Invalid BOOT.INI. file

[JennyP72]

Hello,
No idea what is up with my pc and I am not pc literate! It's an old machine, but was fine for what I wanted (when it was working!).
A 'friend' supposedly wiped it completely and re-installed xp, when I turn it on it goes to invalid BOOT.INT.file and stays there.
Neither F8 nor F10 does anything and it will not run from a disc in the drive.
At some point it said Booting from C:\windows\
I only have the original System Recovery discs myself, although they have XP on them, but it won't run from them if it's in the cd drive, so I can't even attempt the complicated repair other posts mention.
Would really appreciate some help here, thanks.

 

[Hawkeye22]

If you are going to try and reinstall from CD/DVD you need to go into the bios and make sure the boot order is set to cd/dvd first, then disk. if you are inexperienced at installing windows, you may want to make sure someone who has done it before is with you as you will need to reinstall all the device drivers and chipset drivers.

 

[JennyP72]

If you are going to try and reinstall from CD/DVD you need to go into the bios and make sure the boot order is set to cd/dvd first, then disk. if you are inexperienced at installing windows, you may want to make sure someone who has done it before is with you as you will need to reinstall all the device drivers and chipset drivers.

Thanks Hawkeye, I am too much of a novice to do that, and other than the person who has left me in the lurch, I don't know anyone else.

Would the bios be set to that originally? the booklet just says about putting the disc in and off you go .......

Another post I read somewhere said at the command prompt type: "boot cfg/rebuild" would that work in my case?

Sorry, I am so unknowledgable and have no one to help me - it is an old machine so most people would say it's not worth wasting money on to get fixed!

 

[Hawkeye22]

I'm not sure what the bios was originally set for, but it won't hurt to change the boot order to CD/DVD first. If there is no bootable disc in the drive, it will try the hard drive next.

This is how to use the bootcfg command. You need to make sure the bios is set to boot from cd/dvd first as you will need your XP disc.

http://www.computerhope.com/issues/ch000648.htm

 

[JennyP72]

The System Recovery disc is in the drive, it is a bootable disc, but it goes to invalid BOOT.INT.file instead.

Thanks, but from what you are saying, I'm not capable of this, we seem to be going round in circles.

 

[Hawkeye22]

If the bios is set to boot from cd/dvd first, you may see the option when the bootable disk is detected that reads "press any key to boot from cd". If you aren't seeing this, it's trying to boot straight from the hard drive, in which case you will get the error.

 

[JennyP72]

Thanks Hawkeye, it's only displaying what I have written, had there been that option, I perhaps wouldn't be in this mess.