Boot ini windows 10 looks like. Boot ini file in Windows XP

Editing BOOT.INI It is not difficult to perform on a running operating system; you can find it in the root directory of the system drive C:\; you will not see it right away, because the BOOT.INI file is assigned the hidden attribute. You can read how to find the BOOT.INI file in our article. But I suggest something else, let's make it more difficult for ourselves. Let's say you were unable to load Windows XP as a result of an error you made when editing the BOOT.INI file or it was corrupted by some program. How can we now get to our BOOT.INI file and edit it?

Editing BOOT.INI

We will need either a boot floppy disk, how to create and boot Windows XP from it, read Or you can use the Windows XP distribution kit to change the BOOT.INI file directly in, or a simpler option: Live CD - an operating system that boots from removable media ( CD, DVD, USB drive, etc.), which does not require installation on HDD, if you still don’t have one, you definitely need to get one; such Live CDs are very easy to find on the Internet. We set the BIOS to boot from disk, if you don’t know, read and boot from a Live CD, go to the root directory of drive “C” and find our file there. We open it using any text editor, for example Notepad, it is located in the root directory of the system drive C:\. Here I have provided the transcript and contents of a typical BOOT.INI file and, for clarity, attached a photo of the computer controls.

timeout=20
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS=" Microsoft Windows XP Professional RU" /fastdetect

Explanation:

Controls the download process.

timeout=20 time given to the user to choose a system, in this case 20 seconds

multi(0) disk controller, must be set to 0

disk(0) this parameter must also be set to 0

rdisk(0) determines the serial number of the disk that contains the boot partition, note that the numbers start from zero, that is, if you have two hard drives and the operating system is on the first hard drive, then it should be indicated like this rdisk(0), look at photo Disk Management, I have three hard drives

The countdown does not start from one, but from zero, the operating system is located on the disk designated as zero, that is, on the first one. In the photo it is 232.88GB in size.

partition(1) boot partition number hard drive, the numbers start with one, in the photo you can see that the operating system is located on partition(1) or, in other words, on the system partition “C” with a capacity of 92.29 GB.

And lastly \WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Professional RU" /fastdetect.

WINDOWS = path to the directory or, more simply, to the folder where the operating system is installed.

" Microsoft Windows XP Professional RU"The name of the operating system, by the way, here you can write any name.

/fastdetect is a special key that disables recognition of devices connected to serial and parallel ports.

At the beginning of the article, we wanted to also edit the BOOT.INI file on a working Windows XP, but it seems to me that after reading everything described above, editing the BOOT.INI file on a working Windows XP will not be difficult for you.

Here I have provided similar parameters key/fastdetect: If you have little experience, be very careful with these parameters.

1. /basevideo the system will use the standard VGA driver, used if you have problems with your video card
2. /fastdetect The system does not detect Plug and Play devices during the boot process.
3. /maxmem is used if the RAM is unstable.
4. /bootlog is used to find the reason why the system can only boot in safe mode.
5. /safeboot When installed, the system will boot into safe mode.
6. /sos includes a list of loaded drivers on the screen, which will help you find out what the system is struggling with when loading.
7. /crashdebug loads the debugger and remains inactive until a kernel error occurs.
8. /nodebug does not display debugging information on the screen.
9. /hal specifies the file that is used as hal.dll after loading.
10. /kernel specifies the file that is used as ntoskrnl.dll after loading.

Look carefully at where you made a mistake and what you entered incorrectly, make the correct changes and try to reboot and log into your operating system.

The Windows 7 boot loader stops working for many reasons - if boot.ini is damaged or you try to install XP along with the “Seven”, after which the latter does not want to boot. This occurs because XP overwrites the Windows 7 MBR boot record. Typically, restoring the Windows 7 boot loader is done standard means systems. You can use another tool, for example, Bootice.

The easiest way to restore the bootloader

If pressing F8 does not open additional ways launcher and troubleshooter, you will need to use a disk or flash drive Windows recovery 7. From this drive you will need to boot your computer into the recovery environment by clicking on the system recovery link at the bottom of the OS installation window.

1. The computer will automatically try to find a solution to the problem, which will notify you in the window that opens.
2. If the recovery utility copes with the task, all that remains is to reboot.

If it was not possible to restore the Windows 7 bootloader after XP, use the startup recovery tool, which, along with others, is part of the installation disk or flash drive. Usually these simple ways can handle simple MBR startup problems.

Editing boot.ini

Boot.ini is responsible for starting the system by default. If one of the operating systems is installed incorrectly or uninstalled, its non-working entry will be stored in the same boot.ini. It is located at the root of the system partition, so to edit it you need to configure your computer to show hidden files.

Sometimes boot.ini can be corrupted by a virus or some program could have caused it, after which the OS does not start on its own.

