How to create a Windows NT 4.0, 2000, XP or Server 2003 boot floppy disk

Last updated on Apr 24, 2001
Last updated on Oct 26, 2005

The NT BOOT diskette allows you to boot from a floppy using the NT OS Loader menu to select the NT partition to load the kernel from. This can be very handy if you have lost your NT boot sector by installing another OS which copies over the partition boot record.

Supports up to 2 harddisks (any partition).

The steps are:

Format a floppy disk using a Windows NT 4.0, 2000, XP or Server 2003 machine (not windows 9x!)
format a: /u
Copy NTDETECT.COM and NTLDR onto the floppy disk

Download this BOOT.INI file and put it onto the floppy disk

BOOT.INI file
[boot loader] timeout=-1 default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS [operating systems] multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="First harddisk, first partition" /sos multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS="First harddisk, second partition" /sos multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(3)\WINDOWS="First harddisk, third partition" /sos multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(4)\WINDOWS="First harddisk, fourth partition" /sos multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Second harddisk, first partition" /sos multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(2)\WINDOWS="Second harddisk, second partition" /sos multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(3)\WINDOWS="Second harddisk, third partition" /sos multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(4)\WINDOWS="Second harddisk, fourth partition" /sos C:\="Previous Operating System on C:\"

BOOT.INI file

[boot loader]
timeout=-1
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="First harddisk, first partition" /sos
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS="First harddisk, second partition" /sos
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(3)\WINDOWS="First harddisk, third partition" /sos
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(4)\WINDOWS="First harddisk, fourth partition" /sos
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Second harddisk, first partition" /sos
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(2)\WINDOWS="Second harddisk, second partition" /sos
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(3)\WINDOWS="Second harddisk, third partition" /sos
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(4)\WINDOWS="Second harddisk, fourth partition" /sos
C:\="Previous Operating System on C:\"

This boot.ini assumes that windows is installed in the "WINDOWS" folder, for terminal server you must edit the boot.ini and replace all "WINDOWS" into "WTSRV", for Windows NT 4.0 you must edit the boot.ini and replace all "WINDOWS" into "WINNT".

This boot.ini will not work for SCSI Controllers without a SCSI BIOS (need NTBOOTDD.SYS on the diskette)

For more info on boot.ini switches look at http://www.sysinternals.com/ntw2k/info/bootini.shtml.

Done, try and boot it!