BCDedit - Vista and newer
* WARNING: ScribbleWeb ate some characters. curly brackets.
Backup - bcdedit /export C:\SAVEDBCD
bcdedit - lists all boot options. identifier is what you need for other commands.
bcdedit /default - makes the boot option named ntldr the default
-- Note: I think bootsequence overrides default.
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/2676-bcdedit-how-use.html
Another good doc about Windows Vista + boot process and how to rebuild boot info - https://neosmart.net/wiki/recovering-windows-bootloader/
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When W2K doesn't boot?
What do you do? I don't know for sure, but here are my notes to date. Obvious first steps are safe mode and last known good.
Then this page provides hints: http://www.le.ac.uk/cc/dsss/docs/abandonhope.shtml (dead link). Try this: http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/XPrepairinstall.htm
I knew about the "repair install" from the CDROM, but I never would have guessed that there is a difference between "fast" and "manual" repairs. Apparently manual mode is not able to write to the registry. Anyway, that has made the difference to me before.
There are more switches in boot.ini than just "Safe Mode". "/SOS" has been known to work-around boot problems, even though officially, all it does is not show the splash screen and echo more of the boot progress. Freakish timing, perhaps? - http://support.microsoft.com/kb/239780
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XP:
Cancel a failed Repair Install in XP:
1- Mount the disk in another computer
2- Delete the following files and folders, they are all in the root folder, usually C:\
$WIN_NT$~BT
$WIN_NT$.~LS
$LDR$
3- Edit the Boot.ini file and remove the line pointing to C:\$win_nt$.~bt\bootsect.dat="Windows XP....."
4- Edit the registry and make sure that the value data for the following is set to 0:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\Setup\SystemSetupInProgress (requires mounting the hive somehow on a different machine/OS)
http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_xp-system/how-to-cancel-a-failed-repair-install-of-windows/bc4d3760-297b-414a-aaef-983c71335060
Boot Log is: C:\Windows\ntbtlog.txt
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Tags: w2k, windows, boot, boot.ini, problems, blue screen, xp, bsod