NTLDR: FATAL ERROR 256 READING BOOT.INI

This is the message I get when I try to boot. No one I talk to seems to have
an answer.

NT Loader (NTLDR) is a boot sector file necessary to load the necessary
drivers to start Windows XP. If this files is corrupted or missing, normal
boot is interrupted and a boot disk has to be used to logon or a repair of
the Boot Sector files copied from the Windows XP CD by means of the Recovery
Console, or with the FIXBOOT command in the Recovery Console, or after
gaining access into the system by means of a boot disk, the files can be
copied to the boot sector from the diskette. To delete or restore a
corrupted boot sector file you need to make hidden files and protected OS
files visible in Tools\Folder Options\View\select "Show hidden files and
folders" and uncheck "Hide Protected System Files (Recommended) and in C:\
look for NTLDR file, right click and select Properties\remove check from
Read Only and delete or move the file and replace it from the boot diskette
and make the new NTLDR file Read Only and a Hidden file.

http://www.bootdisk.com/bootdisk.htm
http://1gighost.net/jerseyboy/xpquick.zip

Boot the Recovery Console, run bootcfg /rebuild from the prompt.

HOW TO: Install and Use the Recovery Console in Windows XP [Q307654]
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=307654

Im going to try it out. if for some reason i cant get it
to work ill be back.

[Glitchie]

Okay, just so everyone knows, I may have just screwed this up myself...

I did this - downloaded 'xp boot files' to floppies from allbootdisks.com and they didn't work. So when I ran the console, I ran fixboot, I thought that's what I needed, but I didn't have the computer with this page on it to double check. So yeah, may have just made this worse.

Anyway, I went in and ran this after I found out I had the wrong command, and did the bootcfg /rebuild and it said there was an error - why I think the fixboot messed it up even more. It tells me to run chkdsk, which didn't detect any errors. I ran the bootcfg /rebuild again and its still telling me that there's an error and to run chkdsk.

I know if I really screwed this up by running fixboot, I'll likely have to reformat and reinstall fresh. I have a lot of my graphics program stuff installed on it already before it came up with this error with the boot.ini file and I REALLY don't want to do that if I can avoid it.

Why use an NT disk when I'm running XP pro? Sorry, it has been ages since I worked on them much, and so there might be new things I'm not up to date on...

NTLDR: FATAL ERROR 256 READING BOOT.INI was the original error we were getting. We bought two 500Gig hds from Western Digital and copied the old drive to the new one - we still have the old drive, but if its not reading it, would we be able to copy the BOOT.INI from the old drive to the new one?

I found out that it wasn't reading the new drive as C: at all - it was reading one of the Ebooks we had attached as C and that was why it was saying that there was some error that wasn't allowing bootcfg /rebuild to work, and also why it wasn't showing up with with any errors on chkdisk either - because there weren't any errors, but Windows also wasn't installed on the ebook.

Once I removed the ebooks from the computer, it said that there was an irreparable error. I made two boot disks from the disk that came with the drive - Data Life Guard Boot Disk and Data Life Guard Diagnostics Boot Disk and have tried booting from both of those, and all it does is have the green light on the a drive for an innumerable amount of time and the cursor on the screen blinks. Since then, I tried booted from the Windows XP cd again and it reads the disk in the drive, but I'm not given the option to boot from the CD any more. I don't know what is going on with this, these drives have been nothing but trouble. And I feel like I'm ready to throw the computer out the window.

This is why I gave up Tech Support ages ago, and now it seems like nothing I remember how to do, works anymore. My problem with finding the NT system is finding one that matches where the computer has a floppy so I can make a boot disk. The 'automatic boot disks' I made from Allbootdisks.com didn't work.

Think I'm on last resort before reformatting the drive and completely starting over.... Trying to locate the old boot ini file from the old drive that we still have to copy over to the newer one to see if that will work. Everything else I've tried hasn't.

My laptop has XP Media Center on it. That is what I post with. Talking to someone my husband works with at Intel, they said that XP Pro, like is on my desktop was harder to repair and cause you had to have another computer with XP Pro on it for making the boot disk. Right now it's copying the files from the old drive to the new one. There was nothing wrong with the old drive, we just replaced it due to storage capacity. The newer drives were bigger and I needed the space for my graphics program.

The purpose of the new drives was to have enough room to store my art program - DAZ 3D Studio and all the corresponding files that I need for my art. Each of the files for DAZ aside from what comes in the base program, are installed separately, and it increases the size of the base program dramatically. I had the new drives on a master-slave set up and had a good deal of the DAZ program files installed, and it was running fine. I took a break from it for a few days and when I go back I find that it must have done an update and restarted cause it wasn't where I left it, and that's where the error first appeared.

