Invalid BOOT.INI

D

Daff

Member
Hello

I'm new with this dual boot thing. I got a problem with some boot, I'll hope you can help.

Here we go, my problem is, that i got Vista x64 installed (C:\), then I wanted to install XP Pro (E:\). The XP Pro installation is installed on a partition on a seperated drive (D:\). Hope you understand what i mean :smile:

But when I finished my XP Pro installation it booted okay, and everything. But then when I would boot Vista, it wouldn't work, I have now formated my Vista installation still on C:\ (It was
nevertheless about time to do that). But now when I boot XP Pro, it comes with this error:

Invalid BOOT.INI
file booting from C:\windows\
NTDETECT failed

I have searched around, on the neosmart forum and wiki, but havn't found anything working yet.

Thanks! :smile:
 
When seeing XP go on the second drive here with the drive letter changed to F Windows was installed first as a stand alone by first unplugging the Vista primary. Once XP was up and running you simply copy the boot.ini file over to the Vista root and perform an edit on that.

The "rdisk(0)partition(1)" is simply changed to "rdisk(1)partition(1)" where you then exit and use the save as option for all files to see the original overwritten. Note you first have to right click on the boot.ini file, select properties, and uncheck the "read only" box followed by clicking the apply button to see that done.

The NTDETECT.com and ntldr files also have to be copied over from the XP drive. Once all this is done EasyBCD will add the new entry for XP right in and should boot when selected. The invalid boot.ini error is being seen due to pointing at the same drive but from the wrong location being on the Vista drive now.
 
Hey again

I'm not sure I did understand everything, but I've tried to follow the steps. Know it comes with this, when i try to boot XP.

File: \NTLDR
Status: 0xc00000ba
Info: The selected entry could not be loaded because the application is missing or corrupt.

I have moved NTDETECT and ntldr into this folder E:\NTLDR.
I have looked for the boot.ini file, but can't find it :S Then I read on the wiki, how you could make your own, but I did'nt really understand it. Please help : (
 
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The 3 XP boot files, should be copied directly into the root of the Vista partition, not inside a folder, and not on the XP partition. (ie C:\ntldr, C:\ntdtect.com and C:\boot.ini should be created by copying them from the XP partition) If you can't see the files, you need to go into folder options and unhide system and hidden files, and untick "hide extensions for known filetypes"
 
The boot.ini file itself will be invisible until those item in the folder options>view tab are unchecked as Terry60 pointed out. All basic boot files are simply copied to C:\ if XP is seen as D:\.

Once visible simply open two Windows Explorer windows and right click on each or right click after hightlighting more then one to choose the copy option. Then right click on the second window being the VIsta root and choose the paste option for seeing them copied over. It's not the best screenshot but if you look in the right window of the image here you can see how the root of the Vista primary looks as far as boot files including those by another tool being tested seeing the HNS externsion on some.



The window on the left is XP seen there. Disregarding those seen there with the HNS extension you can see how the rest will look.
 
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