How To Guard Against Boot Failure With a Windows NT Boot Disk

ID: Q101668

The information in this article applies to:

Microsoft Windows NT Workstation versions 3.1, 3.5, 3.51, 4.0
Microsoft Windows NT Advanced Server
Microsoft Windows NT Server versions 3.5, 3.51, 4.0
Microsoft Windows 2000 Professional
Microsoft Windows 2000 Server
Microsoft Windows 2000 Advanced Server

When Windows NT 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 NT becomes corrupted, it is not possible to boot Windows NT or any other operating system on that computer.

To guard against this situation, create a Windows NT boot disk when you install Windows NT on the computer. This disk is different from an MS-DOS boot disk because the entire Windows NT operating system cannot fit on one disk as MS-DOS can. A Windows NT boot disk contains the files necessary to start the operating system with the remainder of the Windows NT 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 Windows 2000.

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, and Ntdetect.com.

NOTE

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 Windows 2000, 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 NT, NTLDR runs Ntdetect.com, and then passes control to Osloader.exe. If the user chooses MS-DOS or OS/2, NTLDR loads Bootsect.dos.

Additional query words: prodnt bootdisk boot

Keywords : kbusage nthowto NTSrvWkst
Version : WINDOWS:2000; winnt:3.1,3.5,3.51,4.0; :
Platform : WINDOWS winnt
Issue type :