BleepingComputer.com: Two operating systems

HI!

A while back I had wanted my computer basically formatted but didn't want to lose some of my music and files. A friend had thought he could do it by re-installing windows XP and copying over some files or something like that.

But what has happened is that now I have two Windows XPs running on my computer. When I start up the computer a black screen comes up that says this:

"Please select the operating system to start:"

Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition
Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition

How can I get rid of one of the operating systems??

MJSKCANgirl

Ordinarily, they have been auto-formatted into two different partitions on the one hard drive. If you know you don't have two partitions, scroll to the bottom of this post and step 2 is there. If you do have two partitions, or you're not sure, complete step one.

1.Go to:

Control Panel > Performance and Maintenence > Administrative Tools > Computer Management > Disk Management

Now this part can get tricky. If you see only one parition then deleting it will obviously not work so scroll to the next step. If there is more than one partition read on. Do you have linux or another operating system installed on your computer? If so there may be more than 2 partitions. To distinguish Linux from Windows, look at the partition type. If the partition is NTFS then it is a Windows partition, if not recognised - a linux one. If not there will only be 2 and you now must distinguish which one you need to delete. Ordinarily you can't delete one of these because you are currently using it. Right click on the partition you wish to delete and press delete partition.

2. Now to get rid of the booting loader:

Control Panel > Performance and Maintenence > System

Then go to the Advanced Tab. There will be a startup and recovery box at the bottom of this screen. Click on settings, and then click on edit in the top box. There should be two Windows XP Home Edition options. Find the partition you just deleted and delete that line of coding. An alternative is to set the default operating system to the one you still have and set the timeout to zero so it will boot automatically.

IF YOU ONLY HAVE ONE PARTITION:
If you only have one partition then there is a problem with the booting of the drive. If this is the case, then carry out only step 2 and this problem will be fixed.

Hope I could help and sorry about the confusing post

Okay I did what you said and this is what I have found:

When I went to The Disk Management, on the right side all I see is one line with the following information:

Volume - C:
Layout - Partition
Type - Basic
File System - NTFS
Status - Healthy (System)
Capacity - 37.24 GB
Free Space - 23.01 GB

So I am assuming that means I only have one partition.

So I went on to Step #2. I went to the advanced tab, than to startup and recovery. In the System startup box (top) I clicked the Edit button and it opens up Notepad and says 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 /NoExecute=OptIn
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition" /fastdetect

Before I delete anything I want to be sure. Am I just supposed to delete the last part right in the notepad?

Please make sure I am on the right track!!
(I have had bad luck deleting things in the past and want to double check before I delete something I wasn't supposed to)

THANK YOU SO MUCH

MJSKCANgirl

Alrite, yeah you are definetly on the right track here. You only have one partition and the boot loader still thinks you have two. To fix this, in the easiest way possible is to go to the System windows and then to the advanced tab and onto Startup and Recovery. Since one of the Windows XP Home Editions dosent really exist at all, just untick the box next to time to display list of Operating Systems. No editing of that file required. Restart and check if the problems solved.

It works - I don't get that screen on startup anymore!!

THANK YOU SO MUCH

(I had four of the computer techs from my workplace try and fix it and they say it couldn't be done without reformatting or something big and confusing I didn't understand. Good old government workers..........)
I will defenitely come back here first next time I have a problem!!

MJSKCANgirl

What if it won't let you delete the partition? Then what to do?

Instead of digging up a thread more than 3 years old, please start a new topic stating you problem