Ok, well i have the Windows XP SP2 Professional installed at first, and I've been having it for years. SO like,a BETA came to for Microsoft for SP3, and i installed it on dual boot. It worked fine for months, and one day (today) it froze, shut off, and restarted the computer. When it usually ask you which one to boot (partition or windows) it would usually have 2 (SP2 or SP3); but now it says: Invalid Boot.ini File Booting from C;\windows.. and it boots the regular Sp2, not my Sp3. I need to access the Sp3 so badly because it has my precious files there. If i can get any help, I'll try to donate paypal, if i can. Please guys, help me. My project files are on there, and i need my Sp3 back. Thanks!

zerokun, SWAG, since it was a Beta, no telling. Possible it had some sort of time limit? What if you were to redownload a new version of the same Beta? Could you access your files? HTH. Ed in Texas.

No no, NOTHING is wrong with beta. Teh boot.ini currpoted or somehting in the partition 2. so how can ifix that to access it? so yeah, i knwo lods of friend who use this SP3, and it works fine for them. I think ym system crashed and messed up the partition(2) boot.ini

Do you have a WinXP CD? If so,follow the instructions on the link below. http://pcsupport.about.com/od/fixth...

There is not boot.ini on partition 2. You only use the one on partition 1. Can you access partition 2 via Disk Management of OS on partition 1? Can you access partition 2 via explorer? The boot.ini error most likely relate to seeing partition 2 OS entry as invalid. Make sure you have run chkdsk /r and defragged the partition 1 OS Imagine the power of knowing how to internet search http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/Teachin...

I reloaded a friend's computer about two weeks ago. I found that Microsoft now has the final version of SP3 available on Microsoft Update, and that's what it found first when the drive had no previous updates on it, so there's no need to install a Beta version anymore. ..... First make sure your hard drive is okay physically. Check your hard drive with the manufacturer's diagnostics. See the latter part of response 1 in this: http://www.computing.net/windows95/... (thanks to Dan Penny for this link:) Hard Drive Diagnostics Tools and Utilities http://www.tacktech.com/display.cfm... If you don't have a floppy drive, you can get a CD image diagnostic utility from most hard drive manufacturer's web sites, but obviously you would need to make a burned CD, preferably a CD-R for best compatibilty, on another computer if you need to. .... If the drive is physically okay, but there's something wrong with the data on it, that can usually be fixed one way or another. In that case try this. Copy and print this: This procedure fixes up to 5 possible problems. Insert Windows CD, start computer, press a key to boot with it. At the first screen where you are asked if you want to Repair Windows, press R to go to the black screen interface called the Recovery Console. you will see Password: If there are no asterisks beside password ("stars"; the uppercase of 8 on your keboard) just press Enter. If there are asterisks beside Password, the password is the same one you use as Administator in Windows, then press Enter. Setup will look for Windows installations. Each one found will start with a number. Type the number, press Enter. If there is only one Windows installation found, press 1, press Enter. If there is more than one Windows installation found, press the number for the one the computer booted with before, press Enter. Usually that's 1 too, or the one on C:\Windows . Type: FIXMBR (press Enter) (answer Y for Yes) FIXBOOT (Press Enter) (answer Y for Yes) COPY x:\I386\NTLDR C:\ (Press Enter) (should say file copied or similar) COPY x:\I386\NTDETECT.COM C:\ (Press Enter) (answer Y for Yes) (should say file copied or similar) (a space between COPY and x:, and the file name and C:\) I'm assuming your Windows installation is on C: . If it isn't, change the COPY lines to the drive letter Windows is on at the end of the line. x is the drive letter of the CD drive the Windows CD is in - usually it's the next one higher than it normally is in Windows, when you boot with the Windows CD. If you're not sure which drive letter that is, type the drive letter you think it might be, followed by a colon, press Enter; then type: dir , press Enter. If the drive letter is correct you will see about 6 files and 5 folders listed , including a \i386 folder . Type: BOOTCFG /rebuild (press Enter) (a space between BOOTCFG and /) (this takes a few minutes) 8. At the command prompt, type bootcfg /rebuild, and then press ENTER. This command scans the hard disks of the computer for Windows XP, Microsoft Windows 2000, or Microsoft Windows NT installations, and then displays the results. Follow the instructions that appear on the screen to add the Windows installations to the Boot.ini file. For example, follow these steps to add a Windows XP installation to the Boot.ini file: a. When you receive a message that is similar to the following message, press Y: Total Identified Windows Installs: 1 [1] C:\Windows Add installation to boot list? (Yes/No/All) b. You receive a message that is similar to the following message: Enter Load Identifier (my note - type something or you will see no label when you boot) This is normally the name of the operating system. When you receive this message, type the name of your operating system, and then press ENTER. This is either Microsoft Windows XP Professional or Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition. c. You receive a message that is similar to the following: Enter OS Load options When you receive this message, type /fastdetect, and then press ENTER. Note The instructions that appear on your screen may be different, depending on the configuration of your computer. If there was more than one Windows installation detected on your computer, you will now see: [2] D:\Windows (or similar) Add installation to boot list? (Yes/No/All) Repeat steps a, b, c for all Windows installations found. If you are not sure what to type for Load Identifier, type any text - you can correct that later by editing boot.ini (see My Note: below). If there was only one Windows installation detected on your computer, or if you have done a, b, c for all Windows installations found if there was more than one, continue with these instructions. If any Windows installations are definately not XP or 2000, you don't need to enter anything in step c - just press Enter. 9. Type exit, and then press ENTER to quit Recovery Console. Your computer will restart. DO NOT press a key to boot from the XP CD The updated boot list appears when you receive the "Please select the operating system to start" message. Choose the TOP one. Windows should boot normally. Remove the Windows CD if it does. .... My note: Bootcfg does not delete the existing boot.ini - it adds one or more new entries that are listed before (above) the older ones. You can remove the old entries, at least one of which may now be invalid. Control Panel - System - Advanced - Startup and Recovery - Edit - you MUST maximize the window - delete the entire line(s) below the first line below [operating systems] that were not detected by bootcfg. (e.g. if there only two lines below [operating systems], delete only the lower one) Choose File in the top left corner - Save. If after editing boot.ini there is now only one operating system listed after [operating systems] in boot.ini, after you reboot, your computer will now boot without prompting you to select operating systems.

unfortunately, i couldn't see the repair anywhere, ont he bootin cd. but anywas i reinstalled xp, but need help on getting my files back. Will report back on new thread.