i loaded avast and did a boot scan and avast cleaned out some viruses. then i did another thorough scan and avast found more bad files. now i get the error loading script file “C:\WINDOWS\boot.ini” message everytime i start up my computer. any advice on how to fix this or how serious this is? Also what problems will this cause? i may be imagining things but when i put a jumpdrive in it automatically opens it up displaying the folders contained on the drive- before this new error message i thought it used to give me the options to choose to open and view files or take no action.
If you’re seeing that message, and your computer is still booting, you’re still in pretty good shape…
The boot.ini file basically tells the system where Windows is installed, and what to boot from upon startup. Since you’re actually getting into windows, then it must still know where to go somehow.
Don’t know if you have vista, xp, or whatever, but for XP, you can rebuild the boot.ini using the instructions here: http://www.computerhope.com/issues/ch000648.htm
When you follow the step to rebuild Boot.ini, when you are in “Enter Load Identifier” you should type the name of windows, for example “Windows XP Professional”. If this name is different to the one you have in the current Boot.ini, when you start you PC it will ask you what windows you want to run.
This is fix with the Run\msconfig\ and then in the options there. I was with this trouble a couple of days ago but I do not have in memory those steps. If I tell you something wrong you may get into a problem and I do not want that to happen. If you get this issue, someone here will be able to help.
You can circumvent that question by unchecking the box that says: “Time to display list of operating systems”.
If you uncheck that, it will automatically boot into the default windows location. The reason that is happening is that you probably have two locations where windows is “supposedly” installed, even though you might only have one. You could alternatively delete the duplicate location, then that message won’t come up anymore.
Either way will do the trick.
scythe944,
Thanks for the explanantion
thank you both for the advice- i will try it.
Sure, hope it works!
ok i am working with very limited knowledge concerning computers but heres what i came up with. i tried scythes method. The error message was still there when i booted up -but also on the boot in screen i had a new boot option that also read Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition. so that method gave me duplicate boot options but it really didnt get rid of the Windows Script Host Error Message. even when i booted off of the new XP option it still lead to the error message upon startup. so no luck there for me. Now i looked at a couple other places for help and i found a method that did the trick- but why it worked- i have no idea. someone said to go to this site and download this utility http://www.microsoft.com/technet/sysintern...s/Autoruns.mspx they said run it then go to the Everything Tab and search for the string Windows/boot.ini (which beside it displayed an error message saying something was wrong with the file or link) and uncheck it. then reboot and the error message should be gone. and it was. because i dont know much about this utility, im not suggesting this for anyone else with this problem- but it did work. now my question to any computer experts- “is this an ok method/fix or is my comp going to rot from the inside out in two weeks?”
That utility is fine to use. It just seems that your computer was looking for a “certain” boot.ini file upon startup, not the real one though. So, your computer was reading the real boot.ini, starting correctly, then once it was started, you had another entry for an additional boot.ini, which wasn’t really existant, which is why you got the error that it couldn’t be found.
The utility that you used (http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb963902.aspx) just disabled that startup erroneous entry.
Anyway, I’m glad that you got it fixed and shared it with the forum. Good work!