# [SOLVED] Invalid BOOT.INI file, NTDETECT failed



## Corporate (Jan 2, 2008)

I'm having the exact problem as Eric above but the instructions provided from Microsoft's tech support does not solve my problem. I bought a brand new Hp DV9608nr and removed Vista because it was too much for the specs of the laptop. I installed Windows XP Professional and upon rebooting, got the error: 

Invalid BOOT.INI file
Booting from c:\windows\
NTDETECT failed

Like I said, I preformed the instructions step-by-step listed here: 

http://support.microsoft.com/?scid=kb;en-us;330184&x=7&y=16

But, when I reboot the computer, it still gives me the error and runs the reboot process repeatedly. 

Any thoughts?


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## JohnthePilot (Mar 30, 2006)

*Re: Invalid BOOT.INI file, NTDETECT failed*

Hi and welcome to TSF.
I wonder if you've got traces of Vista left. Did you reformat before installing XP?


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## justpassingby (Mar 11, 2007)

*Re: Invalid BOOT.INI file, NTDETECT failed*

Hi Corporate and welcome to TSF !

I've moved your post to a new thread since we prefer to keep one thread for one user.
Here's the thread you were refering to :
http://www.techsupportforum.com/f10...ng-from-c-windows-ntdetect-failed-205571.html

Here are some links to your laptop's specs and support :
http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/...c=us&dlc=en&product=3548476&rule=8120&lang=en
http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/...us&dlc=en&submit.y=0&submit.x=0&lang=en&cc=us


When you start in the recovery console, are you prompted to choose between more than one installation of Windows ? If so, try to choose the other installation and tell us what choices you have under *Total Identified Windows Installs* after running *bootcfg /rebuild* ?

Run *chkdsk c: /R* before running bootcfg /rebuild. This will fix possible errors on the drive. Answer yes to scan the computer at next restart if prompted to do so.



If the above method doesn't help then you'll need to wipe the hard drive and retry the installation. Keep in mind that several problems may occur when trying to downgrade a laptop from Windows Vista to Windows XP :

1. As JohnthePilot said, the recovery partition and boot sectors from Windows Vista may come in the way of the XP installation if the drive wasn't wiped clean before installing XP. Formatting the drive isn't enough, you need to use a third party utility to erase the older boot sectors.

2. Since your laptop uses a sata drive, you may need to find the proper sata drivers if the XP install CD fails to detect your hard drive. Problem is that those drivers are meant to be loaded from a floppy drive which modern laptops don't have so you'll need to add them to your XP CD if they aren't on it already.

3. Since your laptop came with Vista you may have a hard time finding all the proper XP drivers for your hardware (network, sound card, ...). This can usually be solved by looking on the manufacturer's website for each component.


Had you wiped the whole drive before trying to install XP pro ? If not then you can still use the recovery partition to create the Vista recovery disks. These disks will be your only working backup in case something goes wrong with Windows XP after you've wiped your drive clean (like if you can't find the proper XP drivers for your sata controller) so I strongly suggest that you create them. Follow the instructions in this link :
http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/...=us&dlc=en&product=3548476&rule=10919&lang=en (Press F11 when the computer starts to access the recovery manager to restore Windows Vista then create the recovery disks once you're in Vista). You can also choose to order the recovery CD's from HP for a small fee in case you weren't able to create them.

To install Windows XP, your best bet is to use an XP SP2 CD and make sure that the CD has the proper sata drivers to detect your hard drive. 
If your XP CD hasn't SP2 on it you must first slipstream SP2 on it :
http://www.geekgirls.com/windowsxp_slipstream.htm
http://www.winsupersite.com/showcase/windowsxp_sp2_slipstream.asp

This guy also had a dv9608nr and it seems that the XP SP2 CD was able to detect the sata controller from the nvidia chipset :
http://forums12.itrc.hp.com/service...47627+1199372214503+28353475&threadId=1189229
You will also find the links to all the XP drivers you'll need in that thread.

Use a dban CD or DVD to wipe the hard drive clean and remove the vista recovery partition and boot sectors then start the installation with your XP SP2 CD.

If it can't detect your hard drive then you'll need to integrate the XP sata drivers to the XP CD and restart the installation process :
http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/wind...d-disk-drives-during-windows-xp-installation/


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## Corporate (Jan 2, 2008)

*Re: Invalid BOOT.INI file, NTDETECT failed*

Actually yes, that was the problem John and Just. When I installed xp, I did not wipe the hdd clean. Upon running doing so, the install went perfectly and now it's fully updated and running. Thank you for your help.

Now the only problem left is the graphics card, which is slow to say the least. It's an Nvidia GeForce Go 7150m integrated card which has trouble running any game at the lowest settings over 12 frames per second. It's a relatively new computer so I'm hoping that either HP or Nvidia comes out with an update.


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## JohnthePilot (Mar 30, 2006)

*Re: Invalid BOOT.INI file, NTDETECT failed*

I'm glad that worked and thanks for letting us know. Good luck with the card.


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## justpassingby (Mar 11, 2007)

Sometimes I feel I'm giving too many details :grin:

An onboard video card will never be as fast as a dedicated one. Until now there are very few benchmarks that include the 7150 in their charts but you can already get an idea :

http://www.tweaktown.com/reviews/1236/10/page_10_benchmarks_3dmark06/index.html
Look at the integrated GPU figures for 3DMark06 and Far Cry (not the discrete ones which were obtained with a dedicated video card) and compare them to the other video cards in these benchmarks :
http://www.notebookcheck.net/Mobile-Graphics-Cards-Benchmark-List.844.0.html
http://www.reportlabs.com/testbed/version1/grv1/grtop50nvidia.php


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## JohnthePilot (Mar 30, 2006)

You know what they say - K.I.S.S. :grin:


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