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Posted by UWM on Aug-18-2008 16:11:

help me computer nerds

I'm trying to salvage my old laptop but up until now I've been to lazy to figure out how to fix it. When I try to start it up it says "Invalid boot.ini" and then when I use the recovery disc it just hangs at the part where it says "Warning! You're about to blah blah. Y/N" Can I just replace my hard drive and work this out?

I'll delete this thread when I have an answer. Thanks.

Posted by charon on Aug-18-2008 16:17:

reinstall windows

or dl partition magic and use their boot utility. windows's sucks

Posted by cmay119 on Aug-18-2008 16:22:

If you have a copy of the Windows CD, throw that in and boot from the CD. When it gets to the point where it asks if you want to Repair. Say yes to that, when you get to the cmd prompt. type 'CHKDSK' (without quotation marks). This should scan the harddrive to see if there are any errors in the system files. If there are, the CD will replace those files so you can actually boot back into Windows.

Good luck, hope that helps.

Posted by UWM on Aug-18-2008 16:29:

All I have is the recovery DVD that has all that windows shit on it already.

The problem lies in the fact that I can't even get my computer to turn on, period. It won't finish the process of the recovery DVD without stopping and it won't get anywhere past the "invalid boot.ini" shit without it.

Fail.

Posted by shaw on Aug-18-2008 16:37:

get a cheap external hard drive, hook it up to another computer, copy its system drive to it, hook that up to the laptop, go to the bios & set it to boot from the external drive (only usb might work), start up windows from there, then format/recover/whatever the original one from windows once it's up off of the external one. i think.

Posted by UWM on Aug-18-2008 16:38:

quote:
Originally posted by inconspicuous
get a cheap external hard drive, hook it up to another computer, copy its system drive to it, hook that up to the laptop, go to the bios & set it to boot from the external drive (only usb might work), start up windows from there, then format/recover/whatever the original one from windows once it's up off of the external one. i think.

How do I "go to the bios" ?

Posted by r5a on Aug-18-2008 16:39:

make a new file on your c:\ called boot.ini

put the contents of this in it

code:

[boot loader]
timeout=30
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" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect

Assuming you have xp here.

You may get some other erros after this to fix that go into the recovery console (boot up to XP cd at start, hit R when the menu comes up) and run these commands

fixmbr
fixboot

also while your at it cd to c:/ (i believe you start somewhere off in the system32 dir in recovery console so do cd .. a bunch of times till you get to c:/ and do this

attrib +S +H boot.ini

njoy

Posted by UWM on Aug-18-2008 16:41:

How do I write a new boot file if I can't even turn the fucking thing on?

Posted by r5a on Aug-18-2008 16:41:

quote:
Originally posted by UWM
How do I "go to the bios" ?
when you turn your computer on

Slam F2, Delete, F12, F10.
Or look for where it says setup and slam the key its telling you (its usually the one above)

Posted by r5a on Aug-18-2008 16:42:

quote:
Originally posted by UWM
How do I write a new boot file if I can't even turn the fucking thing on?

two ways.

edit boot.ini

or

if you have another computer, create it on there and use a usb key to copy the file over.

Posted by UWM on Aug-18-2008 16:44:

quote:
Originally posted by r5a
if you have another computer, create it on there and use a usb key to copy the file over.

Killer. So just write that file in a text program and save it as a .ini?

I'm sorry, I'm really retarded about computers.

Posted by r5a on Aug-18-2008 16:45:

quote:
Originally posted by UWM
Killer. So just write that file in a text program and save it as a .ini?

I'm sorry, I'm really retarded about computers.
its cool bro. everyone learns shit eventually. ive been in your situation many times before.

but yea you got it. let me read over this thread to make sure.

Posted by shaw on Aug-18-2008 16:46:

quote:
Originally posted by r5a
when you turn your computer on

Slam F2, Delete, F12, F10.
Or look for where it says setup and slam the key its telling you (its usually the one above)

f1 & f5 also possibilities.

Posted by r5a on Aug-18-2008 16:52:

ok. the stuff people said above won't help you. so forget that business.

since i just saw you don't have the XP cd you're left with two options.

a) download XP pro cd here
http://thepiratebay.org/torrent/398...e_Final_Edition

or

grab winternals
b) http://thepiratebay.org/torrent/392..._Commander_2007

HOWEVER.

b) its a short download and it will fix your boot.ini problem (its a xp live boot cd that gives you a gui to work with, you can make your boot.ini file in it easy as fuck (theres a notepad) you can access all your shit) BUT i don't think ERD has a fixboot/fixmbr tool (IT MAY, im not sure - the reason this is a problem because you may run into a problem where you need to use those tools...)

a) longer download but if you have any situation you can fix it with that ******.

if you go b) do the boot.ini and hope for the best.

if you do a) just see my post above with all the commands and what you need to do.

if you have questions let me know. im sure i covered everything.

