BleepingComputer.com: Need Help with Reformated XP Home Edition

I just wiped out and reinstalled a friends XP Home Edition. All shows well in Device Manager. I was able to locate all the drivers on Dell's site. My friend had several installation CDs so I think he is back in business.

I have one problem. When the computer first starts it gives me a choice of Windows Home Edition or Windows Home Edition with a countdown timer. I remember having one of these when I dual booted Windows XP and Vista.

If I let the timer run down it goes right into Windows XP and all is well. I tried selecting the second listing of Windows XP Home Edition and it showed it could not boot into Windows.

Is there a way to shorten the time before booting into Windows? If I shorten it to zero will I still get the double listing of Windows XP Home Edition? How can I get rid of the second listing?

I checked the drives and there is only one drive listed C and it shows as the primary drive and is healthy.

Thanks for any and all suggestions. I would really like to correct this before sending it back to my friend.

Steve Bell

Hi!

• Right click on My Computer > Properties.
  
• Click on the Advanced tab.
  
• In a section labeled Startup and Recovery click on Settings.

You can set the options from there.

Also, you can manually edit the boot.ini file by clicking edit, however, make sure that you know what you're doing, otherwise, it may cause your computer to not boot at all.

You can also click on Start>Run> type"msconfig" (without the quotes). Open Boot.INI. Click on check all boot paths...If there is something wrong with one of them (and there probably is) windows will allow you to set the good one as default and get rid of the one that won't boot...

A good one will look something 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 Professional" /NOEXECUTE=OPTIN /FASTDETECT

*NOTE* This is one for XP Pro...Yours will (or should be) "Microsoft Windows XP Home"...

This post has been edited by OldGrumpyBastard: 08 December 2009 - 07:10 AM

Another way to remove invalid entries from the boot.ini file...see Resolution at Removing the invalid entries from Boot.ini - http://windowsxp.mvps.org/bootopt.htm .

Louis

Sorry, already noted by OGB .

This post has been edited by hamluis: 08 December 2009 - 10:59 AM