Hi all. Have just replaced some hardware (MoBoard etc). Reformatted drive and installed XP from scratched. Everything loaded and running except 3GInstall which gives the following error.

"Unable to find the Boot.ini file C:\boot.ini

No changes occurred."

Any ideas?

 It could be that the boot.ini is read only. Go to Tools>Folder Options>Show Hidden file  and uncheck hide protected operating system files. Then you should see c:\boot.ini in the Explorer. Then right click it >Properties and uncheck Read Only.

 You can also do this from the command line:

attrib c:\boot.ini -s -h

GeorgeD:

 It could be that the boot.ini is read only. Go to Tools>Folder Options>Show Hidden file  and uncheck hide protected operating system files. Then you should see c:\boot.ini in the Explorer. Then right click it >Properties and uncheck Read Only.

Thanks for the responses so far.

I have done the above and there is definitely not a boot.ini file on my machine. Is this a windows installed file or AVID and how do I get it installed?

Rignold:

Thanks for the responses so far.

I have done the above and there is definitely not a boot.ini file on my machine. Is this a windows installed file or AVID and how do I get it installed?

As far as I am aware there has to be a boot.ini file present in order for XP to successfully boot itself, since the file details the partition information and boot preferences.

The file is a Windows-installed file and as has already been suggested, it may be "read-only" and is by default a hidden system file.

How many hard drives are in your system? How many drive letters do you have in "My Computer" ?

How many hard drives are in your system? How many drive letters do you have in "My Computer" ?

 

As I guessed by your question there is a boot.ini sitting in the root of one of my other drives. Now what?

Okay. What I think has happened is that the system has been installed, but the drive letters have reshuffled around causing the 'actual' boot drive to differ. This can sometimes happen with partitioning or some hard drive controllers that aren't standard IDE. (SATA or RAID controllers for instance).

Use the command prompt line on the boot.ini file you found:

attrib -r -s -h x:\boot.ini

(where x is the drive where you found the boot.ini file) - this will unhide the file for you, and disable any read-only options.

Open the boot.ini with notepad and you'll get something like this:

[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Professional" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect /usepmtimer

In order to activate the 3GB function, find the entry under [operating systems] and simply add /3GB to it.

So mine for instance would read:

[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Professional" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect /usepmtimer /3GB

Try that and get back to us.

I have edited the boot.ini to include the 3G switch and XP sees 3gig of ram but Avid still issues a warning that my virtual memory is low and should be 2700 and that I should run the 3GInstall.exe file.

 Then you should run it and set the value to 2700.

Rignold:

I have edited the boot.ini to include the 3G switch and XP sees 3gig of ram but Avid still issues a warning that my virtual memory is low and should be 2700 and that I should run the 3GInstall.exe file.

I've never encountered this problem, but mere mention of "virtual memory" being low implies that it has more to do with Windows' allocation of hard-drive space in the pagefile.

Check the settings by doing this:

Control Panel > System > Advanced (tab) > Under Performance click Settings > Advanced (tab) > Under Virtual memory click Change.

See what the values are for each drive.

I suspect that due to the nature of your reinstallation, Windows may not be allocating an appropriate amount of virtual memory to the pagefile.

I set the virtual memory on the boot drive to 2700 which did not help. Then i also set the vmem on the drive where the boot.ini is sitting to 2700 but Avid still warns that vmem is at 2049 not 2700. I now have 2 bald spots from scratching my head so vigorously.

Go back to your boot.ini file where you added the /3GB switch and add this at the end of it:

/userva=2700

Rignold:

I set the virtual memory on the boot drive to 2700 which did not help. Then i also set the vmem on the drive where the boot.ini is sitting to 2700 but Avid still warns that vmem is at 2049 not 2700. I now have 2 bald spots from scratching my head so vigorously.

 Did you do this using the 3GB program? Or did you set it using windows tools?

TerryO:

Did you do this using the 3GB program? Or did you set it using windows tools?

 

I did this from windows as the 3GB program does not see the boot.ini file because it does not sit on my c: drive.

Did you add the /userva=2700 switch to the boot.ini and reboot? How did it go?

For others, there isn't a problem manually editing the boot.ini and adding the /3GB /userva=2700 switches because this is all the install3g.bat and add3GB files do for you (when they work).