xp professional recognizing both drives as OS

[bhome83]

have been having this problem for a while and have put it off cuz my computer still works fine. problem starts when i turn on the computer and it gives me 2 options of which drive to boot winxp from. it basically says both c and d drives have a winxp professional installed. the computer still boots up but not sure which drive the 'real os' is on. i choose the first boot option and computer boots fine as always, but if i were to choose the 2nd boot option i just get a black screen so im assuming that is the drive with the bad OS or something. i want to delete many of the files on my drive that isn't using the os (if that makes anysense). do i have to reformat the drive i don't want to use for the OS so this message goes away when i start the computer? i would reformat the 'bad' drive but i have still lots of files i want to keep on there, just want to get rid of the program files, windows folder etc used for the OS. so how do i figure which drive the os is on and how to get rid of this msg. when i turn on the computer? thanks.

[Mesaeus]

Windows XP setup has the annoying habit of adding lines to the boot.ini for every Windows install it finds during setup, even if that install consists of only a couple of leftover files from the old Windows install. Correcting this is simple. In the main directory of your boot drive (probably C: ) there will be a hidden system file called boot.ini. The quickest way to find it is to start cmd.exe and then type the following, pressing ENTER after each line.

c:
cd\
attrib -h -s -r boot.ini
notepad boot.ini

You'll now have the file open in notepad, simply delete the line which points to the missing install on D: The working line will probably look like this :

multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Professional" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect /usepmtimer

So you'll have to delete the other one. If you can't easily see which one is the bad one, post the contents of boot.ini here and we'll tell you which one to delete.

[bhome83]

alright so i have this:
[boot loader]
timeout=10
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(1)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Professional" /fastdetect /NoExecute=OptIn
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Professional" /fastdetect

so which one do i delete? also, how do i tell which drive (c or d) my OS is on? thanks!

[bhome83]

anyone? i just don't want to delete the wrong line.

[Mesaeus]

Sorry I was out to family Anyway, the default seems to be the first line of the two starting with "multi(0)". If you wait 30 seconds when the menu screen is up, it should start the default and show you which one is working. If the default starts windows, delete the last line :

multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Professional" /fastdetect

However if the default won't boot, it will be the other similar line you'll have to remove.

[Dan Penny]

Here is mine;

[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 Home Edition" /fastdetect /NoExecute=OptIn

Two hard disks.


This one is from my 98SE/W2K Pro dual boot system;

[boot loader]
timeout=15
default=C:\
[operating systems]
C:\="Microsoft Windows"
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(5)\WINNT="Microsoft Windows 2000 Professional" /fastdetect

Again, two hard disks. Win2K is on the second disk, fifth partition.

Where is the WINDOWS directory? On C: or D:?

A safer method for changing things is Control Panel, System, Advanced, Startup and Recovery, Settings, System startup. The one the system has "chosen" will be in the drop down box and highlighted. If the system boots without you choosing, this is the one to keep. Simply remove the checkmark from the "Time to display list of operating systems:" and you will no longer be prompted.