Black Screen?

[Guest]

Hi, I just re-installed my windows XP and made a new windows folder than
overwrite the old one, i dunno why, lol, but anyways, i get a black screen
asking which OS i want, the first one is the new one, but how do i delete the
old one? I posted a similar thread a while ago but i couldnt find it, it
asked something about deleting the old windows folder and making a boot.old
or something but that was like 2 years ago and i forgot. oh well, please help
, thank you

 

[Guest]

Easiest way is to redo the Boot.ini file. Open My Computer > Properties >
Advanced > Startup and Recovery Settings. If you don't feel safe messing
with the Boot.ini file, simply uncheck the "Time to display list of operating
systems". This won't actually remove the entry, just you'll never see the
screen asking which OS. If you want to edit the Boot.ini file, click "Edit"
and a Boot.ini will load up into notepad. My Boot.ini file 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" /fastdetect /NoExecute=OptIn

Yours will probably be a bit different. What you need to do is look at
where it says "default=...", in this case it's value is
"multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS". Now look at the list below
the "[operating systems]" tag. You should see a line that matches the
default value set equal to something else. Simply remove all the lines after
the tag except the one that is set as the default. Now save the settings,
click 'OK' on Startup and Recovery dialog, click 'OK' on System Properties
dialog. Click Start > Run and type in "msconfig" (no quotes) and hit enter.
Click the BOOT.INI tab and click 'Check all boot paths' to make sure nothing
was screwed up. If everything passes, click 'OK' and restart your system.
Just be advised that if you mess up your Boot.ini file, you can casue some
more serious problems. Best of luck.

 

[Guest]

Reading through this post and I have roughly a similar problem but when the
screen goes black, it doesn't ask which OS I want to use. It is just black
for about 30 seconds.

I have Windows XP Home Edition SP2 and I believe the guy I got the computer
from (serves me right) recently reinstalled xp. When I go to BOOT.INI through
msconfig it states:
[boot loader]
timeout=12
default=signature(868e868e)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
signature(868e868e)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP
Home Edition" /fastdetect

When I Check all Boot Drives the response is: It appears that the following
line in the BOOT.INI file does not refer to a valid operating system:
"signature(868e868e)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP
Home Edition /fastdetect Would you like to remove it from the BOOT.INI file?

After much consternation and research on the web that suggested this may
solve my problem, I sucked it up and said "Yes". However, it did not get
deleted!

This may have been a good result because when I go into Startup and Recovery
Settings from my system folder, it says that my Default operating system is
"Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition" /fastdetect. Checking that box only shows
the single operating system.

Any help on how to get the system started more quickly would be greatly
appreciated.

Perhaps related, but unsure, when I try to turn the system off, after it
says windows logging off, storing my settings, windows is shutting down, I
get the Windows logo with message It is now safe to turn off you computer. It
doesn't just turn off.

Thanks
Mitch