HELP! Ive installed XP twice, how do I delete one of them?

neoglow · 18 Dec 2008 at 12:15

Hey everyone in the know,

For some strange reason my Bios decided to change the boot order of my hard-drives so when it rebooted I got the 'Disk Error, please insert the system disk' error.

Basically the comp froze whilst playing GTA 4, it wasnt responding to anything so I did a cold restart with the reset button, thats when I was presented with that message. Cursing and swearing I thought my comp had lost its volume label for the partition (is that what its called? Ive had it in the past, when it refuses to boot into Windows until you reinstall?)

Anyway, used the XP CD to repair the XP install but XP didnt show up in the list of already installed operating systems, keeping the formatting structure intact I did a new install. Restarted and got the Disk Error again, cursing and swearing again I checked Bios where I found my HDD Boot priority had been changed!!!! Ive never changed it since I built the machine 6 months ago! Anyway, with the correct priority it seems I have installed XP twice on the same drive. Folders 'Windows' and 'Windows.0' and I get the OS choice list on bootup, sorry for babling on, that brings us to the question...

How can I safely (without messing anything up) delete the new install of Windows XP and keep the old one intact and not run into any errors?

What needs to be deleted or changed in addition to the following?...

* Delete Windows.0 folder
* Edit the startup file to stop the OS choice menu showing

Anything else?

Thanks for the help in advance peeps, and merry crimbo!

M.

Kerplunk · 18 Dec 2008 at 12:26

Firsty, GTA 5? dont you mean IV (4) ?

Secondly go and Right click my computer - Advanced - Startup and Recovery Settings.

then 'Edit'

Make sure you delete the right one

neoglow · 18 Dec 2008 at 13:00

Ah yes, 4 not 5, Im no good with roman numerials.

Yep, edited the startup file and got the right one, whats next?

Cheers, M.

dirtydog · 18 Dec 2008 at 13:07

So you installed it twice into the same partition?

What does/did your boot.ini say, and what did you delete from it?

neoglow · 18 Dec 2008 at 13:12

dirtydog said:
So you installed it twice into the same partition?

What does/did your boot.ini say, and what did you delete from it?

Yep, into the same partition...

Heres the boot.ini file before I changed it so there is only one XP entry...

[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS.0
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS.0="Microsoft Windows XP Professional" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Professional" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect

Cheers, M.

dirtydog · 18 Dec 2008 at 13:14

So you deleted the bottom one did you?

TBH I'm not sure which is the old version.

Kerplunk · 18 Dec 2008 at 13:16

Which is the one you use to carry on, do u select the first one or second one on the list ?

neoglow · 18 Dec 2008 at 13:18

dirtydog said:
So you deleted the bottom one did you?

Nope, the 1st one, the Windows.0 entry as this was the second one installed (the one I dont need as I wanted to keep the original one), the new boot.ini looks 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

What else do I need to do? Registry entries? Or shall I leave them? Delete the Windows.0 folder?

M.

Kerplunk · 18 Dec 2008 at 13:20

That should be fine then

neoglow · 18 Dec 2008 at 13:22

So all that is left to do is delete the Windows.0 folder? And job done? I thought it was going to be more of a pain to solve this! Phew.

Nanobot · 18 Dec 2008 at 15:27

You should check to see which folder is your working one.
Start > Run > %windir%
This will tell you which is your live one, so delete the other after you have fixed your boot.ini.