I have an older emachines laptop that now boots to the recovery partition (d) instead of the partition that the real windows installation is on (c). I have tried rewriting the boot.ini and doing fixmbr and fixboot but the computer still insists on booting to the recovery partition which has very little functionality. Please help!

Hi,

Also please paste the boot.ini content here

Steps to access boot.ini file

1. Right-click My Computer, and then click Properties.-or-Click Start, click Run, type sysdm.cpl, and then click OK.


2. On the Advanced tab, click Settings under Startup and Recovery.


3. Under System Startup, click Edit.

Thanks for replying.

I tried changing the BIOS order but that doesn't help. There is only one harddrive listed on the BIOS and no partition choices.

My boot.ini looks like this:
[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP
Professional" /fastdetect
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Windows XP New" /fastdetect

I always end up having to use the "New" one to get into the computer at all but it puts me in D. I should also mention that when I boot using the cd and get the recovery console, it shows me three installations of windows (1) c:windows (2) c: minint (3) d:windows.

Any ideas?


Thanks for replying.

I tried changing the BIOS order but that doesn't help. There is only one harddrive listed on the BIOS and no partition choices.

My boot.ini looks like this:
[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Professional" /fastdetect
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Windows XP New" /fastdetect

I always end up having to use the "New" one to get into the computer at all but it puts me in D. I should also mention that when I boot using the cd and get the recovery console, it shows me three installations of windows (1) c:windows (2) c: minint (3) d:windows.

Any ideas?

Try modifying the boot.ini file as below (excluding the seconday boot option)

[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" /fastdetect



Try modifying the boot.ini file as below (excluding the seconday boot option)

[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" /fastdetect

Putting in exactly what you wrote (including "parition 1") sends me directly into the partial windows installation on the D: partition.

Putting in exactly what you wrote (including "parition 1") sends me directly into the partial windows installation on the D: partition.

Also I should note that D shows up as the (system) partition when I look at disk management.

Also I should note that D shows up as the (system) partition when I look at disk management.

In past, did you try the FIXMBR and FIXBOOT using recovery partition or windows CD? if you have windows CD; boot the computer on disc and please run these two commands.

In past, did you try the FIXMBR and FIXBOOT using recovery partition or windows CD? if you have windows CD; boot the computer on disc and please run these two commands.

I did try both of those before using a windows CD. The problem is that when I boot from the CD into the recovery console the screen brings up three seperate installations of windows.

1: C:\WINDOWS (the one i think is the correct one)
2: C:\MiniNT (no idea where this came from)
3: D:\WINDOWS (the one it keeps booting into now)


I did try both of those before using a windows CD. The problem is that when I boot from the CD into the recovery console the screen brings up three seperate installations of windows.

1: C:\WINDOWS (the one i think is the correct one)
2: C:\MiniNT (no idea where this came from)
3: D:\WINDOWS (the one it keeps booting into now)

I tried this in recovery console:

FIXMBR C:

FIXBOOT C:

COPY F:\I386\NTLDR C:\ (here F: refers to your cd rom)

COPY F:\I386\NTDETECT.COM C:\

BOOTCFG /rebuild

But when I actually boot I end up in D: instead of C even though thats where I wrote everthing to...


I tried this in recovery console:

FIXMBR C:
FIXBOOT C:
COPY F:\I386\NTLDR C:\ (here F: refers to your cd rom)
COPY F:\I386\NTDETECT.COM C:\
BOOTCFG /rebuild

But when I actually boot I end up in D: instead of C even though thats where I wrote everthing to...

I just typed in bootcfg /list and the response I got was that the os location is d:/windows. How do I change that?

I just typed in bootcfg /list and the response I got was that the os location is d:/windows. How do I change that?

1. Click Start, and then click Run.


2. In the Open text box, type cmd.


3. At the command prompt, type bootcfg /?.


4. The help and parameters for BOOTCFG.exe will display.