hello i have just had to format a family members computer because her son had it riddled with spyway and it hadn't had any security updates in seven months so we took it to the shop to get some advice but the bloke said it was knacked and it needed formatted so over the last few day we have formatted it and reinstalled xp, and norton only now when the computer boots up it gives two options one for xp and another for microsoft whistler is there any way of fixing this as the person the computer belongs to might not be happy if they find it like this (they are easily confused), also for some reason the @ button has changed place on the keyboard it is now found on the 2 button instead like i say the person is easliy confused so i would like to fix the problems before they return from holiday as a nice supprise for them, any help would be apprieciated and i hope to hear from you soon.

have you upgraded from a previous version of windows to XP ?

edit: after some searching it seems that whistler is the codename for XP, like longhorn is the codename for vista you may have setup a dual boot by accident how many partitions are there ?

Maybe start over?

Boot from XP CD and when it comes to the option to format, choose 'Format in NTFS' (not 'Quick Format') and let XP do it's stuff.

Whistler? What's that?

Cowboys ... get your money back!

It sounds that the keyboard is setup for US English.

When XP has installed look in your control panel and make sure your language in keyboard settings is UK English or something similiar.

hello again, we have updated from xp home edition to xp professional we created one partition and we formatted in ntfs mode, hope this helps narrow it down and thanks for the help so far we have just fixed the keyboard problem.

You can do two things here with this......

1.) Reformate the HDD again but this time try to find a utility that will delete the Master Boot Record. To do this you will need a special peice of software. I found a site that has a free one available: http://www.killdisk.com/downloadfree.htm I have not used it but it should work from what I read. This will delete the entire Hard Disk Drive!!!! back up everything. I refurbish PCs on the side for extra cash and resell them. I use a tool called Erase Disk that I paid for. It does the same thing.

2.) The other simpler but less clean option is to Right click on My Computer, go to properties, Select Advanced, Select Start Up and Recovery (Settings), Take the check out of Time To Display list of Operating Systems. CLick OK then OK again. You should not see that message when you reboot again.

Let me know if any of this is not clear and I need to elaborate more.

thanks every one i managed to fix all the problems but i couldnt have done it without all of your help