A shoddy format...

[Kareeser]

I recently formatted my parents' Dell Inspiron 8200 with a Windows XP CD that was sent by Dell. Following are the steps I took:

1. Rebooted into BIOS to ensure CD was the first on the boot list
2. Inserted OS Disk and rebooted.
3. Deleted all partitions (C:\, and some random 16 MB FAT16 partition)
4. Created a new partition under C:\ with all the space available
5. Did a quick format to NTFS.
6. Installed Windows XP.

Now whenever I reboot the computer, the system asks me to choose which operating system to load! Both are Windows XP Home, but I technically only installed one operating system (not counting the one that was just erased).

Did I format the computer incorrectly? (Should I have used the non-quick option instead?)

[doctorgonzo]

You simply need to remove the superfluous line in your boot.ini file. It is located in the C:\ root directory, just open it in Notepad. Or you can right-click on My Computer, select Properties, Advanced tab, Startup and Recovery settings button, then the Edit button. Under the [operating systems] section, if the two lines are identical, remove one of them. If they aren't identical, it will take some figuring out to determine which one is right, so post back with the contents of the file.

[Kareeser]

[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" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect

I always pick the default value, so I would assume that I should erase the Windows on "Partition 2"?

To my knowledge, I don't think I have tried booting to the second option for fun, so I don't know what that would do =P

Thanks in advance!

[doctorgonzo]

If you always pick the default and that works, then you are correct, take out the line with partition(2). But it wouldn't be a bad idea to select that one first to see where it takes you.

[Kareeser]

Picking the second value tells me a specific file is missing or corrupt, then promptly reboots the computer

Thanks for your help! I've deleted the duplicate entry from my boot.ini file.