ntldr, boot.ini, NTDETECT.com - On a different driver? How did this ha


Recommended Posts

Ok, I just formatted. I have one drive that has two partitions and then I have another drive with one partition:

C: (Drive 01, Partition 01)

E: (Drive 01, Partition 02)

D: (Drive 02, Partition 01)

For some reason when I installed XP, it placed these three files (ntldr, NTDETECT.com, boot.ini) on my E: . For one why the hell would it do this and two I don't like it one bit.

I wanted to change my drive letters around so E: would be D: and D: would be E:. When I tried to do it, it gave me an error that it couldn't modify the boot disk drive letter. This is when i discovered that it placed those three files on E:.

Is there anyway to get those files back onto C: and still have it boot properly?

Thanks in advance...

Could I edit the boot.ini:

[boot loader]

timeout=1

default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)WINDOWS

[operating systems]

multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Professional" /fastdetect

to:

[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" /fastdetect

Basically changing 2 to 1 and then move all three files to C:

Sounds risky?!

  • 2 weeks later...

Well... in the long run that is what you are going to have to do. First off though I would create an XP Emergency backup disk. I haven't created one myself, but I believe it is the same as a NT backup disk. Just copy NTDETECT.COM, NTLDR, and the BOOT.INI files to a floppy. (you might want to check up on this)

In Fact this is even better. Create the disk and just copy/paste the files you want moved to the location where you want them. Now insert the boot disk with the modified Boot.ini file and you should be able to test out your new locations

As long as you have an "emergency boot disk" you should be alright. With the disk you should technically be able to delete the files from your harddrive and still be able to boot up XP.

If you post what drives are Primary Master/Slave or however you have your rig setup I could probably setup the Boot.ini file for you.

Hope this helps.

:cool:

  Quote
hey, i have screwed up my Windows XP boot . i dont what to do. How can i fix it so i boot back into xp again and have the right boot menu!?

Start your computer by using the Windows XP Setup floppy disks or the Windows XP CD-ROM. At the "Welcome to Setup" screen, press F10 or press R to repair, and start the Windows Recovery Console

use the XP Recovery Console and Blast Out the BOOTSECTOR

use FIXBOOT and FIXMBR and the command BOOTCFG to recreate the boot configuration.

these three will fix your setup

in this order

FIXMBR first then FIXBOOT then use BOOTCFG /rebuild or BOOTCFG /scan

Use this Page for more assistance with XP's Recovery Console its a very good page >> "Description of the Windows XP Recovery Console" >> http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?...b;en-us;Q314058

i hope this makes any sense to you, i've spent about 3 mins perfecting this reply lol.

--Good Luck--

-xStainDx

P.S. You Dont Need backup floppies in XP when it comes to the boot setup, why? Windows XP stores all this information in the Driver Cache Directory. When you run these commands as listed above it'll recreate ntdetect and the others from the cache files.

This topic is now closed to further replies.
  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
  • Posts

