Member Avatar for shannon22

I get an"Invalid Boot.ini file booting from C:\windows" message when starting up . I use WIN XP. I searched this site for suggestions and followed this one that worked for others....However not for me.

"Below is how to edit your BOOT.ini:

Most people cannot find BOOT.INI on their hard drive. This is because they have hidden files and have not elected to see them. Open up my computer, choose tools, folder options.
Go to View, choose the option to display system files, and also the option to display hidden files.

Now do a search for BOOT.INI (it should be on C:\ and not in any folders). You can right click on it and choose 'open.' Now you can edit it how you would like to. I've included the default examples for boot.ini for XP and 2000 below.

Here is an example of a boot.ini in XP:
[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 "

I followed everything but it will go to the screen where I would select the operating system to start, and I can select one, but it continues to go back to that screen instead of booting windows...I can not start in safe mode either when I press F8. Any suggestions? Thanks!

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  • Latest Post Latest Post by Bob_180_Bob
Member #990693 commented: I have the same problem but is not either switching on just is restartin (rebooting). Also I want it to boot from usb but it is not starting to run but it shows the message: invalid boot.ini file booting from c windows. I don't know what I should do in th +0

Dani AI

Generated

’s suggestion (using the XP media) solved the problem for , but for future readers the message "Invalid BOOT.INI file — booting from C:\WINDOWS" means the NT loader (NTLDR) could not parse the BOOT.INI entry it expected. Common causes include a malformed or empty BOOT.INI, an ARC path that points to the wrong partition, the file saved in a Unicode/UTF format (Notepad can do this), or the file being compressed or corrupted. (neosmart.net)

Before doing a full reinstall, the Recovery Console often repairs this without losing data. Typical safe steps (from the XP CD Recovery Console) are: remove hidden/system/readonly attributes, rebuild BOOT.INI, restore missing boot files, then repair the partition boot sector if needed. Example command sequence (run from Recovery Console after pressing R at setup and logging in as Administrator):

C:
attrib -s -h -r C:\boot.ini
del C:\boot.ini
bootcfg /rebuild
copy D:\i386\ntldr C:\
copy D:\i386\ntdetect.com C:\
fixboot C:
(only if necessary) fixmbr
exit

Adjust the CD drive letter (D: above) to match the CD-ROM mapping. If the system won’t find installations with bootcfg, run chkdsk and verify the correct partition is marked active first. (learn.microsoft.com)

A few important cautions and notes: never save BOOT.INI from Notepad as Unicode/UTF-16 (save as ANSI); compressed system files can be unreadable during early boot, so remove compression; use fixmbr only when MBR corruption is suspected (it will overwrite the existing MBR); always back up any file before deleting it. If these Recovery Console repairs fail or the disk is badly damaged, a repair install or full reinstall (what performed) may be the final option. (neosmart.net)

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Member Avatar for Xlphos

If you have the XP installation CD you should be able to repair it by booting off the CD and select repair. That should solve your boot problem

- let us know how it goes

Member Avatar for shannon22

Well it took a while to get the disk, as it was a computer for work, but I got it, and it worked! Thanks so much! Just had to reinstall winxp..Good thing I didnt need anything on that computer! :)

Member Avatar for Bob_180_Bob

Hi,
Now that you have it working, please mark this thread as solved and add to xlphos's rep.

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