My computer came with that crappy Windows ME installed and now it is giving me tons of headache! Soo, I have decided to scrap that JUNK, reformat the Windows ME partition and install Windows 98. However, because I am doing dual boot and this happened to me once: I reformated the Windows ME partition, which is also the boot partition and reinstalled ME. After everything is done, I cannot get the screen where I lets me choose to load between Windows ME and Windows 2000. I ending up calling Microsoft and they told me that I have the boot.ini file formated and I have to re-install Windows 2000. I tried to search for the boot.ini file but could not find it. Is there anyway that I can safely format my boot drive without losing the boot.ini file and still able to use Windows 2000? Thanks a lot!

the boot.ini file is located in the c:\ drive but i think that it is hidden try setting yur folder options to view all files or type c:\boot.ini in yur address bar in my computer. u can edit it with notepad to do a multiboot u will have to delete + recreate the partitions and format the c:\ partition, install windows 98/me on it then if ur computer can boot from cd then put the win 2k cd it will ask which partition to install in select the d partition (unpartitioned space) then it will ask you to format with FAT32 or NTFS select 1. after the install it should be fine. that is what i do when i reprogram my servers

Okay well first you have to goto the view settings in explorer and tell it that you want to Show alll hidden & system files. You ALSO want to show PROTECTED operating files... then type boot.ini in the RUN command line.. (Start--> Run) when that opens up set the default to WIN 2K or whatever you want for the Default. You can aso change the name. This is an example of mine: [boot loader] timeout=3 default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINNT [operating systems] multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINNT="Microsoft Windows 2000 Professional" /fastdetect C:\="Microsoft Windows Millenium Edition" if u notice timout = 3, you can have that to how long u want to have before selecting an operating system until it loads the default. set it to zero to get rid of the startup menu. hope this helps ALSO if u can get into win2k, just right-click My Computer, then click properties. Click the advanced tab, then click on Startup and recovery. In the new window you can edit the startup menu (whether you see it, the default OS, and how long u want to see it) well LATER ~a very knowlegable 14-year-old

U now know where/how to find the boot.ini ...? (c: root directory) Whenever you edit the boot.ini, you will 'usually' need to remove the read-only/hidden attributes - via file\properties; then edit and save changes; then restore read-only/hidden attributes. But having reformatted C: drive and installed '98 (or was it ME - your post is little confusing in this regard...), you will have lost/erased/deleted the W2K boot/start-up files... and you have to re-install them Even if you hadn't reformatted C: system partition, but had just installed '98/ME after W2K, it's usually the case that the boot-loader for W2K/NT is replaced by the '9x/ME install - and thus you can only boot to '98/ME accordingly. In a dual/multi-boot scenario, all M$ OS's install their respective boot/start-up files into the C: system (active Primary) partition; and there can be an OS there as well. The 'ideal' is to have the system partition with 'only' the boot-files present; and each installed OS in its own logical-drive in the Extended partition space. The C: system has to be a file format common to all installed M$ OS's. As you already 'appear' to have both OS's (ME/W2K - or is it '98/W2K???) present, and don't want to set it all up the 'ideal' way... then the least you need to do is to recover (re-install) the W2K boot/start-up files into the C: system partition. To recover your dual-boot. Boot from the W2K CD (if your BIOS allows a CD boot) or use the 4 floppies; choose Repair when the option comes up during set-up; at the first reboot remove all CD's/floppies and allow system to boot normally. You 'should' now boot to the W2K boot-menu and thus have your dual-boot back. Do not run W2K set-up\Repair from within '98/ME. Following the advice/routes from above posts... set the default OS to be whichever you want; also set the time to boot to ??? - do not set time to boot to zero; at the least allow 5 - 10 seconds - you may one day want time to intervene... Once you have your dual-boot restored - MAKE the ERD for W2K; keep it safe/current (up-to-date). If you are willing to set it all up the text-book/ideal way, post back for more input (and perhaps a few useful links too...)?

The easiest answer to your question is this. Start > Run type "command" (or "cmd") type "edit c:\boot.ini"