Boot asks which operating system I want to use

[Guest]

When booting up it stops at a screen that has Win XP Home 2 times and Microsoft Windows 1 time. It asks which one I want to use. What is this? Does it mean I have more than one operating system? How do I remove all but 1?

Thanks for your help!

 

[Myron J. Mandell]

Hi Sharon,

This means you have multiple OS's listed in your boot.ini file, which
resides in the root of your C drive.
Whether these OS's actually exist (or are really different) is another
matter.

You may edit this file using Notepad. My boot.ini (for a computer with one
copy of XP Home on C) looks like:

[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 Home
Edition" /fastdetect

You apparently have additional entries under [operating systems], which you
may delete if you wish.

You may also delete the WINDOWS directories corresponding to OS's you don't
want.

Note that the boot.ini file may be hidden, so you will need to show hidden
files and folders to see it.

Myron

When booting up it stops at a screen that has Win XP Home 2 times and

Microsoft Windows 1 time. It asks which one I want to use. What is this?
Does it mean I have more than one operating system? How do I remove all but
1?

 

[Guest]

Thanks Myron, how do I do this?

----- Myron J. Mandell wrote: -----

Hi Sharon,

This means you have multiple OS's listed in your boot.ini file, which
resides in the root of your C drive.
Whether these OS's actually exist (or are really different) is another
matter.

You may edit this file using Notepad. My boot.ini (for a computer with one
copy of XP Home on C) looks like:

[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 Home
Edition" /fastdetect

You apparently have additional entries under [operating systems], which you
may delete if you wish.

You may also delete the WINDOWS directories corresponding to OS's you don't
want.

Note that the boot.ini file may be hidden, so you will need to show hidden
files and folders to see it.

Myron

When booting up it stops at a screen that has Win XP Home 2 times and

Microsoft Windows 1 time. It asks which one I want to use. What is this?
Does it mean I have more than one operating system? How do I remove all but
1?

 

[Myron J. Mandell]

Sharon,

Perhaps the most nearly foolproof way is to click Start | Run and type

notepad c:\boot.ini

If the default system is the one you want to keep, then leave just one line
corresponding to the default under [operating systems].

Then save the file.

If you think you may have screwed up the text, then exit without saving and
try again.

To be extra safe, before you do this you should make a copy of the original
boot.ini - call it something like boot.save.
Then, you can later rename it to boot.ini if necessary.

Hope that helps.

Myron

Thanks Myron, how do I do this?

----- Myron J. Mandell wrote: -----

Hi Sharon,

This means you have multiple OS's listed in your boot.ini file, which
resides in the root of your C drive.
Whether these OS's actually exist (or are really different) is another
matter.

You may edit this file using Notepad. My boot.ini (for a computer with one
copy of XP Home on C) looks like:

[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 Home
Edition" /fastdetect

You apparently have additional entries under [operating systems], which you
may delete if you wish.

You may also delete the WINDOWS directories corresponding to OS's you don't
want.

Note that the boot.ini file may be hidden, so you will need to show hidden
files and folders to see it.

Myron

When booting up it stops at a screen that has Win XP Home 2 times

and
Microsoft Windows 1 time. It asks which one I want to use. What is this?
Does it mean I have more than one operating system? How do I remove all but
1?

 

[Kelly]

Go to Start/Run and type in: msconfig
Then go to the Boot.ini Tab and click on Check All Boot Paths. If you
receive a warning about a duplicate path: Do you want to remove, choose
yes.

Or...

Right click the My Computer icon/Properties/Advanced/Startup and
Recovery/Settings/System Startup/Edit.

How to Edit the BOOT.INI File in Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/Q289/0/22.asp

Thanks Myron, how do I do this?

----- Myron J. Mandell wrote: -----

Hi Sharon,

This means you have multiple OS's listed in your boot.ini file, which
resides in the root of your C drive.
Whether these OS's actually exist (or are really different) is another
matter.

You may edit this file using Notepad. My boot.ini (for a computer with one
copy of XP Home on C) looks like:

[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 Home
Edition" /fastdetect

You apparently have additional entries under [operating systems], which you
may delete if you wish.

You may also delete the WINDOWS directories corresponding to OS's you don't
want.

Note that the boot.ini file may be hidden, so you will need to show hidden
files and folders to see it.

Myron

When booting up it stops at a screen that has Win XP Home 2 times

and
Microsoft Windows 1 time. It asks which one I want to use. What is this?
Does it mean I have more than one operating system? How do I remove all but
1?