boot.ini file

[Birdseye]

I want to edit the boot.ini file on my lappy (XPhome) but am having difficulty in finding it. I know its a hidden file in the system directory, but all my attempts to make it visible have failed. Instead what I find every time (in system/rss from memory) is a boot.ini file that is descibed as a backup.

I can see it using msconfig but cannot edit in that program.

So how do I find it and how to I get notepad to open it so it can be edited.

Incidentally, I have restore-it as well as windows restore on the system - would any of these cancel out my editing if I didnt disable them? Oh, and I have linux on the lappy if it would be easier to use that to do the editing.

 

[BrendanS]

http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=289022

 

[Birdseye]

Thanks Brendan. Succeeded at last in making the change I wanted - but it didnt work! I was trying to get round the USB to serial converter problem for the gps, the one where XP thinks it has detected a serial mouse. The idea was to add "NoSerialMice" to the boot.ini file as suggested a while ago by someone on here.

Made no difference at all. XP still saw a serial mouse. And MS comdisable tool didnt work either.

Will just have to get a USB GPS engine

 

[Karel]

You can use the system tool in the control panel to make changes to the boot.ini file, but be careful - get this wrong and your system will completely fail to boot up.

Make a copy of your existing boot.ini file to a floppy first so you can always copy this back from DOS if it all goes bottom up.

But this thread makes no sense to me at all. Your boot.ini file (always located in the first sector, in the first partition, in the primary drive) tells the machine which OS to boot to.
Mine looks like this (it has 6 bootable partitions):
[Boot Loader]
Timeout=5
Default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(2)\WINDOWS
[Operating Systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(2)\WINDOWS="H: Dad" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(1)\WINDOWS="G: Daisy's Internet" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(5)\WINDOWS="K: Quake + 3DMax" /fastdetect
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="C: Daisy's XP Professional - Yoh! Go Girl, Go!" /fastdetect
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(4)\WINDOWS="J: Avid" /fastdetect
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(3)\WINDOWS="I: Reason" /fastdetect"

You would modify stuff like your mouse preferences in the BIOS, control panel, or device manager. What exactly are you trying to do?

 

[Karel]

Hmm... I just found this

Guess I'll now have to eat my hat...

 

[tugboat]

I haven't understood one word of this thread. Can't decide if that's good or bad! /forums/images/graemlins/crazy.gif

 

[Karel]

It's very bad for you, and can be dangerous. My advice is to stay away.