okay, i have 2 OS installed on separate partitions. its in 2 different languages.hence the purpose of having the 2 OS. i have 4 partitions on a 160GB HDD.

recently the language bar went missing on one of the OS and i re-installed it. but during the process somehow my XP English lost it position on the booting startup menu. When I'm in XP of the other language, the files are still there. but i can't boot it. i dont want to reinstall this one because i have some programs i want to keep and probable cant replace.

here's what i want to ask:

１．　Ｃａｎ　Ｉ　ｇｅｔ　ｉｔ　ｂａｃｋ　ｏｎ　ｔｈｅ　ｂｏｏｔ　ｓｔａｒｔｕｐ？
（i went to control panel>systems>advace...the place where you check to see the startup times and which one comes first and it only has 1 XP, before it was 2 XP there)

2. I f I cant do that, it there a way i can back up the programs and restore it later when reinstall the OS?

1) How to edit the Boot.ini file in Windows XP

2) No. If a program writes to the registry, and most do, they need to be reinstalled.

You can also install a Boot Manager or install UBUNTU, just for example, which will install a Boot Manager.

boot managers - Google Search

I was trying the edit the Boot.ini
Didnt work.

I tried Adding an Operating System

At the command prompt, type:
bootcfg /copy /d Operating System Description /ID#

With bootcfg. I got 2 ID

ID:1
Microsoft Windows XP Professional
mutli<0>disk<0>rdisk<0>partition<1>\windows
/noexecute=optin /fastdect

ID: 2
MaxDOS V6
C:\mxldr
N/A


Still no sight of the missing XP and the Dos thing wasnt there before only after I reinstalled.

So are you saying the ID:1 is the Chinese version and ID:2 is the English?

The Chinese boots but the English is gone?

Anytime you reinstall XP it overwrites the BOOT sector. The only info I get on MaxDOS is in Chinese.

See if you can do this:

Repair or Replace Boot.ini - How To Repair or Replace Boot.ini in Windows XP - Boot.ini

yep. thats what i'm saying! i'm abt to try it out.

wow. it worked! thx alot!!! you rock jephree!!!