The fix is ​​simple - boot from the LiveCD and edit boot.ini using regular notepad. There are only two sections - boot loader, which controls the boot, and operating systems. There are several parameters to remember:

• timeout=10 - time in seconds during which the user can select an OS to start;
• multi(0) and disk(0) are parameters that must have zero values;
• rdisk(0) - number of the disk with the system partition (counting from zero).

In general, boot.ini with one OS should look like in the picture.

Using the command line to restore the MBR sector

You can get into command line mode from the same boot disk or flash drives by opening the system recovery tool and selecting the very last item “Command Prompt”.

1. Enter the command Bootrec and then press Enter, it will appear full list opportunities
2. Write down the MBR sector, for which there is the command Bootrec.exe /FixMbr;
3. After pressing Enter, the computer will notify the user about the successful completion of the operation in the next line;
4. Next, carry out the procedure for writing a new boot sector by entering Bootrec.exe /FixBoot;
5. All that remains is to enter Exit and try to restart the computer.

1. Log in to the command line from the installation disk or flash drive;
2. Enter Bootrec /ScanOs, after which the utility will scan your computer for operating system;
3. Write the command Bootrec.exe /RebuildBcd in the next line, the program will prompt you to add all found ones to the start menu Windows versions, including XP, etc.;
4. All you have to do is agree with this by pressing Y and Enter in sequence, after which when loading the system you will have a choice of which OS to load - XP or Seven.

You can also fix the problem with the MBR with one more command. For this purpose in command line you need to enter bootsect /NT60 SYS, then Enter. Enter Exit to exit. This will update the main boot code and your systems will appear in the list at boot time.

In case of serious problems, it may not be possible to restore the MBR using the described methods, so it is worth trying to overwrite the files located in the download storage.

BOOTMGR is missing

The computer usually displays this message on a black screen when the MBR sector is damaged or deleted. The reason may not be related to the MBR, for example, if the BIOS settings on the Boot tab have been reset and the system is trying to boot from the wrong disk. But more often than not, it is the bootloader that is to blame, so we will describe how to perform recovery Windows boot 7.

The Windows 7 disk always has a small 100 MB reserved hidden section, to record OS boot files, including damaged BOOTMGR. You can simply copy BOOTMGR from the installation media and write it to this partition. For this:

1. Open a command prompt from your recovery drive.
2. Enter the diskpart and list volume commands in sequence, after which a list of your disks and the letters that the system has assigned to each of them will appear on the screen. We are interested in the 100 MB reserved partition and the optical drive - drives C and F, respectively, as in the picture.
3. To exit, type Exit and press Enter.

Enter the installation drive letter followed by a colon and the command to copy the bootmrg bootloader to the reserved partition. It will look like this:

• F: and then Enter;
• copy bootmgr C:\ and press Enter;
• Exit, the utility will exit.

If copying to a hidden partition fails, the boot store can be completely overwritten. Restoring the Windows 7 boot loader is performed with the command bcdboot.exe N:\Windows, where N is the drive letter of the OS. After you are informed that the files were created successfully, you can exit the tool with the Exit command and restart your computer.

• write down the line diskpart in the command line, which calls the utility;
• to display all available physical disks write list disk;
• is selected required disk command sel disk 0, where 0 is the number of the only installed HDD;
• to display all hard drive partitions, enter list partition;
• to select a reserved partition, write the command sel part 1, where 1 is the partition number;
• make it active by typing active;
• exit the application by typing exit.

As a last resort, you can completely manually delete and format the system partition by starting from some LiveCD, and then use the bcdboot.exe command to create the sector again.

Using Bootice

If Windows XP was installed after "Seven", due to the overwritten MBR sector, only XP starts and you do not have the ability to select a system after you turn on the computer. At the same time, both systems are fully functional, and you can return the startup menu very easily, for which you use the Bootice utility:

In the new Bootice window on the left you will see the OS boot list, to which you will need to add the missing “Seven” to Windows XP:

• click "Add";
• in the list that opens, select the line new Windows entries 7;
• on the right side in the upper input field, select the hard drive;
• in the field below, indicate the section with “Seven”;
• click on save basic settings.

The program will notify you that this element has been successfully changed in Boot and you can exit Bootice. The next time you turn on your computer, you can already choose which OS to boot from your hard drive - Windows 7 or XP.

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In Windows XP, the boot.ini file controls the boot menu for operating systems and specifies where exactly to load operating system files from. If you accidentally or maliciously delete it, Windows will boot, but it will give you an error.

However, if more than one operating system is installed, you will not be able to select them at boot. Restoring boot.ini is quite easy; let’s look at the three most common cases with the contents of the boot.ini file.

