Need help with select OS to Start

[zbmagic]

Just did my first format and reinstall of windows. I did it with the guidance from this site. Needed to get rid of XP Pro because of WGA problems. But now, on boot up ,the computer asks me to select the operating system to start:

Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition
Microsoft Windows XP Professional

How do I get rid of the professional as an option? I tried selecting it out of fun, and it doesn't work.


Zac

 

[antjscott]

windows comes up asking you to select which version of windows to boot from if you have multiple versions of windows on your computer. so it would seem that when you reformatted your pc it did not delete windows xp pro fully from your hard drive. which leaves you one of two possible choices. you can either go through your hard drive manually to find the windows xp pro files and erase them, making sure you leave the windows xp home, alone. perhaps you have it partitioned so they are kept separately? and your 2nd choice would be to do another reformat of your pc..

 

[Spike]

What you've done is to install Windows again without deleting/formatting XP pro.

You either need to save your files and data and start again, wiping everything, or you need to delete the XP pro files and folers (if you want the space and to remove the clutter), and remove the XP Pro entry from boot.ini.

Simply removing the XP Pro entry from boot.ini will remove your OS choice on startup. Remember to change the default if you need to.

 

[zbmagic]

Reformatted this time doing the normal, not the quick option. That took care of the problem. Thanks for all the info.

Zac

 

[alidabiri]

do this:
get a 98 floppy boot disk from www.bootdisk.com
start your pc with boot disk in the machine
after win98 comes up, enter fdisk
display partition(s) (if any)
delete partition(s)
create new partition
restart
format the hard disk
turn pc off
take win98 boot disk out
put xp home cd in the cd rom drive
turn pc on
get into bios
go to boot sequence and choose "boot from cd first"
save bios, exit.
let xp install.
alternately you can start with 98 boot disk with cd-rom support, then navigate to i386 folder in the cd rom, and start the install process by winnt.exe or winnt32.exe command. the former is for dos, and the latter is for windows.

 

[tweaks_sav]

Woah woah. There is a very easy solution to this.
Just remove the entry in your boot.ini file. This happens often with wipe/reloads.
Right click on My computer -> Properties
Goto the Advanced tab, then click Settings under Startup and Recovery
Click the Edit button, then just remove that whole line with XP Pro.
File -> Save
Then exit notepad, teh click Ok on the previous dialogs, and viola DONE!

 

[alidabiri]

but you haven't deleted the xp-pro from your system, if you do that. you merely are fooling yourself to pretend that it's gone, because it's not showing up. he needs to get rid of it, completely, not magic tricks, please.

 

[tweaks_sav]

In his original post he said he formatted and reinstalled. If he did the quick format option that it is common for the old REFERENCE to still be there. That's why when he said he selected the normal format it "fixed" it.
He said that if he selects it, it doesn't work, that means, the partition is not there, only the reference.

 

[Rick]

Just did my first format and reinstall of windows.

No, you didn't. You need to go back, delete the partition, format as NTFS and reinstall Windows XP. The Windows XP setup does not give you an option to format an existing partition. You need to delete the partition and recreate it.

http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=313348

How to partition and format your hard disk by using the Windows XP Setup program
Important If you follow these steps on a hard disk that is not empty, all the data on that hard disk is permanently deleted. We recommend that you back up your hard disk before you follow these steps.

To partition and format your hard disk by using the Windows XP Setup program:
1. Insert the Windows XP CD-ROM into your CD-ROM drive or DVD-ROM drive, or insert the first Windows XP Setup disk into the floppy disk drive, and then restart the computer.

Note To start your computer from the Windows XP CD-ROM (or from the startup disk), your computer must be configured to start from the CD-ROM drive, the DVD-ROM drive, or the floppy disk drive. In some cases, you may have to modify your computer's BIOS settings to set this configuration. For information about how to configure your computer to start from the CD-ROM drive, the DVD-ROM drive, or the floppy disk drive, see the documentation that is included with your computer, or contact the computer manufacturer.
2. If you are starting the computer from the Windows XP CD-ROM, select any options that are required to start the computer from the CD-ROM drive if you are prompted to do this.

Note If your hard disk controller requires a third-party original equipment manufacturer (OEM) driver, press F6 to specify the driver.

