How can I figure out on what partition the system will look for the bo

[Barian]

Just have one question:

Where and how can I figure out on which partition the system will look for the boot.ini file during start up?

The reason I am asking is that I have two physical hard drives in my system. The first hard drive contains two operating system and three partitions. The second hard drive contains two partitions. I ran into some problems and played around with the boot.ini, ntldr, ntdetect.com.... The system then refused to boot so I went into the recovery console and typed fixboot. Then I could start the system again. The problem however was that the boot.ini and the other system files ended up on the second hard drive where I store all my applications and not on the first hard drive with the operating systems... Well I have continued to play around and now it won't boot again.... Anyway if you can answer my question it would assist me in my "learning by doing" approach...

[spacesurfer]

I have noticed that if you install XP on an extended partition, then it will place your boot.ini and ntldr on the FIRST PRIMARY partition on the FIRST hard drive it finds.... someone correct me if I'm wrong.

Anyway, that set up is not ideal since if you format the partition that has your boot files, you won't be able to load XP.

Go to folder options and choose to unhide system files to locate these files.

Also, check in computer management --> disk management to make sure your XP partition is not extended. If it is, you might consider formatting it to a primary partition. then it will place both files in the same partition.

[Takeshi]

The boot files (boot.ini, ntldr, NTDETECT.COM) must reside on the first active primary partition on the first available physical HD.

If you hide the 1st HD, then those files must be present on the 2nd HD.

MS has many KB articles on boot.ini. Well worth a look.