[defyfate]

I had bought several hard drives as is, hoping one of them would work. thought I had one, but turned out I couldn't install XP onto the disk, wouldn't copy any files. so I pretty much cut my loss on the drives and removed it the bad one from pc. now I get 2 options when booting windows. my original xp install, and the 2nd install that still needs to complete, how can I stop it from wanting to install xp again from the boot file and keep the original settings as they were?

 

[Frank4d]

Boot.ini is a (usually hidden and read only) text format file in C:\. You can edit it using Notepad.

But I would feel more comfortable telling you how to edit it if you post a copy of it's contents here, along with information about the partition and physical drive your good XP installation is on (since if boot.ini is edited incorrectly, your PC won't boot at all).

 

[davehc]

Go to the Control panel/System/Advanced. Select the last option (Start up).
At the top you will see a text line. This is your boot.ini. If you open it you can select the wanted line from there, as your default. If you then change the time to 0 secs, you will not be troubled with the choice menu again. You can also edit the boot.ini with notepad or wordpad. (it's in the root) Be careful that you know which line you are really not needing! I would suggest you make a copy of the boot.ini before attempting this simple procedure. Your final Boot.ini should read something like this, assuming XP is on your C. Drive.

[boot loader]
timeout=5
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" /fastdetect

 

[Jack Horner]

Go to Start >Run type "msconfig" select the boot.ini tab, then the check all boot paths button. Any invalid paths will be listed with a prompt to remove them.

 

[defyfate]

ok here is my boot.ini i just need to edit the last sentence and remove it completely right?

[Boot Loader]
Timeout=5
Default=C:\$WIN_NT$.~BT\BOOTSECT.DAT
[Operating Systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Windows XP Media Center Edition" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect
C:\$WIN_NT$.~BT\BOOTSECT.DAT="Microsoft Windows XP Professional Setup"

 

[Jack Horner]

You will also need to change the default = line to
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS

 

[Frank4d]

You need to do that, and also edit the line for default boot device:

[Boot Loader]
Timeout=5
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS
[Operating Systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Windows XP Media Center Edition" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect