boot.ini.comodofirewall ?

[Gustavus]

Weird behavior!

My computer shows what appears to be a dual boot during bootup -- both labeled

Windows XP Professional etc.

and pauses for me to select one and click on Enter.

If I open the C drive instead of the usual boot.ini file, I have boot.ini.comodofirewall, which is odd since my firewall is provided by ESET Smart Security.

The contents of the boot.ini.comodofirewall are

[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Professional" /fastdetect /NoExecute=OptIn


which is not quite what I expect to find, but only differs in the NoExecute=OptIn and the space between WINDOW and S

Anyone have an idea of what is going on here?

Thanks

Note added:
I found information on the boot.ini.comodofirewall entry on the Comodo forums. It is created as a backup of boot.ini during an install of Comodo firewall. That doesn't explain where the original boot.ini went, nor why the changes I pointed out above are present, nor how the system is booting without a boot.ini file I am going to copy a normal boot.ini from another machine to this one and see what happens.

 

[thegpfury]

Your boot.ini is probably set as system or hidden file, which would explain why you can't see it depending on your folder view settings.

 

[Gustavus]

Thanks, but I have my computer set to show hidden files. The odd thing is that the boot process halts on a page asking me to choose the operating system -- both of which are shown as Windows XP Professional.

I must have at some time in the past installed Comodo firewall, although i don't remember doing it. I use Your Uninstaller to uninstall programs I try and discard, so it is possible YU somehow deleted the original boot.ini, although it is a read only file unless you change the attribute.

 

[thegpfury]

There's another option though, if I remember correctly, under folder options to "hide protected operating system files" or something to that extent...

 

[Gustavus]

Thanks again -- and you found the explanation to the weird behavior that has puzzled me. I had unchecked show hidden files, but as you pointed out what was needed was to uncheck Hide protected operating system files. When I did that boot.ini appeared:

[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS.0
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS.0="Microsoft Windows XP Professional" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Professional" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect /noexecute=optout


The double line;
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS.0="Microsoft Windows XP Professional" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Professional" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect /noexecute=optout

almost certainly explains the bootup anomaly.

Thanks again. I sure appreciate the help.

 

[thegpfury]

No problem, glad I could help