Boot.ini Editing Question - URGENT

[Guest]

Currrently, my boot.ini reads as follows:

[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS="Windows XP Home Edition"
/fastdetect
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Windows XP Professional"
/fastdetect
C:\CMDCONS\BOOTSECT.DAT="Microsoft WIndows Recovery Console" /cmdcons

1) I want to delete the XP Pro line (unsuccessful install). If I delete it,
do I need to make any other change? For example, do I need to change the
"number" in the default line??

2) Can I delete the last line for the recovery console or should I leave
that as is?

3) How do I make the OS "menu" screen not even come up?

THANKS

 

[Tom Porterfield]

Currrently, my boot.ini reads as follows:

[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS="Windows XP Home Edition"
/fastdetect
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Windows XP Professional"
/fastdetect
C:\CMDCONS\BOOTSECT.DAT="Microsoft WIndows Recovery Console" /cmdcons

1) I want to delete the XP Pro line (unsuccessful install). If I delete it,
do I need to make any other change? For example, do I need to change the
"number" in the default line??

I would recommend that you run msconfig.exe and go to the boot.ini tab.
There you can click the Check All Boot Paths button and it will clear any
entries that are invalid. You do not need to manually edit the file at all
this way.

2) Can I delete the last line for the recovery console or should I leave
that as is?

That depends. Do you want to retain the ability to boot from the recovery
console on the hard drive? If not, then you can remove that line by
manually editing the boot.ini file.

3) How do I make the OS "menu" screen not even come up?

If you remove both the XP Pro and recovery console lines, leaving only the
XP Home line, then you will not see the menu screen. The menu screen only
appears if there is more than one choice in the [operating systems]
section. Alternatively you could set the timeout to 0.
--
Tom Porterfield
MS-MVP Windows
http://support.telop.org

Please post all follow-ups to the newsgroup only.

 

[Guest]

Thanks for your response.

What would the benefit be to retaining "the ability to boot from the recovery
console on the hard drive"?

If I want to keep it, then putting the time out to zero will just cause the
menu to display so fast that I can't read it?

THANKS

Currrently, my boot.ini reads as follows:

[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS="Windows XP Home Edition"
/fastdetect
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Windows XP Professional"
/fastdetect
C:\CMDCONS\BOOTSECT.DAT="Microsoft WIndows Recovery Console" /cmdcons

1) I want to delete the XP Pro line (unsuccessful install). If I delete it,
do I need to make any other change? For example, do I need to change the
"number" in the default line??

I would recommend that you run msconfig.exe and go to the boot.ini tab.
There you can click the Check All Boot Paths button and it will clear any
entries that are invalid. You do not need to manually edit the file at all
this way.

2) Can I delete the last line for the recovery console or should I leave
that as is?

That depends. Do you want to retain the ability to boot from the recovery
console on the hard drive? If not, then you can remove that line by
manually editing the boot.ini file.

3) How do I make the OS "menu" screen not even come up?

If you remove both the XP Pro and recovery console lines, leaving only the
XP Home line, then you will not see the menu screen. The menu screen only
appears if there is more than one choice in the [operating systems]
section. Alternatively you could set the timeout to 0.
--
Tom Porterfield
MS-MVP Windows
http://support.telop.org

Please post all follow-ups to the newsgroup only.

 

[Tom Porterfield]

Thanks for your response.

What would the benefit be to retaining "the ability to boot from the recovery
console on the hard drive"?

If you have your XP CD and can boot from the RC on the CD, that is a better
option than booting the RC from the hard drive. So if you have that
ability, then I would recommend removing the option to boot to RC from the
hard drive.

If I want to keep it, then putting the time out to zero will just cause the
menu to display so fast that I can't read it?

True. So what's your priority - Not seeing the boot menu at all, or being
able to boot RC from the hard drive? If you want to keep RC on the hard
drive, then a compromise would be to set the timeout to a small value, such
as 3, which would make the delay pretty short but long enough to make a
choice if needed.
--
Tom Porterfield
MS-MVP Windows
http://support.telop.org

Please post all follow-ups to the newsgroup only.

 

[Alex Nichol]

[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS="Windows XP Home Edition"
/fastdetect
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Windows XP Professional"
/fastdetect
C:\CMDCONS\BOOTSECT.DAT="Microsoft WIndows Recovery Console" /cmdcons

1) I want to delete the XP Pro line (unsuccessful install). If I delete it,
do I need to make any other change? For example, do I need to change the
"number" in the default line??

You just need to delete that single line. The partition(2) in the
default one links to that in the Home Edition line, which I presume you
are actually using

2) Can I delete the last line for the recovery console or should I leave
that as is?

Depends if you actually use the recovery console. I have usually found
it as convenient to boot the XP CD itself, and take the R option there.
Might be worth making a copy of the boot.ini before deleting that you
could then copy back; or note the line and if you ever need it have a
DOS mode boot floppy around - eg a Win98 one, a useful thing to have in
reserve, and use the free EDITBINI from the Free tools at
www.bootitng.com so you could restore it no matter what

3) How do I make the OS "menu" screen not even come up?

If you reduce to a single system it will not appear - in any case you
might set the time out for taking the default down to say 3 seconds