Saturday, March 15, 2008

Boot.ini

The boot.ini files tells the computer where the operating system resides on the drive. It will also indicate to the system, any other operating systems installed. The Ntldr (NT loader) files checks the boot.ini for the location of the operating system(s) and will either launch the operating system or present a menu for the user to select the operating system. The boot.ini file is also given the system, hidden, and read-only attributes so it's not visible to the user until you indicate to Windows that you want to view hidden files.
If you have a computer with two operating system installed, the boot.ini file will list each one and a menu will be displayed at startup so you can select which one you want to run. I have used this option for several years when changes needed to be made in older programs that could only be done in Windows 3.1 or Windows 95. I would make the necessary corrections and re-start the system in Windows XP. Of course, these older programs have now been revised but there was a time when dual operating systems were really handy.
One of the computers I have lists the boot.ini file as:
C:\boot.ini
[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINNT
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)/WINNT "Microsoft Windows
2000 Professional" /fastdetect
The first part of the file is the boot loader information. It specifies the timeout=30 which indicates the amount of time before the default operating system loads. The next line tells the system where the default operating system is which in my example would be Windows 2000 Professional. This is where ntldr gets the location of the operating system. This location is setup using the ARC or Advanced RISC Computing method.
The second part of the file is the operating system. This section shows the operating system(s) and any other boot programs and their location. My system uses a switch called /fastdetect which tells the operating system to skip peripheral inspections. If you have a dual operating system this is where it will show up. The names in the quotes are the menu items that appear for you to select which system you'd like to run.
If you need to make changes to your boot.ini files, you can use a text editor such as Notepad or simply type MSCONFIG from your cmd.exe screen. Make sure you backup your original boot.ini file before you make any changes in case you're prone to typos. If you need to make other system changes the MSCONFIG option will save you some time by displaying tabs for other system files.
The boot.ini files as we know it, has been alter in the Windows Vista operating system. This information is now stored in the Boot Configuration Data (BCD) store and can still be modified.

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