Choose operating system at startup???

[wschino]

My girlfriend's dad did something crazy with his computer and now when he starts up his computer it asks what operating system we want to boot into: Windows XP Home Edition or Windows XP Home Edition. Huh? This is after a clean install of XP Home. I checked the partition on the primary master and there is only one partition like we itended there to be. Here is his system specs:

MSI KT2 Combo-L
XP1700+
128MB DDR PC2700
WD 10GB(primary)
Maxtor 8GB(seondary)
48X CDRW(primary)
52X CD(secondary)
Floppy

Is there a way to fix this without reinstalling Windows?

[Boone]

His boot.ini file got some extra options added to it. It's an easy fix. It should look just like this:

[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

The path to the file is c:\boot.ini

You can just make the changes using Notepad. Save your changes and reboot then all should be well.

[DrZaius]

Hi wschino,

It's very easy to fix. Enable hidden files by opening My Computer and going to Tools > Folder Options > View and select "Show hidden files and folders". Then find the boot.ini file in your C:\ directory and open it. Remove the line of the OS you don't want to use under "operating systems" and save it. Reverse the process to re-hide the hidden files. Hope this helps.

Edit: Boone beat me to it.

[lil Jimmie]

No need to unhide any files just read here