Selecting the OS from the BOOT.INI

Selecting the OS from the BOOT.INI

Remember BOOT.INI contains the list of available operating systems on a computer. Each entry in the BOOT.INI file contains the path of the boot partition for each operating system, the text that is displayed on the boot loader screen, and any optional parameters that are used by the operating system when it starts up. In addition to starting multiple versions of Windows 2000, BOOT.INI will start Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows NT 4.0, MS-DOS, and OS/2.

The following is a sample BOOT.INI file:

[boot loader]

timeout=30

default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINNT

[operating systems]

multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\winnt="Microsoft Windows 2000 Professional" /fastdetect

C:\="Windows 98"

The information of the BOOT.INI is displayed on the boot loader screen and looks something like this:

Please select the operating system to start:

Microsoft Windows 2000 Professional

Microsoft Windows 98

Use your arrow keys to move the highlight to your choice.

Please touch Enter to choose.

Seconds until highlighted choice will be started automatically: 29

For troubleshooting and advanced startup options for Windows 2000, press F8.

The default operating system is always listed first. If the operating system has not been selected before the countdown timer reaches 0, the default operating system (Windows 2000 Professional in this example) is started.