Windows XP not booting?
To guard against this situation, create a Windows boot disk when you first
install Windows on the computer. This disk is different from an MS-DOS boot
disk. Unlike MS-DOS, the entire Windows operating system cannot fit on one
floppy disk. A Windows boot disk contains only the files that are necessary to
start the operating system with the remainder of the Windows system files
installed on the hard disk drive.
Use the following procedure to create this disk:
1.
Place a blank floppy disk in drive A, and format the disk by using Windows XP.
2.
From the root folder of the system partition of your hard disk drive (for
example, C:\-), copy the following files to the floppy disk:
Boot.ini
NTLDR
Ntdetect.com
3.
You may have to remove the hidden, system, and read-only attributes from the
files.
4.
Restore the hidden, system, and read-only attributes to the files on your hard
disk if you removed these attributes.
If either the Bootsect.dos or the Ntbootdd.sys file resides in the system
partition, also use the procedure that is described in steps 2 through 4 to copy
these files to the boot disk.
If you format a floppy disk in Windows XP, the boot record points to the NTLDR
file. When NTLDR runs, it loads the available operating system selections from
the Boot.ini file. If you select Windows, NTLDR runs Ntdetect.com, and then
passes control to Osloader.exe. If you select MS-DOS or OS/2, NTLDR loads
Bootsect.dos
This originally came from: 314079 - How to Use System Files to Create a Boot Disk to Guard Against Being Unable to Start Windows XP
This article was previously published under Q314079
For a Microsoft Windows 2000 version of this article, see 101668.
Having a boot problem in Windows XP? Try this to see if it will fix it: ntldrismissing.com
See more of Tiny Empire's ShortNotes to fix your problems.
