Where is Boot.Ini located?

[brucek 38]

I have several instances of XP (32) on my machine that I have installed over time and am starting to do some disk cleanup. Both partitions that contain the OS also have a Boot.Ini file, and the drive letter of the OS partitions changes between both instances of the OS (I always thought that this was contained in BIOS and independent of the OS, but I guess not).So- is boot.ini (and other associated boot files such as NTLDR, etc.) always located on the C: partition or drive? Or- maybe a better way to ask this- are the boot files always on partition 1 if there are multiple partitions on a drive?I'm not sure how I got multiple instances of the boot files on several partitions, but I'm trying to figure out which ones the PC is actually using to boot to prior to starting the OS up. Thanks, Bruce.

[Kosta 122]

Boot.ini and NTLDR are usually in the root of the system drive.If I understand this correctly, there should be only one boot.ini, which has more entries for each partition and system you have loaded. Mind me, I have no idea how this works with W7 yet, but with XP it was like that.More boot.ini entries I can only explain due to faulty installation of more than one OS, and I think it's very likely you have one main that is controlling other operating systems (other >>XP<< OS').A way to check it would be to open each one and see what it contains - it says clearly which partition has what.Said all that - I could also be wrong and other ini's are also needed to boot the other than main system - you could try deleting (renaming) them, to see if you can still boot other than your main (there is always a main, since there is only one active HDD).BIOS has basically nothing to do with it. In BIOS, you can only set which HDD to boot from, if you wish another one - this way you could have completely independet OS installations. Otherwise it would always boot from the default one.Sorry for the chaotical answer, but it ain't that simple as you see ;-)

[TechguyMaxC 516]

The boot file is *usually* on the same partition as the O.S. itself, at least for Windows XP. Vista and 7 will usually put this on the first partition of the drive, which may not be the same as the O.S.

[idahosurge 2]

In case no one has told you, in order to see it you will need to go into Tools/Folder Options/View and put a bullet in "Show hidden files and folders"Rod

[TechguyMaxC 516]

Or you could go to system properties -> advanced -> statup and recovery settings -> edit