Why 2 Operating Systems

[Langer]

I have just formatted my friend’s computer. I deleted all of the partitions he had and installed windows afresh. When I restarted the computer for the first time it ask me what OS I wanted to run. I have only installed windows home. Why is it asking me for this? The second question is how do I get rid of the other OS option which does not work anyway?

Any help really appreciated!

 

[ishamy]

I'v recently come across this at work on one or two dell's when reformatting, its a known problem with some of the newer models. the only way round it is reformat it again and also make sure you do a full format and not a quick one.

 

[Al Vallario]

Probably the result of a botched installation or recovery?

Anyway, unless you want to mess around uninstalling it or formatting again, the quick fix to get rid of the prompt would be to edit your boot.ini file and remove the reference to the second installation.

Microsoft have a couple of articles on the matter: "How to edit the Boot.ini file in Windows XP" and "How to remove a second installation of a Windows operating system from a partition." Remember to back up any important files before you play around with them

*av

 

[TomaHawk]

If you do the following you can choose the default OS to be chosen upon Start-Up and remove the option upon start-up.. but this isn't really recommended as there will be left over files and general 'mess'.. from the previous installation.

So would be good to do a full format.
But here it is for reference:
right click My Computer > properties > advanced [tab] > the bottom 'settings' (startup and recovery) > choose default OS and tick/untick start options.

Should work...