I've tried formatting and reinstalling my laptop several times. After I update and install my software eventually my computer will freeze upon start up at the desktop. The mouse stays with with the hour glass and never loads. So after a forced shut down, upon boot up, it says it cannot find the BOOT.ini file and boots form C:\WINDOWS. What causes this? and how can I fix it?

With a simple XP installation there isn't always a boot.ini... When you reformated drive and thenre-installed the OS did you install the chipset drivers for the MoBo?

yes i did. I've never had this problem with my desktop, I do this pretty often and I am familiar with hte process. I installed all the chipset, cpu, video, etc drivers available. After all was done, i checked under the "msconfig" cmd and the was a Boot.ini tab. however upon 1 of the start ups after updating or installing a program it froze, and upon that restart the boot.ini was gone. I did research this a little bit, and I believe what was causing me to freeze was the file "qtzgacer.exe". Is it possible that, that program is what kicked my boot.ini file out?

I would suggest going into recovery console and running chkdsk /r. You may have developed bad clusters on the disk. This will test them and mark them as bad after attempting to relocation the date contained within. I have never seen a ntldr based OS without a boot.ini. The user may not know how to see it but that is what the mbr points to for load.

Worth to follow Wanderer's advice re's disk check although I feel it may not be the issue here; but who knows? (Only The Shadow knows...). I used to take it as read that there was "always" a boot.ini for an ntldr OS installation... But events, trawls, and posts various (here and elsewhere) finally led me to discover that it isn't "always" there... Never been able to understand how the system boots without it... but apparently it doth happen; and "I think..." there is an M$ KB in this regard too - but can't recall which it is... The exe file you mention is unknown to me; not the slightest idea what that does... Recovery console might also enable you get it resolved; as in return to a restore point prior to the programme you installed after-which thynges done doth go wronge...? Incidentally the link below discusses some aspects of boot.in etc...; but doesn't cover the non-existence of it with a working installation... Will have to dig around my archives to find the info about this apparentl anomaly... http://www.geocities.com/thestarman...

Check this link. Follow up with a google search "qtzgacer.asp what is it". for more info. http://www.auditmypc.com/process/qt... There is nothing to learn from someone who already agrees with you. Search for Boot.ini should be in C:\ with backup in C:\windows\pss

re' The XP system booting without a boot.ini.. A brief google trawl does bring up numerous instances of this happening... and there is an almost standard error message (usually) that indicates the system is booting from the Windows folder direct...? I have (at times various and during the above trawl too) seen comments about a missing W2K boot.ini to same end; and again the W2K system booted fine (and apparently no error message either...). Cannot find the references I had an age ago - so can't print them here unfortunately. Nonetheless I still don't follow clearly (if at all) just how with no boot.ini W2K/XP still manage to boot...