How do I fix boot.ini without a CD drive?

Question

I reinstalled WinXP via USB and everything is fine, except boot.ini is pointing wrong.

[Boot Loader]
Timeout=30
Default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(2)\WINDOWS
[Operating Systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(2)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect

So the OS is installed just fine and I can boot into it with a USB tool, but I need to fix the boot.ini so I can boot without the USB.

Above is my boot.ini, what looks wrong (or how can I check what I should set the values to)?

Answer 1

To clarify, make sure that the hard drive is set in higher priority than the USB drive in your boot order. Either that or make sure that no bootable USB devices are attached to the computer when booting up so that the hard drive is looked to.

After that, edit your boot.ini file's default entry to read:

multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect

The above depends entirely on your hardware setup as well as logical partition setup. You are likely using rdisk(0) for your internal hard drive. Also likely is that the OS is on partition(1). It's just a matter of incrementing the rdisk until you find the spot on the hard drive controller that has the hard drive in question.

For more informatoin on ARC paths in the boot.ini file, check out Microsoft KB102873.