two operating systems

[breadandbubbles]

my friend asked for my help in reformating his computer. i copied the files he wnated to keep as well as "wpa.dbl" to a CD ("wpa.bak" wasnt there...is that bad?)

i put in my windows xp cd (he couldnt find his) and told it to reformat.

i noticed that someone had partitioned about 10GB off his harddrive in FAT32 while the rest was NFTS. i deleted the partitions and told it to completely reformat. after that we went to bestbuy to get norton antivirus. when we came back it was at the setup screen, where his cdkey didnt work, so i gave him mine for now, but im hoping this "wpa.dbl" thing works because mine wont activate.

anyway, we rebooted the computer, and at startup, we were asked to choose between two operating systems. either:

a)Windows XP Home Edition

or

b)Windows XP Home Edition

whats up with that!!?

if you choose the first one, it takes you to a fresh version of windows XP. good.

the second one will lead you to a black screen that says it cannot find...lots of files. choose something else.

is there anyway to get rid of that? and will "wpa.dbl" work without the "wpa.bak" file?

[EarthJim]

>anyway, we rebooted the computer, and at startup, we were asked to choose >between two operating systems. either:

>

>a)Windows XP Home Edition

>or

>b)Windows XP Home Edition

>

>whats up with that!!?

>

>if you choose the first one, it takes you to a fresh version of windows XP. good.

>

>the second one will lead you to a black screen that says it cannot find...lots of> >files. choose something else.

>

>is there anyway to get rid of that?

You should correct your boot.ini file. Click right button on "My computer" -> properties -> advanced -> Startup and recovery settings -> "Edit". Post here the content of this file.

Edited October 4, 2005 by EarthJim

[billie1966]

breadandbubbles: Did you ever get an answer about your missing wpa.bak file. I have run into a similar problem with trying reinstall win xp hm and then needing to reativate windows but i am also missing wpa.bak file from system32 folder but i do have the origianl copy of wpa.dbl. I am wondering if anyone knows if the workaraound for activation will still work with only my original copy of the wpa.dbl and no wpa.bak. please let me know