Posted by UWM on Aug-18-2008 16:54:

That sounds like a lot of work.

Maybe I'll just buy a new one.

I must also add that I don't currently have internet access at home and I can't be downloading pirated software off torrents at work.

Posted by r5a on Aug-18-2008 16:55:

quote:
Originally posted by UWM
That sounds like a lot of work.

Maybe I'll just buy a new one.
nah its not that bad. the only bitch part is the torrent downloads.

Posted by gehzumteufel on Aug-18-2008 17:25:

Bobby, I am making a solution for you as long as you can burn a disc at work.

Posted by UWM on Aug-19-2008 03:00:

quote:
Originally posted by gehzumteufel
Bobby, I am making a solution for you as long as you can burn a disc at work.

awesome. yeah I can burn discs. thanks ben.

Posted by Rostros on Aug-19-2008 11:02:

If you can get to the BIOS by pressing F2 or Delete , then get into the Boot sequence and change it to either Floppy / or DVD . I would personally FDISK the partition and then boot from the windows disk and get the built in utility to create a new partition.

Boot.ini is a windows issue , if you can't even get to the BIOS then it looks like you need a new CMOS chip , which could get expensive. If your laptop is that old then its time to get the credit card out, You can get a nice sony vaio basic now for $600.00 Delivered.

Posted by r5a on Aug-19-2008 15:21:

quote:
Originally posted by Rostros
If you can get to the BIOS by pressing F2 or Delete , then get into the Boot sequence and change it to either Floppy / or DVD . I would personally FDISK the partition and then boot from the windows disk and get the built in utility to create a new partition.

Boot.ini is a windows issue , if you can't even get to the BIOS then it looks like you need a new CMOS chip , which could get expensive. If your laptop is that old then its time to get the credit card out, You can get a nice sony vaio basic now for $600.00 Delivered.
Do you have any idea what you just said?

- If he selected floppy, what would he boot to, and for what? (I don't see you mentioning about boot disks and how to make them)

- First off all, do you even know what the booi.ini is and moreso how simple of a problem it is to fix?

- Secondly, fdisk would wipe his drive and any data he has (not what he wants to do) and moreover, why would you fdisk it in the first place? To reinstall windows for no reason when you can simply write out a new boot.ini and run two commands?

- Clearly it isn't his CMOS chip because if it were that his computer wouldn't even post nor would he see that error... and CMOS chips are not expensive at all...

Posted by gehzumteufel on Aug-19-2008 22:07:

Alright Bobby, after a ton of fucking with shit and finally figuring it out, I got it working. Basically when the "ntfs4dos" thing comes up it will tell you what drive your windows drive will be set at. Hopefully it will set it as c:. Assuming it does, when the command prompt comes up, just type "copy boot.ini c:\"

here is the cd image you must burn. It appears empty, but it isn't.

Posted by UWM on Aug-20-2008 00:05:

thanks bro, I'll try that out tomorrow.

Posted by gehzumteufel on Aug-20-2008 02:49:

np.

One thing I realized I should probably point out, when it asks you to say "yes" make sure you actually type out "yes" or it won't load the driver.

Posted by Rostros on Aug-20-2008 13:55:

quote:
Originally posted by r5a
Do you have any idea what you just said?

- If he selected floppy, what would he boot to, and for what? (I don't see you mentioning about boot disks and how to make them)

You dont need to boot to anything it is possible to create a new partition on a HDD without having a C:\ if he was having issues with windows this option would give that option to create a new partition.

quote:

- First off all, do you even know what the booi.ini is and moreso how simple of a problem it is to fix?

I dont need lessons to tell me what boot.ini is , thank you.

quote:

- Secondly, fdisk would wipe his drive and any data he has (not what he wants to do) and moreover, why would you fdisk it in the first place? To reinstall windows for no reason when you can simply write out a new boot.ini and run two commands?

He said he wanted to salvage his old laptop , it didn't specify that he wanted to keep the data , or if he just wanted to use it again. I always use FDISK to ensure that there is no hidden partitions also with most HDD today having a 500Gb hard drive is useless so I always split them into 2x250gb or 5x100gb so it is faster to restore data etc.

quote:

- Clearly it isn't his CMOS chip because if it were that his computer wouldn't even post nor would he see that error... and CMOS chips are not expensive at all...

My mistake on the CMOS advice , Im thinking about chipsets.

Posted by noikeee on Aug-21-2008 00:57:

Grab a windows cd/dvd from somewhere (download/borrow), run it from there, delete the existing partition, create a new partition on its place, and tell it to install Windows there.

(aka format it)

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