To cut a long story short, my internal drive packed up on my laptop and in my wisdom thought I would us my desktop PC to install windows XP onto an external drive and use that to run my laptop. this is where the problems started.

The laptop still doesn't work - i'm not worried about that - but I now have two options to boot windows XP at start up on my main desktop PC - one OS boots fine and the other doesn't, I have reformatted the external drive (G) and removed it from the system, but the problem remains. Ideally I would like to remove one of these options (the one that doesn't work ??????). I have read in a couple of forums that there will be a drive in 'My Computer' which can be deleted and will solve this problem, however, I have not got any new drives in 'My Computer' just (C: ), (D: ) & (E: )dvd drives and (F: ) printer card reader.

I have however read through a thread in DAL where 'Bear' has explained how to 'edit the startup file manually' from 'Start up and Recovery'. This seemed relatively simple, but I am not 100% sure which OS to delete. The two OS's are:

multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Micro soft Windows XP Home Edition" /fastdetect

and

multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Micro soft Windows XP Home Edition" /fastdetect /NoExecute=OptIn

If anyone can help with this, or has any further ideas it would be greatly appreciated. I thought I would post on here for advice before diving in and deleting away as this is my work PC and at this moment in time I can't afford for it to die on me.

Thanks in advance, Wayne

Most likely the second one is null.

See this:

How to edit the Boot.ini file in Windows XP

Which one works? Is it the one on the external? Which one is the default? When you get the menu asking which OS you want to boot into the one automatically selected is the default OS. If the default works look at the entry for the default in boot.ini file [which is in a couple of lines before the ones you listed and starts with "default="] and delete the one that doesn't look like it. Likewise if the default doesn't work keep the one that isn't the same as the default entry and copy that is good in place of the bad default. Does that make sense? Also I would backup the boot.ini file just in case you screw it up. Now no guarantees but my guess is that version last installed set itself as the default. Also the order that they appear on the screen should be the same as how they are listed in the file. Edit this file at your own risk. Actually if you are planning to totally reformatting the hard drive make sure that the boot file isn't on that drive before you do so. If it drive doesn't work at all then it probably is on the external drive but I would check first.

Thank you both for you quick replys, just to confirm a couple of things before I edit the boot startup.
When I boot up the computer I have the option to start one of two Windows XP's, the top one is highlighted and if I do not respond it is auto-selected and doesn't boot correctly, the bottom one of the two boots and starts windows fine. The OS which was put onto the external drive was soley to try and start and run my laptop - this external is not longer connected to the computer.

Here is what is written in the boot loader:

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

Jephree mentions that the bottom one is null, but reading through townsbg's advice, am I right in thinking that it may be the top one that needs deleting. If so, once I have deleted it, will I thene need to edit the default to - default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS

thanks again for your help. Wayne

The default is the one that is highlighted and what will be booted into if you do not hit any buttons. If that doesn't work and therefore the top option doesn't work then I am sure that the top line can be removed and the default be changed to look like the bottom entry so it looks like you are on the right track. First, before removing anything, I recommend that you change the default and make sure that works. Once you remove a line it will revert to the default without even asking you what you want to boot into so you need to make sure that your default works. Right now it is safe to change the default because if you get that wrong you can still select the working entry on boot up just as long as you don't change any of the other lines. I would also increase the timeout to allow yourself more time. The timeout is in seconds. Alternatively if you don't want to remove anything once you get the default working you can change the timeout to zero. Again, I suggest that you back up the current boot file in case it is incorrectly changed. Copying it too the same location will rename it.

So let me get this correctly, to get your computer working you installed XP on an external drive and then later you reinstalled XP on the hard drive? What error do you get if you select the wrong entry? It sounds like it is looking for the one on the external drive.

Originally Posted by townsbg

So let me get this correctly, to get your computer working you installed XP on an external drive and then later you reinstalled XP on the hard drive?

My desk top computer has always been working, a couple of days ago the laptop hard drive packed up (started whirring and buzzing) and could not find the OS at start up, I tried repairing the laptop by running a repair from the windows disk, I recieved a message saying that the hard drive could not be found (on the laptop). I decided to use my Desk top computer to install the windows OS onto an external drive and try booting the laptop from this external drive.

Since using my desktop computer to install the windows OS on the external drive I have had these two options to boot XP on my main desk top computer even though the external drive is disconnected.

It seems that although the Windows OS was installed on the external drive, the option to boot has been written into my startup files on my desktop hard drive. I have added the message below that I get when I try to run from the 'not working' OS at startup

Windows could not start because of a computer disk hardware configuration problem
Could not read from the selected boot disk. Check boot path and disk hardware.
Please check the windows documentation about hardware disk configuration......

from this I think you are right that the OS that doesn't work is looking for the external drive.


Following your advice I have changed the default to match the other Windows OS in the system startup boot loader and the computer starts fine, I also changed the time out to ten seconds just to give a chance to read the screen and have now changed it back to one second.

I shall hold fire deleting one of the OS's, just to let you read what I have written, I am confident it is the OS that now matches the default (now that I have changed the default and the computer starts fine) that I need to keep and the other can go, but as mentioned, it's my work PC so I don't want to be too hasty.

Cheers Wayne - thanks again !

Before I'll advise you please post the contents of the file. Let me confirm that your new default entry boots into the correct OS without you having to press anything when you are on the OS selection menu?

No worries, I have just restarted my computer just to make sure it went straight through startup and it has booted up fine. Here is the contents pasted from the startup & recovery:

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

Am I right in thinking that the red highlighted OS is the one to be deleted.

Also, not that it is overly important but do you have any idea what the /NoExecute=OptIn means ??

Yes I believe so provided you are telling me that the default worked. I would copy the file first. Rdisk(0) is the first hard drive. Rdisk(1) was probably the external drive.

/noexecute