What should be done

1. If one Windows XP operating system is installed on the first partition of the hard drive (on the C:), then the file should contain the following lines:

multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS=”Microsoft Windows XP Professional RU” /noexecute=optin /fastdetect

You just need to create text file and copy these lines into it, and put the file itself in the root folder of the “C:” drive.

2. If two Windows XP operating systems were installed, on drives C: and D:, then the contents will change to this:

default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS

multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect

multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP (2)" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect

3. If your computer has “ Recovery Console", then the following line is added to both first cases:

c:\CMDCONS\BOOTSECT.DAT=”Microsoft Windows XP Recovery Console” /CMDCONS

Using the parameter timeout you can specify the waiting time for selecting from the menu, it only works if there is more than one item, the minimum value is 3.

You can restore the boot.ini file in semi-automatic mode; for this you will need a Windows installation disk, with which we enter “ Recovery Console».

In the console we perform the following actions:

1. enter: bootcfg /rebuild
2. After searching for available operating systems, the console will ask:

“Add system to boot list? (:"

press "Y"

1. to request:

"Enter your download ID:"

enter “Microsoft Windows XP Professional RU” or whatever you want it to appear in the menu.

1. to request:

"Enter boot parameters:"

enter " /fastdetect»

That’s it, now we enter “exit” to reboot, the boot.ini file has been created anew. And I wish you good luck, be careful not to delete system files.

PS: depending on the version and language of the operating system, the messages may differ, but the meaning is the same.

File boot.ini is located in the root directory of the hard drive, or rather, in its
system partition. There are also other files necessary for correct
operating system loading: ntdetect.com, ntldr, ntbootdd.sys,
bootsect.dos. File boot.ini is responsible for choosing the operating system, sets
parameters of its functioning, while the PC boots, it also controls
the download process itself.
The boot.ini file is edited in a regular text editor. Actually,
the need for editing may arise if this file is damaged,
to restore in case of accidental deletion, to add disks or their
partitions into the system, as well as deleted.
Before editing boot.ini turn on viewing hidden files, otherwise you will
If you don’t find it, then be sure to make a backup copy of it in its properties
uncheck "read only" otherwise you won't be able to save
result of editing, be sure to make a backup copy of the file.
Partially editable via: System properties Loading
operating system Boot and recovery, or through the utility Windows
msconfig.exe.,as well as through third party programs, but full editing
only possible manually.
1 .Create a backup copy: My computer, right click, Properties
- Additionally - - press
operating system click Edit . It will open for you text editor
Notebook, your saved file has opened for editing. Here
click on File -save as in the empty space of the dialog box
right click and select Create - Folder enter the folder name,
for example, file and press enter. On the created folder, double-click and
press Save , the backup has been created.
2 .Editing : we do everything as in the previous paragraph. The file will open in Notepad.
Here's an example of what you'll see (sample boot.ini file for Windows XP
Professional):

timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1) \WINDOWS

multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WIND OWS="Microsoft Windows XP
Professional" /fastdetect
You can use the window for editing, Where are you
you can select the default operating system, set the timeout
choosing an operating system. Edit manually, possible with command
lines, via command Bootcfg.exe.("this utility is available
only in Windows XP Professional, not available in the home version):
Start - Execute - enter cmd, a command line will open, enter
bootcfg/?.Editor options and help open here.
To select the default operating system, at the command prompt, enter
bootcfg/default/ID# , # - serial number of the operating system in the list
operating systems.
To remove an operating system, from the operating systems section of the file
Boot.ini:
enter bootcfg/delete/ID# , where # is the operating system serial number
on the list.
To add OS: enter bootcfg/copy/d @@@@/ID# , Where @@@@ - text
operating system name, e.g. Windows Vista, # - OS number in the list.
Set the OS selection waiting time: enter into the command line:
bootcfg/timeout# , where # is the time in seconds after which it will be
the default operating system will load.
Next, save the editing results: do everything as in point 1, only
don't create a folder, just save the file, this way you save
changes to the file.
There are other possibilities for editing this file, but for an inexperienced user it is better to stop here so as not to cause harm due to inexperience.
Note: To open My Computer properties, do not click on the shortcut, here
the properties of the shortcut and not the computer will open, go to the Start menu and select there

Ordinary PC users don't even realize how big the value of the boot. ini. What kind of file is this, and what is its purpose?

What is boot.ini?

Boot.ini is a boot file. It is usually located in the root of the directory in which your OS is installed. Boot.ini contains basic information about operating parameters and OS location. You may encounter this file if you have personal computer Several different operating systems are used. In this case, during startup, a black screen appears on your PC monitor with a list of available operating systems and the ability to select. The screen also displays the time after which the operating system will boot by default.

