Boot.ini not in root? Where is Boot.ini for Win 2000 pro?

I was going to edit my boot.ini file so that I could have an option for a
safeboot, but I couldn't find it on my C: partition (OS partition).

I found it on my D: partition (which was set up as a Dos partition).

Is this normal?

 

It's at the root of the System partition, usually C:\. The file is
hidden, unhide it via the Tools | Folder Options.

How To Edit the Boot.ini File in Windows 2000
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/311578

John

 

x-post trimmed to 24hshd from
24hoursupport.helpdesk,microsoft.public.win2000.general

If you can't find it are you really going to edit it, seems a bit odd.

Depends what you mean, in relation on how your system is setup.

Win NT OS use System and Boot to identify partitions. If you have a
single default partition, common usage C: it's called System. On System
both the startup files and \Windows are in the same place.

boot.ini sits on the System partition, while the OS is on Boot, if you
have say C: and D: , having selected D: to install \Windows it's called
Boot.

Check in Disk Management, you will see which partition is which.

Also as mentioned in 24HSHD, but not for a while IIRC,
http://groups.google.com/group/24hoursupport.helpdesk/topics
links to boot.ini articles,

Even trying this helps, 2 seconds later.
http://www.google.com/search?q=windows+boot.ini

1st 2 hits,

How to edit the Boot.ini file in Windows XP
How to view and manually configure the Boot.ini file in Windows XP from
within the Startup and Recovery dialog.
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/289022 - Similar pages

How To Edit the Boot.ini File in Windows 2000
This step-by-step article describes how to edit the Boot.ini file in a
Windows 2000 environment. NTLDR displays the bootstrap loader screen,
where you can ...
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/311578 - Similar pages
[ More results from support.microsoft.com ]

Read the bit about making a copy of boot.ini and where the original is
stored.

Me

 

- To add - it sits at the root of the boot partition.

 

Here's what I'm looking to do. I've never loaded Dos on the Dos
partition, and since the boot.ini file, ntldr, and ntdetect.com files are
on the D: drive, I probably won't be able to create a ghost image of my
OS if I only create an image of the C: partition.

For some reason, I didn't pay close enough attention during setup, and
the D: partition (formatted as Dos - fat32) is listed as the primary
partition and the others are logical partitions. I was hoping to load
MS-Dos so I could have a dual boot. From what I just read on the MS tech
site, MS-Dos should be loaded before Win 2000 Pro. If it's done after
the install of Win 2000 Pro, the MBR or the boot sector will be altered.
I think the article said that you wouldn't be able to boot from Windows
2000 unless Windows 2000 Pro was loaded after MS-Dos.


I was hoping that Fixboot, Bootcfg and Fixmbr which are all part of the
Win 2000 CD recovery console might help. I think the one problem I'll
have is that the primary partition is the D: fat32 partition and not C.

Looks like another reinstall.

 

You can do it without a reinstall but the first thing would be for you
to tell us which DOS version you plan on installing and for you to find
out whether or not it has support for FAT32. Only Windows 95B/OSR2 and
later supports FAT32. This might be easier to do if Windows 2000 is on
an NTFS partition as DOS won't see it and install to the second
partition without much fuss. If the first partition is FAT32 then you
might have to temporarily hide the Windows 2000 partition install
Windows 9x.

You have the general gist of it but the Windows 2000 Recovery Console
doesn't include the bootcfg utility, that is no big deal you can simply
edit the boot.ini file manually. Create an Emergency Repair Disk for
your Windows 2000 installation and you will be able to use it to repair
the boot environment after you install Windows 9x.

To install Windows 9x boot the computer with a W9x startup floppy (or
boot to DOS with the cd) and use the sys command on the desired
partition then restart the pc and install Windows 9x. Once done use the
Recovery Console or your ERD to fix the boot sector. In order to be
able to boot Windows 9x the you will need a bootsect.dat file in the
root of the Windows 9x partition and this line in the [operating
systems] section of the boot.ini file:

c:\="Microsoft DOS"

John

 

x-post trimmed to 24HSHD from
24hoursupport.helpdesk,microsoft.public.win2000.general

True, you would need to Ghost both partitions.

Run DOS in a virtual server from WIndows?

Yes, always older -> newer OS.

Never looked at that, I always did it the other way in OS date
order.

