Ahh, slight change of plan then, first can you check this out for me:

- Go to Start, Run and type in Notepad
- Go to File and Open.
- For filename, type in e:\boot.ini follow by Open
- Copy and Paste the results back here?

MM--not a lot to go on there fella!

Did as you requested

Nothing to copy and paste !
Error message in box !

OPEN (box)

e:\boot.ini
File not found
Please verify the correct file name was given

OK?


This is what flagged up !
Do I ATTEMPT "C:\boot.ini" in same procedure??

Seems I have a PC that boots on fresh air!!(Sometimes!)

Thanks

Crackerjack

heeeeehehehehe, I think your right there! No worries, we can create one if we need to. Can you check your other drives just to be sure before we do:

- Connect back all storage devices.
- Once all the devices are connected, from Explorer or My Computer, go to Tools, Folder Options, followed by the View tab. Scroll down and tick "Show Hidden Files and Folders", and untick "Hide Protected Operating System Files", followed by OK.
- From My Computer, double click on each drive, and find out which one contains a "boot.ini".

Done as you instructed MM

Now all back on

A -Floppy
B Floppy
C --Now Seagate external backup
D-- DVD
E --Hard Drive as before
F Cd rom
G Zip Drive
H Epson All in one

and if youre sat down -- cant find boot ini on ANY!!!

I also did search for boot ini on E and C and nearest was BOOTBAK on E:\Windows\system32

Its late -and I need a lie down!!

Crackerjack

RIGHT! lol, ok,

I have to warn you, there's a slight possibility that this might not work, if there is something else that I have not taken into account or misread above. However, using either the bootcfg /rebuild may resolve (now that there will actually be a boot.ini to work with), or del e:\boot.ini will just take us back to square one from the recovery console. So that is our fallback solution.

As for the boot.ini, it's time to create one:
- Go to My Computer, Tools, Folder Options, View tab again, and then uncheck "Hide Extentions for known File Types", and OK.
- Save the attached file on your c: drive, right click on it, and rename it from boot.txt to boot.ini.
- Go to Start, Run, and type in cmd, OK.
- In the command window, type in attrib e:\boot.ini +s +h +r
^ This command should complete without any error messages, and take you to the next prompt if all is successful here.

The final leg of this journey, is to reboot and test (if you dare)!

Before I jump in the deep end MM-just a little question
If C drive is now Seagate backup --boot ini cant possibly be on there - its only backing up docs as I create or change them -and as boot ini can`t be found elsewhere --how is it booting at all??

When I had removed all peripherals - it still booted (despite the invalid boot ini message so surely the pc could only be booting from "E" as there couldnt be a boot file on A,B,D,F,or G (or H when card reader was plugged in)
A -Floppy - no disk
B Floppy - no disk
C - gone!!-previously Seagate ext HD
d Dvd - no disk
E hard drive
F Cd rom - no disk
G zip - no disk

So could it be something to do with Boot sequence at that stage in BIOS setup for instance ie is the sequence
1 D- prog disk
2 C- hard drive 0
3 E - hard drive 1

or similar??
With the command route you suggest - I cannot grasp the advantages of setting the "ini" file up on C- which is the document back up drive and surely wouldnt associate with system / setup files on hard drive -"E"??
Not being disrespectful - you are way ahead of me regarding this -just asking a question for my further knowledge

Crackerjack
(bottom line is I dont want to crash completely whilst I am still up and running!!!

Crackerjack

Sorry crack, that was a typo, it's is E as you suggest. The procedure would have failed at that point with an error message "File not found", because the document would have been saved on E:, but then we tried to apply attrib on C:. Should be E:, take a look..

The link you sent me does have similarities, in that an extra HDD was added. In fact, it shows the procedure of adding another HDD running a second copy of Windows, which was really what the repair guy did when he came out to fix your new HDD. At that point your boot.ini would have been already been created on the master which was taken out, therefore... no longer a boot.ini to start from. The boot.ini shoud always exist on one hdd only, and that is the master, the first disk that is found in the BIOS boot order that has been flagged to boot.