practice a little. Not long ago there was no mouse or graphical interface, we all used the same keyboard, but let’s go back to our wrong boot ini. Quite often I am asked to tell you how to restore the boot ini file, apparently I’m not the only one who uses old XP.
This file is located in the root of the disk (C:) and is directly used by the operating system when booting. The NTLDR system loader requests information about the installed hardware from the Ntdetect.com file and subsequently reads our boot ini file, then displays information on the monitor for us to select the operating system.

The boot ini file is a simple text file with a txt extension, which contains information for the Windows XP bootloader - on which hard drive, if there are several of them, and in which partition, for example C or D, look for the Windows folder with the main system files, necessary to boot the system, how long to display the boot menu, and so on, you can read in more detail. The file has the Read Only and Hidden attributes, if you want to make your own changes to it, you will have to remove these attributes; you can also find out how to do this from us.

The configuration of the boot ini file is usually broken or it is simply deleted, usually as a result of a virus attack or the installation of various operating system boot managers, for example or OS Selector, in this case the boot ini file is replaced with boot files of these programs and if you delete them in the future, you must an error will appear wrong boot ini or worse.

How to restore boot ini file? First, if your operating system does not boot precisely because of an incorrect boot ini file, you can manually create this file on another computer or even copy it from another XP system, as well as from us (after having previously adjusted it to the configuration of your computer), then put it on a flash drive, boot from any Live CD and copy it to the root of the C drive of the faulty machine. The boot ini file is almost the same for all computers with XP installed.
Here is my boot ini file, opened in notepad, as you can see, nothing complicated.

In this case, he says that two XP operating systems are installed on the computer and both are loaded.

Usually the error lies in the three lines highlighted in red.
controls the download process.
timeout=20 the time given to the user to select a system, in this case 20 seconds
default=\WINDOWS
The operating system boots by default.
There are two operating systems to choose from.
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Professional RU" /fastdetect

multi(0) disk controller must be in 0
disk(0) this parameter should also be in 0
rdisk(0) this is the serial number of the disk containing the boot partition, the numbers start from zero, if you have two hard drives and Windows XP is on the first hard drive like mine, then it should be indicated rdisk(0), if on the second hard drive, then rdisk(1).
partition(1) Here, according to my observations, many people make mistakes, this is the number of the boot partition of the hard drive, the numbers start with one, you can see that my operating system is located on partition(1) or on the system partition " WITH", if in your case it is on D, so it must be partition(2) and so on. That's all.
Well, now restoring the boot ini file in the console, how to get there you can read the Recovery Console. Boot from the Windows XP installation disk, select R to restore the system using the console.
Select our operating system and put a number 1

If there is a password, enter it, if not, click Enter
Enter bootcfg /rebuild, and Enter this command will search for all installed operating systems and offer to add those found to the boot menu, and at the same time create a new boot ini file, which is what we need.

One operating system was found, we agree with the proposal to add it to the boot menu Y.

Enter the download ID Microsoft Windows XP Professional RU

Parameter key /fastdetect, which disables recognition of devices connected to parallel ports, speeds up loading.

Exit. Exit the recovery console.
Now the errors Wrong boot ini there shouldn't be.