You may find 1 of the partition managers may help. I think BootMagic
(now defunct, was in Partition Magic) let you create several primary
active partitions, each 1 hidden. The boot menu made the appropriate
bootable partition visible (to boot from) and hid the others. This way
you only needed a small initial 200MB partition for the boot menu app.
I would like to think Acronis, Paragon tools would do the same thing.

www.google.com boot manager

I used to use this,
http://www.ranish.com/part/
but the last stable version is dated 2002.

SourceForge.net: Smart BootManager
Smart BootManager is an os independent BootManager which has easy to use
interface and many other features. The main goals of SBM are to be
absolutely OS ...
http://sourceforge.net/projects/btmgr/ - 28k - Cached - Similar pages

Could be, will also depend on size of partitions. If C is too big with
regards to cylinders, DOS most likely wouldn't see the space on D
anyway.

Besides backing up several times and making sure you can recover from a
backup is the way to go.

What I usually do is,

C: Primary / Active 800MB or 1.6GB - DOS, Windows (System)
D: Windows maybe 5GB (Boot)
E: Windows (another version) 5GB (Boot)
Program Files(multiple) and Data partitions as needed.

Me

 

FDISK and remove the active bit from D, and make C your active
partition.

 

wrote in

Pennywise -

Thanks for responding.

First I have to address something of a more important nature than primary
partitions, creating disk images and reinstalls.

THE BEST video of "Radio Ga-Ga" is from Live Aid in 1985.
I remember sitting in awe that day as Freddie Mercury stole the whole
show (both on the US and British sides). Everything that followed was
anticlimactic (although Jagger was excellent, too).

I loved the song when it was first released, but that performance was so,
so painfully beautiful. His command of close to 100,000 fans at Wembley
was masterful and his voice was majestic. I think it may be the best
live TV performance of all time.


Take a look:





Now - Boot.ini and stuff:

Where is the best place to get fdisk - Microsoft.com or bootdisk.com. I
know they have several versions at bootdisk.

I've read that Partition Magic converts logical partitions to primary
partitions and vice versa, and are saying that fdisk does the same?
If so, what is the attribute to use? "Fdisk/ ?" will probably list all.

Is there a guarantee that none OS files (especially the registry) will be
corrupted by doing this?

Now I just have to figure out how to get ntdetect, ntdlr, and the
boot.ini file on the C: drive, and ensure that the master boot record
understands the changes.

 

Impressive, I've been Queen fan since their first album.

They sang in Seattle, knowing it was sold out we traveled in hopes of
getting in - standing outside when they started, sad time; and
closest I ever got.

Freddy Mercury was a hell of a singer, the power in his songs was
incredible, like "I want it all"
the link doesn't do him
justice. (but the best I can find)

You want to download the WinME version boot disk, it has the latest
FDISK.

Really just download this ISO
http://thepiratebay.org/tor/3554482/Hiren_s_BootCD_v8.6_incl._keyboard_patch
Create a bootable CD, boot up with it and you'll have everything you
need.

Use www.Utorrent.com as a client

Partition magic is an FDISK type program, same thing and more, like
changing partition sizes without data lose (operating OS's (most of
the time))

An option, change C to about 10 megs, and run Dos from it - boot up
with a floppy and in your autoexec.bat put
SET COMSPEC=C:\dos\COMMAND.COM (lets you remove the Floppy)

FDISK /? will show it's usage and you can always backout - it's

Oh no, and depending upon how far along you are, it might be wise to
change the active partition, format and start over. Your going to be
putting a system that thinks it's on D drive on C - really going to
confuse it.

All of those files have to be on the boot partition,

I have no flow to this conversation....

Another thing you can do is set C active, format, install WK2 the boot
files (on the WK2 CD under Bootdisk) edit the bootini to point to D.

Many ways, just which ever is easiest.

 

At this point, I'm not planning on installing Dos. I'm thinking of
either reformatting the Dos partition or just deleting the ntdetect.com,
ntldr and boot.ini files if I can convert the C drive into my primary
partition, and adjust the master boot record so that the three files just
named can exist on the C drive.

If I install Dos at all, I'm going to look into FreeDos:


http://www.freedos.org/

unless I can find an old copy of MS-Dos 6.22 somewhere.

I'm not looking to install Windows 9x. All I really want to do is:

1) Convert the logical partition (C) to a primary partition (C).
I think that Partition Magic can do this, and Pennywise says that Fdisk
can, too.

2) Somehow force the C drive to contain all the necessary boot-up files
and ensure that the Master boot record has been altered correctly.

If this is too much trouble, I might as well reformat the C and D
partitions and reinstall the OS (and immediately created a disk image
once all OS updates are finished and my main programs are loaded).

