When Windows is installed on a computer that has an Intel x86-based
processor and the boot record for the active partition or files required to
boot Windows becomes corrupted, it is not possible to boot Windows or
any other operating system on that computer.
To prevent this situation, create a Windows boot disk when you
install Windows on the computer. This disk is different from an MS-DOS
boot disk because the entire Windows operating system cannot fit on one
disk as MS-DOS can. A Windows boot disk contains the files necessary to
start the operating system with the remainder of the Windows system
files installed on the hard disk drive. Use the following procedure to
create this disk:
- Place a blank floppy disk in drive A and format the disk
using Windows NT or later.
- From the root folder of the system partition of your hard disk drive (for example, C:\-), copy the following files to the floppy disk:
- Boot.ini
- NTLDR
- Ntdetect.com
NOTE: You may have to remove the hidden, system, and
read-only attributes from the files.
- Restore the hidden, system, and read-only
attributes to the files on your hard disk.
- If either the Bootsect.dos
or the Ntbootdd.sys file resides in the system partition, perform steps 2 through
4 above to copy these files to the boot disk as well.
If you format a floppy disk in Windows NT or later, the boot record points to the NTLDR file. When NTLDR runs, it loads the available operating system
selections from the Boot.ini file. If the user selects Windows, NTLDR
runs Ntdetect.com, and then passes control to Osloader.exe. If the user
chooses MS-DOS or OS/2, NTLDR loads Bootsect.dos.
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