I can't really create a boot disk from either of our laptops even though they are running XP Media Center because we don't have an external floppy. I had to make the one I did at my mom's by downloading the files to her desktop and then creating them as per the instructions from allbootdisks.com, and still they didn't work. All that happened was the cursor blinked on the screen, and the green light on the floppy drive stayed on... this was for 45 minutes - and did nothing...

I really need to get this drive running without reformatting cause I have art on there that I need for the purposes of creation dates for applying for copyright. So I'd hoped to get it working without wiping everything.

I did try doing another copy last night, but no, it didn't work... same error.

Create an NT floppy boot disk as per the instructions here:
http://www.nu2.nu/bootdisk/ntboot/ and see if you can boot the computer
with it. Make sure that you use an NT type machine to format the floppy
drive, the disk will fail if you format it with a Windows 9x machine.

Excuse the typo, last line should read: Make sure that you use an NT
type machine to format the floppy *diskette*

Because Windows XP is Windows NT 6.0, it's an NT operating system. Try
and boot the computer with the startup disk.

It could help the rest of us if you quoted the complete error message
exactly as it appears.

What is your computer make and model?

Are you seeing a Blue Screen of Death?

Disable automatic restart on system failure. This should help by
allowing time to write down the STOP code properly. Keep pressing the F8
key during Start-Up and select option - Disable automatic restart on
system failure. Do not re-enable automatic restart on system failure.

XP *is* a version of Windows NT. Under the hood, it's actually Windows
NT 5.1 (Windows 2000 was NT 5.0). "XP" is its marketing name.

As others have said XP is NT5.1, NT6.0 is Vista.

What kind of computer are you using to post to the groups? Are you
using a Windows 2000/XP computer or are you using a Windows 98 computer?

With all due respect the guys at Intel may know an awful lot about
processors but they don't appear to know all that much about Windows XP
startup diskettes!

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/305595
How to create a bootable floppy disk for an NTFS or FAT partition in
Windows XP

To be able to boot Windows XP the floppy diskette *must* contain an NT
boot sector. If you format the diskette with a Windows NT/2000/XP
machine it will have the proper boot sector.

Unless I misunderstand the nature of your problem it seems that what it
comes down to is that you're unable to "copy" the contents of your "old
drive" to the "new" one in such a way so that the new HDD will be a
bootable, functional HDD.

You indicate that you purchased *two* 500 GB HDDs - presumably one of these
was to serve as a replacement for your "old drive" and I guess the other
would be used for other purposes - perhaps add'l storage, backups, etc.

Or perhaps you desired *both* of the 500 GB HDDs to serve as replacements
for your "old drive", so that *both* of those HDDs would contain the XP OS,
etc. and each would be bootable, i.e., each would be a copy of the old
drive. Perhaps you might want to clarify your objectives in this regard.

Anyway, one way or another it seems the problem comes down to this...
1. Your "old drive" was non-defective, bootable, and functional in all
respects as you've indicated.
2. So the only problem is that something went amiss with the "copy" function
with at least one, if not two, of your 500 GB HDDs, right?
3. And the program you were using to "copy" the old HDD to one (or two) of
the new HDDs was the WD Data Lifeguard Tools program, specifically its
"Drive-to-Drive Copy" utility, right?

Let me say that while we've used that WD disk-cloning (disk-copying) program
many times over the years it's not exactly our favorite program for
accomplishing its objective of cloning the contents of one HDD to another
HDD. To put it bluntly, the program is iffy at best and many users have (as
we have had) a good deal of trouble with that program. I mention this
because that may be at the root of your problem. Since you've indicated that
your "source" HDD, the "old drive" was perfectly functional (and of course
we're assuming your 500 GB WD HDD(s) is (are) similarly non-defective) we're
assuming the problem lies with the disk-cloning program you're using and/or
possibly the way you have used it. We have found that many users (through no
real fault of their own) unknowingly improperly use the program and the
result is a failed disk-cloning operation.

Anyway, if you think there's some merit to what I've indicated above and
would like any further suggestions from me as to what disk-cloning
program(s) I would recommend to you please so indicate and I'll respond
accordingly.

[Glitchie]

Ended up having to put the old drive back in and reformat the new one, setting it up as a bootable drive once more. This wiped out everything I had on it, but it is working again.

Glitchie