BOOT.INI Not Cleaned Up After Repartitioning

ID: Q141188

The information in this article applies to:

SYMPTOMS

The boot menu presented to you at boot up by the Windows NT OS loader is not cleaned up after you repartition your boot drive and the following conditions are met:

  1. Windows NT was already installed on the computer


  2. You installed by booting from the Windows NT Setup disks


  3. You did not choose to upgrade the existing installation


  4. You chose the custom Setup options and deleted any existing partitions on the boot drive, then created at least one new partition on the same drive.


When the above conditions are met, the 'new' boot menu still shows entries for your previous installation, though the partition has been deleted and recreated.


RESOLUTION

Manually edit the Boot.ini file in the root folder of the boot drive to remove the irrelevant entries:

Windows NT 4.0 and Windows 2000

  1. Right-click My Computer, and then click Explore.


  2. On the View menu (Tools menu in Windows 2000), click Folder Options, click the View tab, click Show all files, and then click OK.


  3. Click the root folder of drive C, right-click the Boot.ini file, and then click Properties.


  4. Click to clear the Read-Only, Hidden, and System attribute check boxes.


  5. Open the Boot.ini file in Notepad.


  6. Remove any entries that no longer point to valid installations of Windows NT or Windows 2000.


  7. Save the changes to the Boot.ini file, and then restore its attributes.


Windows NT 3.51

  1. In File Manager, choose the View menu, then choose By file Type... and select the check box for Show Hidden/System Files.


  2. Select the root of the C: partition.


  3. Select the file called BOOT.INI.


  4. Choose File, then choose Properties.


  5. Clear the Read-Only, Hidden, and System attribute check boxes.


  6. Open the BOOT.INI file in Notepad.


  7. Remove any entries that no longer point to valid Windows NT installations, save the file and restore its attributes.



STATUS

Microsoft has confirmed this to be a problem in Windows NT version 3.51. We are researching this problem and will post new information here in the Microsoft Knowledge Base as it becomes available.

Additional query words: prodnt 4.0 


Keywords          : ntsetup 
Version           : WINDOWS:2000; winnt:3.51,4.0
Platform          : WINDOWS winnt 
Issue type        : kbprb

Last Reviewed: February 5, 1999