Do not see boot.ini in msconfig?

[ScreamingJesus]

Running Windows XP Pro SP2, under administrivitative account, when I open msconfig I don't see the BOOT.INI tab?I see general, system.ini, win.ini, services, and startup, but not the boot tab? I dont know what could be it..I searched google no results..but the two pictures of it were running windows XP display mode where as I'm in classic display mode?That's all I could think of causing it...does anyone know whats wrong?

Thanks.

 

[bsobel]

Is your boot.ini file missing from the root of your boot drive? If everything is default, XP can still boot without it, but obviously if its missing you couldn't edit it...

 

[ScreamingJesus]

How would I check if the boot.ini is missing from the root of your my boot drive? A search of my harddrive for boot.ini (inclduing hidden files and stuff) returns no results, if thats what you mean.

 

[MrChad]

Make sure you can view hidden / system files in your Explorer Folder Options.

 

[ScreamingJesus]

Oh, I wasn't manually searcing I used the search function. What folder would I look in to look for it manually?

 

[MrChad]

Originally posted by: ScreamingJesus
Oh, I wasn't manually searcing I used the search function. What folder would I look in to look for it manually?

C:\

 

[ScreamingJesus]

Yeah I've searched my F:\ drive manually and with the search function and I don't see it.

 

[MrChad]

Originally posted by: ScreamingJesus
Yeah I've searched my F:\ drive manually and with the search function and I don't see it.

Did you try my first suggestion?

 

[ScreamingJesus]

Yes..although your being kinda vauge so its hard to know quite what you meant..I have hidden folders shown, still did not see it if thats what you meant.

 

[MrChad]

NM, I had the wrong setting. Make sure "Hide protected operating system files" is unchecked in Explorer's Folder Options.

 

[ScreamingJesus]

Okay, with the system files showing there is a "boot" file that opens in notepad under F:\. So..what does that mean?

 

[MrChad]

Originally posted by: ScreamingJesus
Okay, with the system files showing there is a "boot" file that opens in notepad under F:\. So..what does that mean?

That's your boot.ini file ... see if it appears in MSCONFIG now.

 

[ScreamingJesus]

Nope, still not in msconfig .

 

[Navid]

Why is it on F? Is your system (boot) drive on F?

 

[ScreamingJesus]

Only harddrive is F:\, so yep boot is on F:/ drive. I had this computer custom built by someone else, I didn't think this could be a thing he did but after being unable to find an answer I guess I'll ask him if he did something. Thanks for your help guys.

 

[Navid]

See if any of these may help you.
http://windowsxp.mvps.org/bootini.htm

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3

What is the content of that boot file that you found on F:\?

Right click on "My Computer" and click on "Manage".
Click on "Disk Management". What do you see in the right pane? Is the C drive missing?

 

[ScreamingJesus]

Originally posted by: Navid
Right click on "My Computer" and click on "Manage".
Click on "Disk Management". What do you see in the right pane? Is the C drive missing?

Yep, under disk managment my F drive is there.
As for those links, the first one was the only one I really understood. The second 2 I did what they said but never got any information out of it. The first one, it was going fine until the step "Delete the boot.ini value(if found)". Well it wasn't found, so I couldn't do anything else from there.

 

[Navid]

Is F drive and your optical drives the only drives you saw in the disk manager?

What is the content of the boot file on F?

Edit: You can open the boot file with notepad.

 

[WelshBloke]

Couldnt you control panel - system - advanced options - startup and recovery settings - click edit on sysem startup and manually enter your boot.ini options

 

[ScreamingJesus]

In disk managment I see my F:\, a mounted dameon image, but not my real optical drive?
This is whats in my boot file:
"[boot loader]
timeout=1
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" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect"

 

[Navid]

OK, I am out of ideas!

One last thing. Left click on "My Computer" to open a windows explorer.
Click on "Tools" and "Folder Options".
Select the "View" tab.
Remove the tick from "Hide extensions for known file types".

Does the boot file now show up as boot.ini?

 

[ScreamingJesus]

Yep, its boot.ini...I'm stumped too
Heeh thanks for your help anyway

 

[MrChad]

Your boot drive is F: mostly because of a problem with XP's setup. If you setup XP with more than one hard drive connected, very often your boot drive is not assigned C:. The only solution is to reinstall Windows with ONLY the boot drive connected.

It's possible that MSCONFIG is not designed to read boot.ini files from drives other than C:, but I'm not sure.

 

[ScreamingJesus]

That sounds like its probably it Chad, what else could it be lol..Well it's not too big of a problem, only wanted it to start in safe mode easily..so I don't think I'll reinstall just for it.
Thanks for your help guys, guess this is solved.

 

[Navid]

If you click "Start" and "Run" and type "msconfig" and click "OK", does it start msconfig?