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Crossy

Crossy

Crossy

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Joined
23 Oct 2006
Posts
1,600
Location
Newcastle, The Toon
Hi there,
I recently finished my first build and everything went fine. I installed a Cold cathode light but it started giving me a headache from seeing it in the corner of my eye so i took it out of the case and disconnected it while the pc was still on and accidently pulled out the HD powercable, then my screen went black which it then said it did to make my pc safe blah blah blah. In anyways now i reinstalled windows and it had wiped my hard drive clean but the program files of my games, programs etc where still there but this isnt the issue. Now when i turn on my PC it loads the motherboard screen then it asks which OS i want to run and they are both the same exept one is corrupt and comes to a screen about errors, but if i select the newly installed one it runs fine and dandy. I just wanna know how i can get rid of the old OS still on the hardrive or set it that i dont have to select which OS system i want to load.

Hope ive gave enough info for u guys to help me with..

Thanks Ryan
 
You need to edit the boot.ini file in the root of the c: drive to remove the references to the corrupt copy of windows. However when you do edit it MAKE SURE YOU REMOVE THE CORRECT ENTRIES. If you remove the references to the wrong copy chances are you'll struggle to get the system back working short of another reinstall.

The entries in the file should be in the same order as displayed on the screen.
 
Open up your boot.ini file and in the part between the " " marks rename one of them so that you know which one is which just incase you delete the wrong entry.

My boot.ini looks like this:

Code: 
[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

Im assuming that your boot.ini looks like this:

Code: 
[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
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Professional" /NOEXECUTE=OPTIN /FASTDETECT

Just rename one of them (see example below) and try to boot to one of them and if it works just delete the entry in the boot.ini file that is wrong.

Code: 
[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 DODGY INSTALL" /NOEXECUTE=OPTIN /FASTDETECT
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Professional" /NOEXECUTE=OPTIN /FASTDETECT

Good luck.

Rpstewart - where abouts you from. Stay near the Murdy dams myself :)
 
Last edited:
when reinstalling windows, you should format the drive, so its totally clean

you can do this at the blue setup screen where you choose the partition/drive to install windows onto
 
Why not just format the drive and reinstall windows from scratch?

Sounds like you're left with a lot of junk from your previous install that wont work anyway.

EDIT: I NEED TO LEARN TO TYPE FASTER :p
 
Meths said:
Why not just format the drive and reinstall windows from scratch?

Sounds like you're left with a lot of junk from your previous install that wont work anyway.
Click to expand...


my point exactly :)
 
ha yeah well its my first time really..anywho i wanna reopen this thread as i did what you guys told me to do like open boot.ini and delete the old one but now when i come to the boot menu it says Windows XP professional and then Windows default and when i select windows default it comes up with the same rubbish as the OS i tried to delete!!!

Thanks guys Ryan
 
Last edited:
Btw this is what my boot.ini look slike


[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=signature(26ce26cd)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Professional" /fastdetect /NoExecute=OptIn


hope this can help
 
Let me get this straight. You have 2 options from the boot menu, 'Windows XP Professional' and 'windows default'? And 'Windows XP Professional' works and 'Windows Default' doesn't?

If so, change your boot ini to this:

[boot loader]
timeout=0
default=signature(26ce26cd)disk(0)rdisk(0)partitio n(1)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Professional" /fastdetect /NoExecute=OptIn


Basically, all i've changed is the timeout, so rather than it displaying the menu for 30 seconds, it will select the default OS straight away.
 
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