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URGENT! Windows Start Up!!

Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
Well to cut a long story really short!

I have 2 hard drives one with Windows OS on and one that is a blank one i wanted to format the blank one because it had files on there that i wanted to completely remove, i know why dont you just delete? but i wanted a fresh one, so i poped in my windows CD and found the hard drive D and then deleted the partiton and then made a new one and it started to install windows on it! as soon as i saw that windows screen got rid of the cd and rebooted and now i have 2! Windows XP Home Edition Things to choose from, BUT! it gets even better its auto choosing the bad drive the one with no OS on, so what im doing is to have to quickly switch before it loads the other one, what i need to know is do i format that hard drive D again and just leave it make no partiton or is there a way to remove the entry?

Comments

  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Start - Control Panel - System - Advanced - Startup and Recovery

    Should allow you to swap the defaults, or edit the file to remove the one you don't want.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    wow! i never knew that! but the thing is how do i tell which partiton to remove? :confused:
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    The one that is listed in the requester as the default is the one that windows loads automatically, so you'd need to ditch the other one.

    Otherwise you could edit the name of one of them to make sure.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Thanks mist! Ive renamed one of the other ones Windows and im going to load that one and see what happens!

    Thanks alot :wave:
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    BIG PROBLEM!!!!!!

    i removed the other partiton where u click Edit and then i rebooted and it was still there so i changed the number for the other partition to 1 because thats what the other one has and NOW! im getting this error message!!!!

    Windows could not start because of a computer disk configuration problem.
    could not read from the selected boot disk. check the boot past and disk hardwear
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    I'm not sure what you mean "changed the number"?
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Please accept my Msn please mist, it will be quicker over on msn
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    If you cannot get back into the computer, you could try this -
    What is the boot.ini file and how do I repair it?

    This is the file that is used that identifies the location of Windows. It is a hidden system file located in the root partition of the primary hard drive (C). It identifies which hard drive, which partition on the drive and the folder where Windows is installed.

    The steps to repair a missing or corrupt boot.ini file are:

    Insert and boot from your Windows XP CD.
    When you receive the "Press any key to boot from CD" message, press a key to start your computer from the Windows XP CD-ROM.
    When you receive the "Welcome to Setup" message, press R to start the Recovery Console.
    Press the number that corresponds to the correct location for the installation of Windows you want to repair, typically this will be #1.
    Type bootcfg /list to show the current entries in the BOOT.INI file. At this point you may get a message telling you that the boot.ini file does not exist. The next step will correct this error.
    Type bootcfg /rebuild to repair it. This will scan your hard dives for installations of Windows XP, 2000 or NT and display the results. Follow the on-screen instructions to add your Windows installations to the boot.ini file. Those step will be:
    Total Identified Windows Installs: 1
    (1) C:\Windows
    Add installation to boot list? (Yes/No/All)
    Type y and hit enter
    Enter Load Identifier
    This is the name of the operating system. When you receive this message, type the name of your operating system, and then press ENTER.
    Enter OS Load options
    When you receive this message, type /fastdetect, and then press ENTER.

    Note: The instructions that appear on your screen may be different, depending on the configuration of your computer.
    Take out the CD ROM and type exit.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    THANK YOU!!!! it worked but i mucked it up theres now 3 versions it says

    windows
    Microsoft Windows Xp Home Edition <-- Thats the one i typed in along with the one called windows and now i need to remove them HOW?

    Im in windows btw!!!
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Okay all the big problems are over!!!! Thanks to Mist and my friend matt! :D

    Im going to think about getting a network drive, because all i wanted to do was install the sims... Any ideas on network drives :D
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    If you're sure that you have identifed which ones you don't need, then go into the Startup and recovery bit again, click the "edit" button and you can then remove the lines you don't need from the file.

    otherwise just swap the default and change the time to 1 second or something.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Thanks ever so much!
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