 

wrote in

I'm beginning to think the easiest thing is to delete the partitions (after
backing up important data files and directories), resize them, set C or D
as the primary and just reload Win 2000 again (although I've read it's good
if your OS is not on the C: partition for security purposes). Once I
delete the partitions and reformat the entire master boot record should be
wiped out. The one good thing about this exercise is that not only did I
learn more about the boot.ini file and the components of the boot up, but I
bookmarked some great sites in the process.


That said, are you sure about these torrents? I've read about Hirens Boot
CD and while the original may have clean files, how do you know a virus or
malware wasn't inserted into a particular torrent download?

PS- Glad you enjoyed the live version of Radio Ga-Ga.

 

Fdisk cannot non-destructively convert logical partitions into primary
partitions. Fdisk cannot create more than 1 primary partition on a hard
disk unless you use third party tools to hide existing primary
partitions to fool fdisk into thinking that no primary partitions exist
on the disk. The only way to accomplish what you want is to use third
party tools or blow away all the partitions and rebuild the disk from
scratch and use something other that fdisk to create the primary partitions.

If your intention is to blow away all the partitions then you don't need
third party tools to do this. Simply boot the computer with your
Windows 2000 cd and when you get to the screen asking you on which disk
and partition you want to install Windows delete all the existing
partitions and create a single new one of the desired size. You can
just leave the rest of the disk unpartitioned for the time being, you
will be able to create new primary or logical partitions with the
built-in Windows 2000 disk management tool after Windows is installed.
To open and use the Disk Management tool enter the Diskmgmt.msc
command in the Start Menu \ Run box.

***IMPORTANT!*** After you delete and create new partitions at the
disk/partition selection screen, exit the Windows 2000 setup program and
start the setup routine again! If you do not, your Windows installation
may end up with a drive letter assignment other than "C"! Exiting and
restarting the setup after the deletion and creation of new partitions
avoids this potential drive letter assignment mix ups. After you
restart the setup program, at the partition selection screen do a FULL
NTFS format of the partition. Do not use the FAT32 file system unless
you absolutely have no choice and do not skip this in favour of a
FAT32>NTFS conversion at a later time, it is best to immediately format
using the NTFS file system.

In another post you mention "I've read it's good if your OS is not on
the C: partition for security purposes". You can file that in the
"Urban Myths" category. The most important security step that you can
take is to use the NTFS file system and properly secure the installation
with robust permissions and strong user passwords. You should also
apply all the available security updates and patches and use a properly
configured firewall.

John

 

That would be old knowledge, back in the days when having a D drive
ment you were rich, C: drive was hard wired into the malware. Not that
way anymore run: %temp% will take you where ever your temp drive is
and how programs are written anymore.

Starting over is good, and follow John John's advice, as mine was all
over the place :}

Hirens Boot CD is a very handy tool to have available. I selected the
one I posted carefully it wasn't the first on the list, but all the
good comments about that file.

But common sense and safe hex always takes priority.

Glad you were able to share, http://tinyurl.com/2zzl3z First there was
MTV and it was good, then came Rap and it was Crap. Now Youtube
brought back those days, only to end up giving us garage bands and
that can't be grand.

 

wrote in

If you liked that, then check out the full Queen performance from that
day in 1985. Amazing. If you want a copy, go to keepvid.com and insert
the url of the Google link.

Convert using Media Coder or Super if you want to burn to CD or DVD and
you don't have Nero (though I have my doubts about Super) because of the
website, hidden dll's, versions of cygwin, etc.
Many on the net say it's excellent, though. Look at the comments on
Videohelp.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-7002417054368545663


Re: Utorrent

You like that better than Bitcomet?

I have always had trouble with getting these programs to dl at a
reasonable speed - even using port forwarding.

It's also nervewracking to see all those peers and then looking at
TCPview or doing a netscan -an command, and seeing all those ports open.

From what I understand, these programs prevent the peers from seeing
anything other than your torrent download files? Hopefully that's true,
because I wouldn't like to see a security breach with all the security
programs I have installed.

I've heard that IRQ programs can be just as dangerous as IM'ing programs
like AIM or Windows Messenger in that regard. How is Google talk?
If one is to believe the PC mags, just about any Google software is safe
(although I consider the Google toolbar somewhat like spyware, though I
did love having it installed at one time).

 

I thought youtube would work this out, but I've been collecting music
videos for quite awhile now (just incase).

http://dvdflick.sourceforge.net/ lets you just take the FLV's (or any
most any video format) and burn them to a DVD.