Failed upgrade, now dual boot

[donjo13]

My friend tried to reinstall win xp home and had a failed attempt. He now has 2 options at startup...xp home and xp setup, like a dual boot. How do we get rid of the xp setup option? I choose the xp home as default in the msconfig, but it still asks for his preference when starting his machine. Help

 

[Phantasm66]

make sure that no files (either system or whatever) are hidden in explorer.

Find the c:\boot.ini file and remove the offending entry.

That's all.

 

[donjo13]

cant save it

I did the correction, but it says "cannot create C:boot.ini file. Make sure the path and filename are correct"
Then I clcik ok and it says file name :BOOT
save as type:Text documents (*txt)
encoding : ASNI

Now what?

 

[donjo13]

cant find boot.ini

Seems as if in the failed xp setup attempt, the file boot.ini was lost somewhere. What can I do to recreate it and where should it go? I cant save the BOOT ammended sequence anywhere.

 

[wlknaack]

Removing the dual choice boot path screen

Go to the post titled "How to boot up w/o XP cd" by "Salinas." I posted a reply there which explains how to remove the boot path choice screen using msconfig. The original boot path remains after a reinstall, even thought the reinstall is successful, making the original boot path non-functioning. As long as you have one functioning boot path, you can remove the non-functioning boot path, and the screen will no longer appear. I hope this is covers your friend's situation.

 

[donjo13]

Been there/ done that. Thanks anyway.

 

[Phantasm66]

Seems as if in the failed xp setup attempt, the file boot.ini was lost somewhere. What can I do to recreate it and where should it go? I cant save the BOOT ammended sequence anywhere.

Nah, its a hidden system file. You need to go into windows explorer properties and enable showing these files.

 

[donjo13]

cant save boot.ini file. help

I changed my boot.ini, but I cant save it. what is the proceedure?

 

[IronDuke]

Change its attribute in properties so that it is not read only and change it back when saved.

 

[donjo13]

How do I change it and where?

Sorry about the dual thread!

 

[IronDuke]

In Explorer find boot.ini should be in C:\. Select it (so it is highlighted). Right click, click Properties nad uncheck the Read-only box. After you have edited and saved it repeat the process checking the box.

 

[donjo13]

It's not there. I've looked and selected show hidden files and folders, but C:/ doesn't have it listed there in Win Explorer.

 

[IronDuke]

Do a find and search for it,

 

[IronDuke]

donjo
Did check both these settings?

"Also, the reason you can't see the boot.ini is because, although you have clicked "Show hidden files and folders" there is another option just below saying "Hide proteced operating system files (Recommened)", untick that and all shall be revealed"

 

[donjo13]

Well there was a reason I couldnt find it. It was gone. I had to create a new one. I was working on a friend's PC getting rid of several old windows installation boots, and for some reason I got rid of mine altogether. Weird, but I tried to reboot about an hour ago and it said no boot.ini could be found. Starting from C:/Windows. Its ok now, and I can find it as well! Thanks for your help.

 

[IronDuke]

Nice to know all is singing.