Can this be fixed-2 copies of Win XP on one partition?

[Jeff G]

Last night I went through the procedure (or tried to) of Reinstalling
Windows XP by using Windows XP. I knew the person who sold me my
computer used a bogus keycode. Besides that, he 'lost' the admin
password, and I wanted to set up an in-home LAN. I bought a new copy of
Win XP Pro. A friend of mine in IT convinced me that you could install
Win XP Pro without uninstalling the old or reformatting. The Microsoft
Windows Knowledge base seemed to confirm this.

I tried to follow the instructions, but when I boot my computer it gives
the choice of booting to one of either two Windows XP Professional
installations. So I assume I now have two installations on the same
partition.

I've kept booting to the 1st, or default choice. And I went on to load
drivers, antivirus software, firewall, antispyware, etc., etc. Am I
going to crash and burn like this eventually? Is there a way to repair
the damage short of starting all over?

In case any of this may help, I do have two HD's. C:/ is a single
primary (FAT32)partition. The slave has a primary partition F:/
formatted in ext3 (I wanted to load Linux in the next couple of weeks),
and an extended partition (NTFS) D:/ containing one logical partition. I
have copies of Norton Ghost and PowerQuest Partition Magic should they
be of any help. And I can install a boot manager such as XOSL if that
may be of help (or Boot Magic).

Is it too late to do anything but start over from scratch?

 

[Pennywise]

|> I tried to follow the instructions, but when I boot my computer it gives
|> the choice of booting to one of either two Windows XP Professional
|> installations. So I assume I now have two installations on the same
|> partition.

Look at c:\boot.ini in a text editor, look for a line like:
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(9)\WINDOWS="XP Pro" /fastdetect

Partition(#) is what your for, if both entries are the same just delete
one, if the numbers are different you have two installations on two
different partitions.




--

 

[Pennywise]

Resent

|> I tried to follow the instructions, but when I boot my computer it gives
|> the choice of booting to one of either two Windows XP Professional
|> installations. So I assume I now have two installations on the same
|> partition.

Look at c:\boot.ini in a text editor, look for a line like:
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(9)\WINDOWS="XP Pro" /fastdetect

Partition(#) is what your looking for, if both entries are the same just
delete one, if the numbers are different you have two installations on
two different partitions.




--

 

[Guest]

If it were me I would do a nice clean install and start fresh.

Cheers Don.

 

[Nepatsfan]

You might want to take a look here:

http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=888023

What it basically comes down to is identifying which installation
you want to keep and editing boot.ini (make sure you create a
backup copy of this file just in case). Once you have the PC
booting into the correct installation you can delete the other
Windows folder.

 

[WTC]

Last night I went through the procedure (or tried to) of Reinstalling
Windows XP by using Windows XP. I knew the person who sold me my computer
used a bogus keycode. Besides that, he 'lost' the admin password, and I
wanted to set up an in-home LAN. I bought a new copy of Win XP Pro. A
friend of mine in IT convinced me that you could install Win XP Pro
without uninstalling the old or reformatting. The Microsoft Windows
Knowledge base seemed to confirm this.

I tried to follow the instructions, but when I boot my computer it gives
the choice of booting to one of either two Windows XP Professional
installations. So I assume I now have two installations on the same
partition.

I've kept booting to the 1st, or default choice. And I went on to load
drivers, antivirus software, firewall, antispyware, etc., etc. Am I going
to crash and burn like this eventually? Is there a way to repair the
damage short of starting all over?

In case any of this may help, I do have two HD's. C:/ is a single primary
(FAT32)partition. The slave has a primary partition F:/ formatted in ext3
(I wanted to load Linux in the next couple of weeks), and an extended
partition (NTFS) D:/ containing one logical partition. I have copies of
Norton Ghost and PowerQuest Partition Magic should they be of any help.
And I can install a boot manager such as XOSL if that may be of help (or
Boot Magic).

Is it too late to do anything but start over from scratch?

If one of the Boot choices do not work, try this...

start>run and type

msconfig

Boot.ini>Click "Check all Boot Paths".

 

[Jeff G]

WOW! Very Strange.

In the past it seems on two occasions I had made backup copies of boot.ini
for one reason or another. So I had a perfect backup copy.

I didn't think to make a restore point before making the change in the
boot.ini file. But I changed it to the old file, saved and rebooted.

I got back my old system as it was with a few exceptions - mainly those
things that I had to eliminate and reinstall (antivirus, firewall, security
programs) in the changed system so that I was secure as quickly as possible.
Otherwise my computer is as if restored exactly back to when it was before I
tried the reinstall of Win XP Pro.

I know now what I did wrong last night. The Win XP Pro disc I was using
said it could not be used for the purpose of an "UPGRADE". But I went on
ahead anyway. I saw now when looking again at the procedure I downloaded
from the Microsoft Win KB that they specified I was supposed to perform an
"UPGRADE".

So once I again get all of my security software installed (again), and
figure out why Thunderbird isn't working, despite the settings looking
correct (I had to change back to OE as my default mail/news app to send
this), I'll have to look into the issue of why I might now have been able to
perform an upgrade with the disc I had.

What a crazy 24 hours its been!

Thanks.

 

[Michael Stevens]

In

Last night I went through the procedure (or tried to) of Reinstalling
Windows XP by using Windows XP. I knew the person who sold me my
computer used a bogus keycode. Besides that, he 'lost' the admin
password, and I wanted to set up an in-home LAN. I bought a new copy
of Win XP Pro. A friend of mine in IT convinced me that you could
install Win XP Pro without uninstalling the old or reformatting. The
Microsoft Windows Knowledge base seemed to confirm this.

I tried to follow the instructions, but when I boot my computer it
gives the choice of booting to one of either two Windows XP
Professional installations. So I assume I now have two installations
on the same partition.

I've kept booting to the 1st, or default choice. And I went on to
load drivers, antivirus software, firewall, antispyware, etc., etc. Am I
going to crash and burn like this eventually? Is there a way to
repair the damage short of starting all over?

In case any of this may help, I do have two HD's. C:/ is a single
primary (FAT32)partition. The slave has a primary partition F:/
formatted in ext3 (I wanted to load Linux in the next couple of
weeks), and an extended partition (NTFS) D:/ containing one logical
partition. I have copies of Norton Ghost and PowerQuest Partition
Magic should they be of any help. And I can install a boot manager
such as XOSL if that may be of help (or Boot Magic).

Is it too late to do anything but start over from scratch?

Click on or copy and paste the link below into your web browser address box.
I have two installations of Windows/Windows XP on the same partition.......
#20 on the FAQ list
http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/xpfaq.html
--
Michael Stevens MS-MVP XP
(e-mail address removed)
http://www.michaelstevenstech.com
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