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Quick boot topic- invalid boot.ini

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Original Message
Name: dim03
Date: November 15, 2004 at 02:22:26 Pacific
Subject: Quick boot topic- invalid boot.ini
OS: Win XP Professional
CPU/Ram: AMD Athlon 64 3000+, 512m
Comment:

Hi,

I just switched my old Segate 40GB HDD (with all my stuff on it) from Primary Slave to Primary Master. My Quantum 40GB HDD is new and I just stuck XP Pro on it. However, I cannot get the dual boot screen without the XP CD. When I boot without it it says NTLDF missing. I stuck the CD in, rebooted into XP Home (on the Segate drive) and manually copied NTLDR and NTcommand.com to the F:/Windows folder (Quantum). Now I get- Invalid boot.ini file. Booting from C:/Windows. XP Home is installed at c:/windows/WINXP, Pro is at F:/Windows.

Please help me as I need my business up and running ASAP,

Matty


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Response Number 1
Name: Chuck 2
Date: November 15, 2004 at 05:04:07 Pacific
Subject: Quick boot topic- invalid boot.ini
Reply: (edit)

The second article tells how to add or remove an O.S. from the boot.ini file.
The Purpose of the Boot.ini File in Windows XP

HOW TO: Edit the Boot.ini File in Windows XP

Print the articles to use as reference.


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Response Number 2
Name: trvlr
Date: November 15, 2004 at 13:31:05 Pacific
Subject: Quick boot topic- invalid boot.ini
Reply: (edit)

http://www.computing.net/windowsxp/wwwboard/forum/120408.html

is where this whole saga initially started…

“dim..”

Leave the drives as is, Quantum as Master to Seagate Slave.

Boot with XP CD (or the 6 floppies + CD) and run the fixboot routine (you could also run fixmbr if you wish – it won’t do any harm…). All things being equal this “should” resolve any problems with ntldr and other XP boot/start-up files. Presuming so, boot to Quantum/Pro and then access the boot.ini on Seagate/Home. Copy the reference therein for Home to the boot.ini on Quantum/Pro boot.ini. Change value for multi(0) to read multi(1) in the line copied to Pro boot.ini…

If for (whatever reason) you can’t access the Seagate drive from Pro (for the moment…) then boot to Seagate/Home as you say (above) you can via the CD; copy the boot.ini required entry to a floppy. Use that floppy copy to add to the Pro boot.ini – once you have run the fixboot (and fixmbr?) routine as above. Then make the change for multi(0) to multi(1) as suggested.

Save changes and exit.

All things being well you should then have your dual-boot.

In your previous trail of posts the answer(s) were there (from various folks), not the least in the last one I outlined…


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