New install - Odd Boot problem

[srock]

Odd problem - I wanted to install RAID/ACHI drivers and had some difficulties doing that, but finally got that accomplished. It took me 4 or 5 installs of XP to finally get it done. In each case, I simply reinstalled over the old installation - The machine boots into windows fine but I now get a screen during boot that lists 5 identical Win XP installs and asks me which one I want to use -(This is the screen you ususally see if you have more than 1 OS and can boot to one or the other).There is only one copy of XP on the machine. I can choose one and move on or the system will move on in 10 or 15 seconds, but it is unnecessary and a pain. - Each prior install obviously left some trace that the system thinks is another OS or XP variant - Can I remove them and not have that screen appear, or do I have to reformat and start over (Sigh...)

Any and all help appreciated

Steve

 

[mickzer]

Rt. Click on My Computer>>Properties>>Advanced and go down to Startup and Recovery, then>>Edit. Copy what is there and paste in your next post.

>> = Click on


mickzer.

 

[srock]

Now what?

You absolutley nailed the problem

The setup showed the following:

[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS.7
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS.7="Microsoft Windows XP Professional" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS.5="Microsoft Windows XP Professional" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS.4="Microsoft Windows XP Professional" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS.3="Microsoft Windows XP Professional" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect


Seeing that I went to the root drive of c: and I have 8 (Count 'em 8) Windows directories

Windows
Windows.1
Windows.2
Windows.3
Windows.4...


Windows.7


Some represent full installs - some represent failed installs (I suspect 3,4,5,7 are the sucessful installs and 1,2,and 6 represent the failed installs)

Windows.7 is the install that I got right with installation of ACHI SATA drivers/controller

What to do now...

I would like my active windows directory to be Windows rather than Windows.7 (Life will be so much easier down the road)

can I simply delete windows through windows.6 and then rename windows.7 to windows and then just edit the boot record above
After editing it would look like this:

[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 Professional" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect

-OR-

delete all the files and reinstall

-OR-
reformat and reinstall

-OR-
something else ...

Many thanks for getting me on the right road

Steve

 

[mickzer]

I don't think I've ever seen so many OS's (failed or successful). I'm no expert but if you've nothing important on your computer I think you'd be better off making a fresh start.I would only edit what's between the quotation marks" ".

Just to give you a clue, here's my BOOT.INI :


[boot loader]
timeout=3
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" /fastdetect /NoExecute=OptIn

...which is more or less what you say you want.But I do'nt know if I would delete the .7 part.
Maybe one of the more knowledgeable members will chip in.
HTH.

mickzer.

 

[srock]

Here's what I did

I tried both:

I changed the boot list and deleted Windows through Windows.6 and booted the system - no problem. I then deleted the windows directories (windows through windows.6) and again booted (windows.7 is the only remaining).Again no problem. I then changed the boot log to change windows.7 to windows. I then tried to rename windows.7 to windows and the system obtstinately would not let me change the name or even change the attributes so I could rename.

So I reformated the disk and reloaded the OS - All done.. System works fine-
This was a lot of work to be able to load the ACHI drivers, and I'm not sure why I wanted to or if I'll ever use them. But I finally beat the silicon...

Many thanks for your help.

Steve

 

[mickzer]

All's well that ends well,eh?

mickzer.

 

[mansang]

Odd problem - I wanted to install RAID/ACHI drivers and had some difficulties doing that, but finally got that accomplished. It took me 4 or 5 installs of XP to finally get it done. In each case, I simply reinstalled over the old installation - The machine boots into windows fine but I now get a screen during boot that lists 5 identical Win XP installs and asks me which one I want to use -(This is the screen you ususally see if you have more than 1 OS and can boot to one or the other).There is only one copy of XP on the machine. I can choose one and move on or the system will move on in 10 or 15 seconds, but it is unnecessary and a pain. - Each prior install obviously left some trace that the system thinks is another OS or XP variant - Can I remove them and not have that screen appear, or do I have to reformat and start over (Sigh...)

Any and all help appreciated

Steve

What you should have done is always format your hard-drive especially ' C ' (you can several partitions but windows is always installed in C).

Then install a fresh copy of windows.

Make a bootable image disc (this disc will allow you speed up the process of restoring you pc).

This avoids the great headache and trouble when installing Windows.

 

[srock]

bootable disk

Instaled windows many times before, but never on a fresh build- Also made my first transition to SATA (always IDE before), also my first time installing 3rd party drivers for the drive controllers (ACHI), and my first time slipstreaming- All in all much learned (often the hard way) - I wonder how people did this stuff before there waa all this great help and experience available on the NET??

Thx
Steve