Member Avatar for babrams1

I'm getting an "Invalid Boot.ini file booting from C:\Windows\"
"NTDetect failed" message when starting up. The computer does NOT boot up, it remians in this loops and the same message continues. I do not have my XP cd. What can I do?

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This loop with an "Invalid Boot.ini" message and an "NTDetect failed" error usually means the PC cannot find or load the small set of Windows XP boot files, or the boot sector / partition information is damaged. The suggestions from , and point in the right directions: use recovery media to restore missing boot components, repair the partition boot code, and rebuild the boot configuration. Those are the usual fixes, but a few practical points and safer options are worth adding.

Before attempting repairs, check simple causes: remove all USB sticks, external drives and card readers (they often change the boot device), confirm BIOS/UEFI is booting the correct internal disk, and reseat SATA/IDE cables. If you do not have an XP disc, instead of guessing commands, consider creating bootable rescue media on another PC (a WinPE rescue USB or a Linux live USB). Booting rescue media lets you back up important files first, run a file-system check, and inspect which partition is marked active. If the system drive is failing or the file system is badly corrupted, repair attempts can make recovery harder — image or copy off critical data before changing boot sectors.

If recovery media is available later, run the targeted fixes in this order: verify/restore the active system partition, check and repair the file system, repair the partition boot code, then rebuild the XP boot entries. If drive diagnostics (from the HDD vendor) show hardware problems, stop and recover data to another machine. If the repair steps are unfamiliar or data matters, remove the drive and attach it to a working PC or seek professional help — that preserves data and avoids accidental overwrites.

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Member Avatar for Lightninghawk

Try running the XP repair. The administrator password is blank by default, so unless you actually set one, just press Enter.
If that works, type in:
COPY X:\i386\NTLDR C\:
COPY X:\i386\NTDETECT.COM C:\
where X is the drive letter for your CD drive.
Remove the CD and type exit.
Reboot your machine and see if that has fixed the problem

Member Avatar for Bob_180_Bob

Simply type "FIXBOOT". Using the "FIXBOOT" command without any parameters will write a new partition boot sector to the system partition you are logged on to

Now reboot the computer. You should be able to log into Windows.

Member Avatar for gerbil

Umm.. lessee... fixboot to the best of my knowledge only repairs the actual boot sector code ie the code that gets loaded into memory. I think what you need is bootcfg in Recovery Console. That can be used to detect and build a boot.ini file. A command sequence might be:
bootcfg /list -shows the current file.
bootcfg /scan -finds all Windows OS.
bootcfg /rebuild -you select and build a file.
You will need some sort of XP cd though, so just borrow one. Almost any XP cd will do.

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