2 Windows XP's on Boot Up!

[jamboogy]

my computer was infected with malware, so i had to reformat it. whenever i start up my computer it goes to a screen where it tells me to select an operating system. it has 3 options - windows home edition and another windows home edition right underneath that. then finally there is the windows preinstall environment. i have been using the first xp home edition option and it seems to be running fine. i also forgot to mention that i have what seems to be 2 hard disk drives in my computer. is something wrong?

Thanks!

[mmarable]

It sounds like your format and reinstall didn't go as you had intended.

You're Boot.ini appears to be showing you both the original install (on one of the hard drives) as well as your new installation (on the other hard drive).

From your description, that's what it appears to be.

[antinouskalisto]

There is nothing wrong, you just didn't fully format the drive(boot sector). I think you should check your boot.ini for duplicates or old OS's that don't exist at all anymore.

This has happened to me before and I had a duplicate boot.ini entry, both "Microsoft Windows XP Professional" entries loaded the same OS.

[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" /FASTDETECT /NOEXECUTE=OPTIN
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Professional" /FASTDETECT /NOEXECUTE=OPTIN

^^^Notice that both listed OSes are on multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1) or you might see one like that and one like this multi(0)disk(1)rdisk(0)partition(1) which means the second entry is on another PHYSICAL hard disk, not just a partition/slice of one physical.

The easiest way to check that is Start > Run > notepad C:\boot.ini

Does the second xp entry work at all? If not just remove that OS line from the boot ini, it would be the second line under [operating systems]. If it works, but loads the same thing as the first, once again I would remove it. There is no reason to have the same OS listed twice...

If it works but loads another copy of xp, well then you would have to decide on that one...do you need to keep the other OS? Reading the boot.ini will allow you to see where that second entry is pointing to.

I hope this helps.

[jaclaz]

Just for the record, if you want to edit boot.ini in a more "dedicated" editor, with some of the "advanced" parameters too, get this proggie here:

http://www.dx21.com/SOFTWARE/Dx21/ViewItem...SI=2&OID=14

jaclaz

[dirtwarrior]

Just for the record, if you want to edit boot.ini in a more "dedicated" editor, with some of the "advanced" parameters too, get this proggie here:

http://www.dx21.com/SOFTWARE/Dx21/ViewItem...SI=2&OID=14

jaclaz

AHHH very nice

[jamboogy]

well thanks for all your replies! i have tried out the 2nd one and it seems to be much faster when it boots up than the 1st one. for the first one it has a horizontal strip that it white and loads when i boot up that one. it takes a minute or so and it is quite frustrating. for the second one it goes to the log in screen straight away. i think i would rather prefer to use the second one. i installed the recovery console cos i had to delete a program. should i remove this? also, what i meant before about 2 hard disk drives in my computer was that one is C:Recovery and the other is D:Local Disk. i think d: is the one i want because it has the amount of hard disk space my computer has, which is 180gb. if i removed one of the boot files would it remove the c: drive too?

Here is my boot file:

[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition" /fastdetect /NoExecute=OptIn
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition" /fastdetect
C:\CMDCONS\BOOTSECT.DAT="Microsoft Windows Recovery Console" /cmdcons

Thanks