Removing boot start up options

[Bus Driver]

Hi all I installed Vista once and then again by mistake, to cut the story
short didn't like it so deleted it again.

Now when I restart my computer it goes straight to the Vista boot option of
which there are two and one Old Windows option, thing is i have to be as
quick as superman to move the cursor to the old windows option as else the
computer boots to nothing and hangs.

How do i get rid of the two Vista options and just have my old XP option
again? Oh I also installed Vista on another drive other than my C drive and
like i said it is now deleted and the drive it was on re-formatted. I know i
have to go into msconfig but what is it exactly is it i have to do in there
?

Many thanks in advance

Steve

 

[Kelly]

Hi Steve,

Right click My Computer/Properties

Advanced/Startup and Recovery - Settings

Uncheck Time to display.....
Uncheck Time to display.....

Ok your way out.


--

All the Best,
Kelly (MS-MVP/DTS&XP)

Taskbar Repair Tool Plus!
http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/taskbarplus!.htm

 

[Bus Driver]

That has helped and thanks Kelly, but not solved the problem of what i want
to do

Steve

 

[JS]

EasyBCD:
http://neosmart.net/dl.php?id=1

 

[John John - MVP]

From a Command prompt run the following:

x:\Boot\Bootsect.exe –NT52 All

Replace x with the drive letter where the Boot folder is located.

John

 

[Bus Driver]

Well I tired the command line and that didn't work for some reason but then
i downloaded and ran Easy BCD and that did the trick perfectly

Many Thanks for all you replies and especially to JS that is one cool little
application

Regards

Steve

 

[JS]

You're welcome.

 

[Jose]

Well I tired the command line and that didn't work for some reason but then
i downloaded and ran Easy BCD and that did the trick perfectly

Many Thanks for all you replies and especially to JS that is one cool little
application

Regards

Steve

You can also remove entries in the boot.ini file through msconfig and
it will also verify the paths...

A semicolon ; as the first character is a comment in .ini files, so
you can comment the lines out in boot.ini instead of removing them if
you are not quite sure about actually deleteing them. If you have a
problem, put them back.

The commented lines will show up in msconfig and the path won't
verify, but you know what you are mean.

Jose

 

[Twayne]

Hi all I installed Vista once and then again by mistake, to cut the
story short didn't like it so deleted it again.

Now when I restart my computer it goes straight to the Vista boot
option of which there are two and one Old Windows option, thing is i
have to be as quick as superman to move the cursor to the old windows
option as else the computer boots to nothing and hangs.

How do i get rid of the two Vista options and just have my old XP
option again? Oh I also installed Vista on another drive other than
my C drive and like i said it is now deleted and the drive it was on
re-formatted. I know i have to go into msconfig but what is it
exactly is it i have to do in there ?

Many thanks in advance

Steve

Easiest way to get rid of everything but XP is to do a clean install of
XP, starting right from deleteing and recreating partitions. Follow
onscreen directions; then you KNOW everything else is gone.

Twayne`

 

[John John - MVP]

You can also remove entries in the boot.ini file through msconfig and
it will also verify the paths...

A semicolon ; as the first character is a comment in .ini files, so
you can comment the lines out in boot.ini instead of removing them if
you are not quite sure about actually deleteing them. If you have a
problem, put them back.

The commented lines will show up in msconfig and the path won't
verify, but you know what you are mean.

Two points:

1- Vista doesn't use boot with ntldr and the boot.ini file, it a
different boot mechanism. When you install Vista it displaces ntldr and
replaces it with Windows Boot Manager (Bootmgr.exe), Bootmgr obtains the
boot information for the operating system from the Boot Configuration
Data (BCD).

2- Adding semi-colons to the boot.ini file will not work as you stated,
it will cause the boot.ini file to choke. If the default value is
wrong, or if there are no valid ARC paths without semi-colons you will
not be able to boot to Windows.

John

 

[John John - MVP]

Easiest way to get rid of everything but XP is to do a clean install of
XP, starting right from deleteing and recreating partitions. Follow
onscreen directions; then you KNOW everything else is gone.

Completely unnecessary! That isn't the easiest way, it's the hard way
around a simple problem! Booting to the Windows XP Recovery Console and
issuing the Fixboot and (if necessary) the Fixmbr command will dislodge
the Vista boot loader and return the boot process to ntldr.

John

 

[Jose]

Two points:

1-  Vista doesn't use boot with ntldr and the boot.ini file, it a
different boot mechanism.  When you install Vista it displaces ntldr and
replaces it with Windows Boot Manager (Bootmgr.exe), Bootmgr obtains the
boot information for the operating system from the Boot Configuration
Data (BCD).

2-  Adding semi-colons to the boot.ini file will not work as you stated,
it will cause the boot.ini file to choke.  If the default value is
wrong, or if there are no valid ARC paths without semi-colons you will
not be able to boot to Windows.

John

Adding semicolons will not cause boot.ini to choke if you leave the
once you want alone, at least for me. I have semicolons and no
choking.

I can choose to boot W98, Windows 2000, XP Home just be changing the
boot.ini file. I still leave a good entry.

Right now, I have 4 possible options (and Recovery Console) but just
have XP Pro (with a valid boot path) uncommented and get no menu (by
choice) and I can boot any OS I choose. Works great!

Jose

 

[Tim Meddick]

I was reading this, going through the entire thread, and was just about to
suggest the same thing.

Use the 'Recovery Console' Fixboot (and Fixmbr) command(s).

You will have to use 'Recovery Console' from the XP Installation CD (as your
XP startup options don't work, even if you had RC as a startup option) by
booting from it then by choosing the option named 'Repair using Recovery
Console'.

Once you are in 'Recovery Console' you can type "fixboot /?" and "fixmbr
/?" (with the /?) for help on the given commands - how to use them and a
short description. Or you can type 'help' for a list of all available
commands.

==

Cheers, Tim Meddick, Peckham, London.