Problems with boot.ini

There are a number of reasons why you should not play with your boot.ini file. The first reason would be because doing so could likely make it difficult for you to boot into the operating system. That right there should be reason enough to prevent most people from wanting to do this. Not all of us really care.

Okay, say you installed a partial install of a different Microsoft Windows^® Operating System. Partway through you discovered that you didn't really want to install it for various reasons (perhaps not enough room on the drive) so you simply power the box down and reboot. Now you have funny looking stuff in there? You didn't want to install it then and you're well aware of the mistake and you don't want to be reminded of it every time you boot the computer. (It will ask you over and over again - and perhaps even default to the wrong one - which version you'd like to start.)

What should your boot.ini look like?

That's for Windows Professional SP2. If you can't figure out the changes you need to make then you really should not be playing with it. You can, and likely will, make mistakes if you try. Consider yourself warned.

Not being one to leave you stranded (and knowing full well that someone will come along and mess that up and I was that someone at one point too) I figure I should probably give you the method to fix the boot the "right way" so you can try that too.

Take a peek here:
Description of the Windows XP Recovery Console

Scroll down on the page and pay attention to the FIXBOOT command. If you're having boot troubles then that's certainly something you should consider trying in your troubleshooting efforts.

OS: XP > Advanced
Date: 06/07/05

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