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Windows Server Forum / Windows NT / Setup / September 2004Invalid Boot Ini File
Hi: A friend of mine asked me to look at her daughter's computer. (She uses it in college) According to what I was told, it was running slow; had all sorts of problems; and, finally, upon initial booting, this message appeared: Invalid boot ini file. Booting from c:\winnt\. Ndetect failed. I just set it up here and got the same message. I was able to use an emergency WinME startup disk and go to DOS and check the C drive. Files ARE present under C:\winnt. Though they appear to be all there, obviously, something is wrong. There is no WinNT disk in her possession. I could not "see" any hidden partitions containing WinNT original operating system to either re-install or repair. It's a competent computer, has an AMD Duron, 60 gig HD, 500 MB RAM. Does WinNT create backup boot records and store them within itself that I might copy a past-good-boot record and overwrite the corrupted record so this machine will boot? Or, am I way off base in my limited WinNT thinking? Any ideas/help will be deeply appreciated Thank you. Invalid boot.ini means it is missing or corrupt. Usually means Ntdetect.com file is missing or damaged. You mentioned no Windows NT CD-Rom. Do you have a Windows 2000 or Windows XP CD-Rom?  SignatureRegards, Dave Patrick ....Please no email replies - reply in newsgroup. Microsoft Certified Professional Microsoft MVP [Windows] http://www.microsoft.com/protect | Hi: | [quoted text clipped - 21 lines] | | Thank you. Dave: Thanks for your response. I have two Windows XP OEM versions: One from Gateway; one from Dell. Shall await your reply. Again, Thank you. Ernie > Invalid boot.ini means it is missing or corrupt. > Usually means Ntdetect.com file is missing or damaged. [quoted text clipped - 30 lines] > | > | Thank you. Try creating a boot disk. For the floppy to successfully boot Windows XP the disk must contain the "NT" boot sector. Format a diskette (on a Windows XP machine, not a DOS/Win9x, so the NT boot sector gets written to the floppy), and copy Windows XP versions of ntldr, ntdetect.com, and boot.ini to it. (note: these files are backward compatible so as to also start Windows NT/2000) Edit the boot.ini to give it a correct ARC path for the machine you wish to boot. Below is an example of boot.ini. The default is to start the operating system located on the first partition of the primary or first drive (drive0). Then drive0 partition 2 and so on. If you can get the operating system to start then you can copy the three files from the floppy to the root of the system partition (usually C:\) [boot loader] timeout=10 default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINNT [operating systems] multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINNT="Windows NT" multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINNT="Windows NT" multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(1)\WINNT="Windows NT" multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(2)\WINNT="Windows NT" SignatureRegards, Dave Patrick ....Please no email replies - reply in newsgroup. Microsoft Certified Professional Microsoft MVP [Windows] http://www.microsoft.com/protect | Dave: | [quoted text clipped - 7 lines] | | Ernie Fully Formatted diskette under Win XP. Copied the three files to it, after editing the boot.ini file exactly as you indicated using notepad. Went to the errant machine of my friend; inserted the diskette; started it up; and got this message: "Invalid boot ini file. "Windows is starting: c:\windows." After a long hiatus, received this message: "Windows could not start because the following file is missing or corrupt: <windows root>\system 32\hall.dll Please reinstall a copy of the above file." Good grief. Searched for "Hall.dll" (without quotes) on both my Win XP machines, to no avail. (Using "search hidden files and folders.") At this point, do you think it's hopeless for me to try further? I don't want to waste any more of your time, either. Let me know. And, again, thank you. Ernie > Try creating a boot disk. For the floppy to successfully boot Windows XP the > disk must contain the "NT" boot sector. Format a diskette (on a Windows XP [quoted text clipped - 28 lines] > | > | Ernie Dave: The file name is: Hal.dll, not hall.dll. Sorry. > Fully Formatted diskette under Win XP. Copied the three files to it, after > editing the boot.ini file exactly as you indicated using notepad. [quoted text clipped - 61 lines] > > | > > | Ernie Ok, I guess I assumed Windows NT 4.0 as the operating system. If so then boot.ini appears to be incorrect as it appears to be pointing to \windows instead of \winnt Can you post the drive and partition details? Also post the contents of boot.ini SignatureRegards, Dave Patrick ....Please no email replies - reply in newsgroup. Microsoft Certified Professional Microsoft MVP [Windows] http://www.microsoft.com/protect | Fully Formatted diskette under Win XP. Copied the three files to it, after | editing the boot.ini file exactly as you indicated using notepad. [quoted text clipped - 24 lines] | | Ernie You're going to smile at this one. Booted in with WinME emergency disk. When I changed directory to C drive and typed "dir /p", all files on c drive are now not visible. "Volume has no label" and then it indicates amount of space. But, that's all. I used F-disk to view partitions, there are two: C and D. C is active and shows 30% usage, and D shows 40% usage. Go figure. Here's what I'm going to do. I'm going to advise my friend to give it back to her daughter; take it to the I.T. people at her school; and have them reinstall O.S. for her. They will charge her for it, but at least her machine will be usable for her last year of college. (It's not as if her mother can't afford it) Thank you, Dave, for your time and help. It truly is much appreciated. I wish you well, Ernie > Ok, I guess I assumed Windows NT 4.0 as the operating system. If so then > boot.ini appears to be incorrect as it appears to be pointing to \windows [quoted text clipped - 32 lines] > | > | Ernie If the drives are formatted NTFS then you wouldn't be able to find anything from a win9x boot. SignatureRegards, Dave Patrick ....Please no email replies - reply in newsgroup. Microsoft Certified Professional Microsoft MVP [Windows] http://www.microsoft.com/protect | You're going to smile at this one. | [quoted text clipped - 18 lines] | | Ernie Dave: No, it wasn't NTFS. It's FAT 32. Again, thanks for all your assistance. mE > If the drives are formatted NTFS then you wouldn't be able to find anything > from a win9x boot. [quoted text clipped - 24 lines] > | > | Ernie Wouldn't be possible. Windows NT doesn't know fat32. SignatureRegards, Dave Patrick ....Please no email replies - reply in newsgroup. Microsoft Certified Professional Microsoft MVP [Windows] http://www.microsoft.com/protect | Dave: | [quoted text clipped - 3 lines] | | mE |
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