For more information about how to use F6 to supply a third-party OEM device driver while the Windows Setup program is running, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:
314859 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/314859/) Limited OEM driver support is available with F6 during Windows XP Setup
If you are starting from the Windows XP Setup disks, insert each of the additional disks when you are prompted, and then press ENTER to continue after you insert each disk.
3. At the Welcome to Setup page, press ENTER.
4.
Note If you are using the Setup disks (6 bootable disks), the setup will prompt you to instert the Windows XP CD.
5. Press F8 to accept the Windows XP Licensing Agreement.
6. If an existing Windows XP installation is detected, you are prompted to repair it. To bypass the repair, press ESC.
7. All the existing partitions and the unpartitioned spaces are listed for each physical hard disk. Use the ARROW keys to select the partition or the unpartitioned space where you want to create a new partition. Press D to delete an existing partition, or press C to create a new partition by using unpartitioned space. If you press D to delete an existing partition, you must then press L (or press ENTER, and then press L if it is the System partition) to confirm that you want to delete the partition. Repeat this step for each of the existing partitions that you want to use for the new partition. When all the partitions are deleted, select the remaining unpartitioned space, and then press C to create the new partition.

Note If you want to create a partition where one or more partitions already exist, you must first delete the existing partition or partitions, and then create the new partition.
8. Type the size in megabytes (MB) that you want to use for the new partition, and then press ENTER, or just press ENTER to create the partition with the maximum size.
9. Repeat Steps 4 and 5 to create additional partitions if you want them.
10. If you want to install Windows XP, use the ARROW keys to select the partition where you want to install Windows XP, and then press ENTER. If you do not want to format the partition and install Windows XP, press F3 two times to quit the Windows Setup program, and then do not follow the remaining steps. In this case, you must use a different utility to format the partition.
11. Select the format option that you want to use for the partition, and then press ENTER. You have the following options:
• Format the partition by using the NTFS file system (Quick)
• Format the partition by using the FAT file system (Quick)
• Format the partition by using the NTFS file system
• Format the partition by using the FAT file system
• Leave the current file system intact (no changes)
The option to leave the current file system intact is not available if the selected partition is a new partition. The FAT file system option is not available if the selected partition is more than 32 gigabytes (GB). If the partition is larger than 2 GB, the Windows Setup program uses the FAT32 file system (you must press ENTER to confirm). If the partition is smaller than 2 GB, the Windows Setup program uses the FAT16 file system.

Note If you deleted and created a new System partition, but you are installing Windows XP on a different partition, you will be prompted to select a file system for both the System and startup partitions.
12. After the Windows Setup program formats the partition, follow the instructions that appear on the screen to continue. After the Windows Setup program is completed, you can use the Disk Management tools in Windows XP to create or format more partitions.

For additional information about how to use the Windows XP Disk Management tools to partition and format your hard disk, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:
309000 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/309000/) How to use Disk Management to configure basic disks in Windows XP

 

[Rick]

If he did the quick format option that it is common for the old REFERENCE to still be there. That's why when he said he selected the normal format it "fixed" it.

No, this isn't true. A quick format is every bit as good as an unconditional Windows format in this sense.

C:\Boot.ini, ntldr and ntdetect are the files responsible for listing operating system during boot time. Boot.ini is a text file which contains the entries for the boot loader. (Windows XP Pro, Windows XP Home etc...). If he didn't format, XP would have kept his Boot.ini setup.

If he did format, XP rewrites the MBR during setup and creates a new Boot.ini. The MBR points to the NT boot loader (ntldr) which references boot.ini for a list of operating systems and loads the appropriate OS. The XP install does not search for other existing installations of Windows... It only looks for the entries in boot.ini. So if this file is gone, there's no way to have multiple OSes listed which means he did not format. :slurp:

 

[Spike]

Second to that, the difference between a full format and a quick format is that the quick format doesn't check the disk for physical errors (bad sectors), whereas the full format does.

You should ALWAYS use a full format unless you know for a fact that the condition of the disk is good. Otherwise, you could be asking for trouble in the long run.

 

[Rick]

You should ALWAYS use a full format unless you know for a fact that the condition of the disk is good.

That's a good tip.

 

[tweaks_sav]

I do reformats alot at work. We normally do the Quick Format option. Every now and then we get the same problem the original poster had. There is only one partition when we look and so we just remove that one line in the boot.ini file.