Duplicate OS

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Guest

I have had the worst trouble with my latest Dell pc...but to make a long
story short, when I reboot my PC I have two operating systems pop up with the
choice to select one or the other to boot into...I don't know why this is
here, but there you go...one works the other doesn't and how in the world do
I get rid of one? I can't seem to locate where it's finding that other
operating system.

Any ideas?
 
Is this how you got the pc, or did you or someone else add something.
Sounds like someone added a second copy of windows.
 
Susan said:
I have had the worst trouble with my latest Dell pc...but to make a long
story short, when I reboot my PC I have two operating systems pop up with the
choice to select one or the other to boot into...I don't know why this is
here, but there you go...one works the other doesn't and how in the world do
I get rid of one? I can't seem to locate where it's finding that other
operating system.

Any ideas?
Click to expand...

Here is how you can remove the offending menu item:

1. Make a note of the wording in the selection that does note work.
2. Click Start / Run / notepad c:\boot.ini {OK}
3. Delete the line you noted in Step 1.
4. Save & close the file.
 
I sort of figured I should have explained the whole issue.

I bought the PC new from Dell October of last year - loaded Norton System
Works on it, rebooted and got a death screen and the system would not reboot
no matter what - it was gone. I could not even do a system restore.

After 4 hours on the phone with Dell's finest (and I say that
sarcastically), I am told to reformat it - or I could ship it back. But I
wasn't about to do that and have to wait...(I know, bad move). So, I
reformatted, and then waited for Dell to send me the programs on discs that I
had lost in the process.

Well, two months ago I notice I am not running Windows Media Edition as I
had originally purchased, I had just Windows XP Pro. So I called and they
sent me a different disc. I reinstalled windows...

Is this where the second came from? Because I have never heard of it doing
that before...most generally it overwrites the other...
 
Susan said:
I have had the worst trouble with my latest Dell pc...but to make a long
story short, when I reboot my PC I have two operating systems pop up with
the
choice to select one or the other to boot into...I don't know why this is
here, but there you go...one works the other doesn't and how in the world
do
I get rid of one? I can't seem to locate where it's finding that other
operating system.
Click to expand...

Go to Start | Run | msconfig | Ok. On the boot.ini tab click on check all
boot paths. If one is invalid it will flag it and offer to delete it.
 
This makes it a little clearer.

It is not possible to tell from your post if you have one or two
Windows installations on the hard disk. Only you can tell.

The recipe I gave you before will successfully remove the
unwanted menu item.
 
thanks everyone - the duplicate has been removed and all is running fine now.
Changing the Boot.ini worked.
Thanks again
Susan
 
Susan said:
thanks everyone - the duplicate has been removed and all is running fine
now.
Changing the Boot.ini worked.
Thanks again
Click to expand...


You're welcome. Did you remove the second installation by deleting the
Windows files for that installation or did you just modify the boot.ini?
 
I went into the msconfig and under the Boot.ini tab I clicked on the
incorrect one and had it remove it from there. Is there another way I should
have done this?
Susan
 
Susan said:
I went into the msconfig and under the Boot.ini tab I clicked on the
incorrect one and had it remove it from there. Is there another way I
should
have done this?
Click to expand...

I was just wondering if there are two installations of XP on this system.
If it was just an invalid entry in boot.ini then that's fine but do you know
there is not a second installation of XP somewhere?
 
I can't honestly answer that. I do know it was not a valid installation
because when I clicked on it, it gave me an error message that it was not a
valid installation - I think this is because it was on the same partition and
you can't install two OS on the same partition unless you make it a seperate
one...I think....how would I go about searching to find out if there is a
second one somewhere?
 
Susan said:
I can't honestly answer that. I do know it was not a valid installation
because when I clicked on it, it gave me an error message that it was not
a
valid installation - I think this is because it was on the same partition
and
you can't install two OS on the same partition unless you make it a
seperate
one...I think....how would I go about searching to find out if there is a
second one somewhere?
Click to expand...

Yes you can have two installations of XP in the same partition and it gets
messy. You have to look for another folder that contains the windows files.
Normally they are installed to C:\Windows but the folder name can be
different.

The fact that it said the one entry was invalid suggests there is not a
second installation.
 
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