Solved: Boot Up Problem

Hello, and thanks in advance.

I have a few problems, i'll try and list them as clearly as possible.

:The Problem:
My computer has recently started to hang for no reason at all, it wasn't overheating, i had no viruses and it generally checked out. I decided i needed to format anyway, so i went ahead and formatted.

I have 2 Hard Drives;

C: = Windows Installed here
D: = Uni Work, Games, Applications etc

I decided i wanted to format both.

:What I Did:
I inserted my Windows XP Disk and booted from it by changing the boot order in my BIOS from (1st = HDD) to (1st = CD-ROM). I deleted the partition on my C drive and formatted it using the regular NTFS format. Windows then went ahead and started installing on it, everything went fine. Then i went about formatting the next drive.

I (foolishly?) went through the same process as i did to format my C Drive, I deleted the partition then i formatted it. This now gave me Windows on both hard disks (i'm an idiot). Everything still seemed to check out ok. I thought I can deal with the problem by booting from my C: Windows XP, going to My Computer - Manage - Disk Management, Deleting the partition on the D drive and then Formatting it within windows.

I did this and it formatted it. it looks as if it has wiped the entire D drive, so i'd have Windows installed only on my C, and an Empty D drive, as i wanted. However....


...Now everytime when i boot my computer up it still asks me which Windows i would like to boot from, even though i thought i had formatted my D Drive. When i select the C copy of Windows it boots fine, but when i select the (non existent?) D copy of windows i get an error saying it cant find files.

Another problem I have is that when i change my boot priority back to HDD from CD-Drive, i get a message saying "Disk Boot Failure, Please Insert Boot Disk"...When i have the windows XP disk in the drive and i change the Boot priority order to CD-ROM it boots up fine, but i'd rather not have to have the CD in the drive everytime i want to boot my computer up.

:Solution:

I think i need to format both drives again in DOS, but i dont know how i can, I always hear people talking about fdisk but i dont know how to use it. Is there some kind of utility which works in DOS which can format both drives for me? Im not too good at DOS enviroment applications so explain it like you would to a young child :P

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Cheers,

M.

Hi Dom, hope you are well.

First thing you need to do is alter your Boot.ini file thus.

In Windows Explorer, turn on "Show all files and folders, including hidden and system". See how HERE (http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/forums/tutorial62.html).

Double click your C drive and open your boot.ini file in notepad.

Edit the file so it looks exactly like this and save it. In fact, you can delete what`s there and simply copy and paste what`s below.

[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect

Obviously, if you have Windows pro you would alter where it says Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition.

Now, rehide you protected os files.

This should stop Windows from asking you to choose which os to boot from.

See if that helps. It may also solve your second problem, though I`m not sure.

Regards Howard :)

here is another way to do the same thing and will probably be easer and faster.

what you need to do is goto run type in msconfig once that loads up click on the BOOT.INI tab then click on the check all boot paths if it finds one delete it, and reboot to see if it removed the reference to the nonexistent os.

Thanks Howard and NickC, my problem has been resolved.

Thanks for the solution, you can mark this thread as 100% fixed :)

Cheers,

M.