when i start up there is a choice between two different windows xps, this was caused by an attempt to install xp again, so every startup i have to choose the bottom xp to get to my desktop and etc., the top one brings me to the xp setup can i get rid of the first of the two??

Right click the My Computer icon/Properties/Advanced/Startup and
Recovery/Settings/System Startup/Edit.


How to Edit the BOOT.INI File in Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/support.../Q289/0/22.asp

ok i got the jist of it but how do i make sure that i dont delete the wrong one??

wow i should have taken it to a pro

Copy and paste the Edit text back if you want. Mine looks like this:

[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOW S
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Micro soft Windows XP Professional" /fastdetect /NoExecute=OptIn

when i hit settings for startup and recovery i said something about the boot.ini couldn't be edited, now when i hit edit it takes me to a blank notepad and as you can probaly tell im lost

start/run msconfig | BOOT.INI

If you see two distinct entries there set the one you want to Default.

If this is not satisfactory there is a way of deleting the other XP if you so choose:

FAQ #20:

http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/xpfaq.html

I have two installations of XP on the same partition....

did that and when i hit the boot.ini tab there was nothing there??? i also did bootcfg and i seem to be able to do it from there but im just not sure of the entry# for the xp i dont want on there

also when i did msconfig there was an error and had to shut down twice, so im going to assume hopefully since the xp i dont want is the first of the two xps listed the entry# would be 1?

Is worth a try.

You should see this:

[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOW S
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Micro soft Windows XP Professional" /fastdetect /NoExecute=OptIn

{or Home etc.)

If that doesn't help:

I don't know why you reinstalled but if worse comes to worst just reinstall again.

I would suggest a Clean Install:

http://michaelstevenstech.com/cleanxpinstall.html