A file called boot.ini is used to boot the operating system. You can find options for installing multiple operating systems on the same computer. In this case we are talking about operating systems Windows family, because on other OSes the download file is called differently and has a different extension. For any operating systems, the name of the download file does not matter. It simply specifies the path to boot the operating system. If several operating systems are installed on the computer, the bootloader will prompt the user to download one of them. The download file is also an intermediary for starting the operating system.

What information is stored in the boot.ini file

Let's see what kind of information is responsible for loading the OS. If you have one operating system, the type of boot file may be limited to standard text and a set of commands. For example, to load service packs and XP versions from the boot.ini file, the standard contents of the file are used.

The file contains only a few basic parameters. Similar parameters are available in boot files of all versions of Windows operating systems. Differences are permissible only for the basic boot parameters of NT systems, which were created as service versions of the OS and were designed to work on a network.

An important parameter is the waiting time or timeout. In any operating system, this parameter has a default value of 30. In other words, the boot delay will be 30 seconds. You can find other values ​​for this parameter. If timeout is set to 0, the boot menu will not be displayed at all. The value of the default C:\ parameter indicates the path to the OS launcher.

The system itself and its components are located in Windows folder. If your PC uses multiple operating systems at once, this setting will change. And it doesn’t matter what operating systems will be located nearby. Only the paths will be written in the line, and the user will only have to make a choice.

Location of the boot.ini file

Now the most interesting question is where should the boot.ini file be located? First of all, it is worth noting that finding the download file on any operating system is not so easy. As a rule, this file is hidden from the user's eyes so that he does not accidentally make any changes to it. Experienced PC users know that in order to see the download file, you must first enable the display mode of all folders and files hidden by the developer.

Any user can easily access the download file. All you need to do is use the “Tools” menu, which contains the “Folder Options” tab. In the menu you need to use the "View" tab. Here you just need to check the “Show hidden folders, drives and files” option. Now you can easily find the boot.ini file. It is usually located in the cortex of drive C. Pay attention to the attributes of this file. By default, the attribute is set to “Read Only”. This is done so that the user cannot edit or delete this file. Any unauthorized actions may make access to the operating system impossible.

Download file in different versions Windows OS

As for the storage location, in principle it does not matter. Boot.ini is a conditional initializer that is loaded into the computer's memory before the OS starts, asking you to choose what to load. Many well-known boot managers act in a similar way, which are used in case of complete inoperability of the operating system and the presence of malware that cannot be removed using standard methods. This is especially true for RAM. The virus blocks the launch of a number of applications, thereby loading the central processor and RAM system requests.

You can boot any operating system installed on your PC without special problems. For example, to make the selected operating system boot by default, you simply need to use the path described in the boot file. You can do it differently and set the priority to boot a different type of operating system from the desired partition. More can be achieved by installing boot clients, which are otherwise called boot managers. They start even before the OS selection starts, so you can select everything there. The boot.ini file is processed automatically by such boot managers. In addition, they make their own adjustments to the contents of the download file.

Editing the boot file

Let's talk about editing the boot file and changing parameters. In Windows, as in any other system, the Boot.ini file can be opened quite simply. Ignore its expansion. You can open this file in a standard application of any operating system called Notepad. The file contents contain text data that any editor can recognize. The main thing is to save the file in its original format in the same place. But first, it’s better to create a copy of the original. It is also necessary to first take care of creating backup copy all information available on the hard drive and the operating system image. It wouldn't hurt to create a standard Windows restore point either.

All changes made to the download file will take effect only after the system is rebooted. After restarting, the file and everything will be analyzed boot sector, which is responsible for loading the operating system.

Precautionary measures

Inexperienced PC users should still not make changes to the download file. Even if you have an idea of ​​what the operating system boot file is, do not change it under any circumstances. Only experienced users who understand the intricacies of installing and configuring operating systems can do this. System administrators who control the loading of operating systems on computer terminals can also change the contents of the boot file.

From all of the above, we can draw a simple conclusion: the boot.ini file is one of the most important attributes of loading the operating system. To believe that its removal or modification could lead to serious consequences is, of course, not entirely correct. However, it is still better not to experiment with such things. Especially without first creating a system image and a hard drive backup.

Conclusion

Boot.ini is one of the most important files of the operating system. It plays a very important role when loading the OS. Typically, boot.ini is a plaintext file that is stored in the system root. Since boot.ini is system file, it has the "hidden" and "read-only" attributes set. This means that you simply won’t be able to see this file in Explorer.

Editing the Boot.ini file can be done on a running OS. There is nothing complicated about this, just find the hidden file with Boot.ini in the root directory of the system drive and make the appropriate changes to it. You can access the hidden file by selecting “Show hidden files» in the “View” tab of the service menu. You can edit and change the boot.ini file only if you have an understanding of the operating system boot file and understand its contents.