Question

Question About NTLDR - Where Does it Reside?

Asked by: F-J-K

When MBR handles control to the partition's boot sector. When does the NTLDR take place? Does it reside in the boot sector? If not, then what does boot sector carry?

Is the booting process of XP starting from MBR as same as boot process of Vista?

I know boot.ini is replaced with BCDEDIT in Vista. Has anything else been replaced?

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Asked On
2009-10-30 at 21:34:00ID24860272
Tags

ntldr

,

boot.ini

,

storage

,

boot

,

windows xp

,

vista

Topics

Windows XP Operating System

,

Windows Vista

,

Windows 7

Participating Experts
4
Points
500
Comments
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Answers

 

by: chakotePosted on 2009-10-30 at 22:23:14ID: 25708591

Here's more about NTLDR than you'll know what to do with.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NTLDR

Here's a comparison of the legacy NTLDR and the new Vista and later Boot Manager:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa468626.aspx

You may also want to peruse the source for ReactOS, which is based on NT and is binary compatible with Windows.  Their implementation of NTLDR is called FreeLoader.
http://www.reactos.org/en/index.html
http://www.reactos.biz/wiki/FreeLoader
http://reactosblog.blogspot.com/2005/12/give-freeloader-ntldr-look.html

 

by: F-J-KPosted on 2009-10-30 at 22:35:41ID: 25708615

I was studying for A+. My book has the boot process of Windows XP. I wanted to write the basic windows boot process in a paper as a quick reference for me in case i want to review the boot process in the later future. I can see the boot process are the same in all system until it comes to the MBR then things start to change from OS version to another. I will read the resources regarding the Vista+ boot process since that's where the technology lies right now. I might get back with few questions...

Thanks for the ReactOS, looks pretty interesting...

 

by: gtworekPosted on 2009-11-01 at 08:49:20ID: 25714307

There's no ntldr in vista and newer systems. It is replaced by winload.exe and Windows Boot Manager
In Windows 7 they are usually hidden on special 100MB partition without a letter. You can assign the letter if you like but usually it makes no sense.

Boot process changed heavily... But I think now it is better.

 

by: nobusPosted on 2009-11-01 at 09:32:55ID: 25714468

just came across this interesting article :  http://www.dewassoc.com/kbase/hard_drives/master_boot_record.htm

 

by: gatekeeper6838Posted on 2009-11-02 at 16:06:47ID: 25725078

NTLOADER resides on the root system / boot partition. This file is usually hidden in XP. However, you can actually look at it if you tell Windows to "Show Hidden Files and Folders"
From a Windows Explorer window: Tools -> Folder Options -> View Tab.

If you are a more visual person, I have attached a picture from my hard drive. On my machine it is located in the root of c:\

In a nutshell:

Windows XP boot process:
MBR -> NTLDR -> BOOT.INI -> NTDETECT.COM -> NTOSKRNL.EXE (Or NTKRNLPA.EXE if you use PAE mode)

Windows Vista / 7 Process:
MBR -> BOOTMGR.EXE -> BCD store -> WINLOAD.EXE -> NTOSKRNL.EXE / NTKRNLPA.EXE

  • ntldr.JPG
    • 36 KB

    Where NTLOADER and other boot files are.

    Where NTLOADER and other boot files are.
 

by: F-J-KPosted on 2009-11-06 at 02:12:58ID: 25757895

Ok experts. I'm back, sorry for the delay. I will read your response and reply back.

 

by: F-J-KPosted on 2009-11-06 at 02:29:44ID: 25757946

gatekeeper6838:

"NTLOADER resides on the root system / boot partition"

In Linux, we have to specify/mount the boot partition explicitly. However, in Windows all boot files are
in C:. Thus, we find Windows folder, Program Files folder, Boot folder, etc under C:. Isn't more appropriate in Windows to say "Boot" folder rather than Boot partition because Boot is just a folder under C:?

 

by: F-J-KPosted on 2009-11-06 at 02:31:11ID: 31648301

It helped. I found what i'm looking for. However, still more to come.

Thanks

 

by: gatekeeper6838Posted on 2009-11-06 at 07:21:43ID: 25759847

F-J-K,

To answer your question, Windows does not necessarily have to reside on the boot partition. It is possible to have the boot files and boot sector on one partition and Windows on another. It just depends on how you setup your system. By default Windows puts everything in C. But this assumes you have no other partitions and or operating systems installed.

20120131-EE-VQP-002

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