At boot-up I get a black screen that says "Invalid Boot.ini File". How do I access the file to see what is in it or to change it so I don't get the error message any more. It seems as though my PC takes about 5 minutes to boot since I started getting the error message. Any help would be appreciated
boot.ini
Fri, 2009-08-14 17:10 by admin
The boot.ini file is in the root folder of the drive you initially boot from, usually C:. It is write-protected. You can remove the write-protection from it and edit it, but if you make a mistake, you may render your computer unbootable.
Read the following Microsoft Knowledge Base article:
How to edit the Boot.ini file in Windows XP
One possible cause of several for the problem is that a drive letter has changed, which is almost always unwelcome and should be fixed.
boot.ini
Sun, 2009-08-16 08:01 by tjemery1958
I found that I did not have a boot.ini file on my HD. I got info from Microsoft web site that showed a basic boot.ini file for an XP Pro machine (which mine is). I cut and pasted it into a word document and saved it as Boot.ini. My machine boots a little faster and the error does not come up any more. Not sure it was the best fix and not sure how the original Boot.ini file was deleted. I guess I got lucky that everything boots fine. I also found a backup copy of an older boot.ini file (when I did a search) that is identical to the one I found off the Microsoft website with the exception that at the end of the file is the option /NoExecute=OptIn. Is this a necessary element in the Boot.ini file?
Thank you in advance for your help.
TJ
/NoExecute=OptIn
Sun, 2009-08-16 13:31 by admin
No, that is not a necessary element. It controls the operational mode of the Data Execution Prevention (DEP) function of the newer versions of Windows.