    • Shotcut 25.07 by Razvan Serea Shotcut is a free, open source, cross-platform video editor for Windows, Mac and Linux. Major features include support for a wide range of formats; no import required meaning native timeline editing; Blackmagic Design support for input and preview monitoring; and resolution support to 4k. Editing Features Trimming on source clip player or timeline with ripple option Append, insert, overwrite, lift, and ripple delete editing on the timeline 3-point editing Hide, mute, and lock track controls Multitrack timeline with thumbnails and waveforms Unlimited undo and redo for playlist edits including a history view Create, play, edit, save, load, encode, and stream MLT XML projects (with auto-save) Save and load trimmed clip as MLT XML file Load and play complex MLT XML file as a clip Drag-n-drop files from file manager Scrubbing and transport control Video Effects Video compositing across video tracks HTML5 (sans audio and video) as video source and filters 3-way (shadows, mids, highlights) color wheels for color correction and grading Eye dropper tool to pick neutral color for white balancing Deinterlacing Auto-rotate Fade in/out audio and fade video from and to black with easy-to-use fader controls on timeline Video wipe transitions: bar, barn door, box, clock (radial), diagonal, iris, matrix, and custom gradient image Track compositing/blending modes: Over, Add, Saturate, Multiply, Screen, Overlay, Darken, Dodge, Burn, Hard Light, Soft Light, Difference, Exclusion, HSL Hue, HSL Saturation, HSL Color, HSL Luminosity. Video Filters: Alpha Channel: Adjust, Alpha Channel: View, Blur, Brightness, Chroma Key: Advanced, Chroma Key: Simple, Contrast, Color Grading, Crop, Diffusion, Glow, Invert Colors, Key Spill: Advanced, Key Spill: Simple, Mirror, Old Film: Dust, Old Film: Grain, Old Film: Projector, Old Film: Scratches, Old Film: Technocolor, Opacity, Rotate, Rutt-Etra-Izer, Saturation, Sepia Tone, Sharpen, Size and Position, Stabilize, Text, Vignette, Wave, White Balance Speed effect for audio/video clips Hardware Support Blackmagic Design SDI and HDMI for input and preview monitoring Leap Motion for jog/shuttle control Webcam capture Audio capture to system audio card Capture (record) SDI, HDMI, webcam (V4L2), JACK audio, PulseAudio, IP stream, X11 screen, and Windows DirectShow devices Multi-core parallel image processing (when not using GPU and frame-dropping is disabled) DeckLink SDI keyer output OpenGL GPU-based image processing with 16-bit floating point linear per color component ShotCut 25.07 changelog: Added a Whisper.cpp (GGML) model downloader to the Speech to Text dialog. A model is no longer included in the download and installation reducing their sizes. Improved the System theme to follow the operating system palette on Windows (darker and more contrast), and improved its appearance on macOS dark mode. Added Settings > Theme > System Fusion that combines the operating system palette with the monochrome, symbolic icons of the Fusion themes. Added an Outline video filter that uses the input alpha channel--useful with rich text or assets with a transparent background. This means that, like Drop Shadow, it will not work as expected when used after a text filter on a video or image clip. Rather, you must use a text clip (transparent color generator with text filter) on an upper track. Other New Features Added the ability to drag the waveform peak line to adjust audio gain. Added Settings > Timeline > Adjust Clip Gain/Volume to turn off the above. Added rolling an edit/trim to Timeline: Hold Ctrl (command on macOS) while trimming to simultaneously trim the neighbor clip. Added a Soft Focus filter set. Added Audio/Video duration to the Slideshow Generator dialog, defaults to 4 hours. This facilitates using Slideshow Generator to make transitions between everything when including both video and images. (It still respects the source duration and in & out points; duration here is a maximum.) Surround Sound Mixing Improvements Added fader and surround balance to the Balance audio filter if channels > 2. Added Channels toggle buttons to many audio filters: Band Pass Compressor Delay Downmix Equalizer: 3-Band Equalizer: 15-Band Equalizer: Parametric Expander Gain/Volume High Pass Low Pass Limiter Mute Noise Gate Notch Added support for 4 channels in the Copy Channel audio filter. For example, now you can: Copy stereo music to the rear channels and use the fader in the Balance filter to reduce its volume, Downmix spoken word into the center channel and apply a Band Pass filter to it, and Route music or sound effects to the low-frequency channels and apply a Low Pass filter to it. Other Improvements Changed the default Export > Audio > Rate control to Average Bitrate for AAC, Opus, and MP3. Added the ability to add/use multiple Mask: Apply filters. Added support for Scrub While Dragging to trimming on the timeline. Added hold Shift to ripple-trim when Ripple is turned off. Added French (Canadian) and Lithuanian translations. Fixes Fixed Mask: Apply with multiple Mask: Simple Shape (broke in v25.05) Fixed exporting projects containing only Generator clips on Windows (broke in v25.05). Fixed converting 10-bit full to limited range (broke in v25.01). Fixed dropdown menus using Settings > Theme > System on Windows. Fixed Balance and Pan audio muted channels if audio channels > 2. Fixed Export > Use hardware encoder fails with H.264 on macOS 15. Fixed Properties > Convert or Reverse for iPhone 16 Pro videos with Ambisonic audio. Fixed a single frame fade out filter would either mute or make black. Fixed repairing a project (e.g. broken file links) with proxy turned on. Fixed doing Freeze Frame on the first frame of a clip. Download: ShotCut 25.07 | Portable | ARM64 ~200.0 MB (Open Source) View: Shotcut Home Page | Other Operating Systems | Screenshot Get alerted to all of our Software updates on Twitter at @NeowinSoftware
    • Win8 still takes the crown though in terms of worst Microsoft OS which all boiled down to it's horrible interface upon release as it was actually difficult to do even basic stuff. I remember trying it in a VM early on and it was a chore doing the basics we have had for ages and I quickly dumped that and never bothered with it again. in fact, prior to Win11 it was the only OS from Microsoft I have never used/had on a real machine and I have been using windows from Win v3.11 in mid-1990's through Windows 10. basically Win v3.11, 95, 98, Me, 2k, XP, 7, Vista, 10. but putting Windows 8 aside, I would probably place Win11 next in line (lets start from WinXP to date since that's basically when Windows got good and PC's pretty much went mainstream), but at least Win11 is not in the 'horrible' category as at least it's basic interface is normal. but if I ignore the interface, Win11 is a strong candidate, not only for telemetry and the like, but forced "requirements" which make people jump through hoops we should not have to all in the name of "better security", which personally I think is not enough of a boost to justify the forced "requirements". but one area you can tell Linux is faster is installing updates and, as a bonus, we generally don't need to reboot (short of like Kernel updates but those I am in no rush as my longest every main PC system uptime without a reboot was Aug 2023 until Jan 2025). but yeah, I suspect all of the background junk Windows has running does slow things a bit. p.s. speaking of that 'CachyOS', I used one of their custom Proton's (on Lutris) to get NTSync recently as while I usually use the more typical 'GE-Proton10-10' (this and '10-9' have NTSync support which was added recently. but 10-9 you have to manually enable where as 10-10 is automatic if it's available in the kernel to the system), I have one game which does not play back in-game videos with the Proton 10 series (you can hear audio but it's basically a black screen) but works in the 9 series and 'CachyOS' had a build from Jan 2025 that has NTSync, so I used that and it worked. I had to use 'PROTON_USE_NTSYNC=1' though since it's not enabled by default (along with 'sudo modprobe ntsync', or setup a udev rule etc if you want it to work in reboots without needing to do that command). one can see NTSync is working through MangoHud if you setup 'winesync' (just add that entry to "~/.config/MangoHud/MangoHud.conf") in the configuration file for ManngoHud or if you want to directly see it in proton log I did 'PROTON_LOG=1', which then creates a log in the Home folder which, at least on GE-Proton10-10, creates 'steam-default.log' and in that shows "wineserver: NTSync up and running!" where as if you don't it will generally show "fsync: up and running."
    • Riverdale... in space? Hope not.
    • Then why didn't Apple upstream their feature?
    • Unix is in fact not open source.
  • Recent Achievements

    • Week One Done
      Lokmat Rajasthan earned a badge
      Week One Done
    • One Month Later
      TheRingmaster earned a badge
      One Month Later
    • First Post
      smileyhead earned a badge
      First Post
    • One Month Later
      K V earned a badge
      One Month Later
    • Week One Done
      K V earned a badge
      Week One Done
  • Popular Contributors

    1. 1
      +primortal
      638
    2. 2
      ATLien_0
      241
    3. 3
      Xenon
      177
    4. 4
      neufuse
      155
    5. 5
      +FloatingFatMan
      123
  • Tell a friend

    Love Neowin? Tell a friend!