XP loaded twice...help?

[MJGoodson]

My mother in law installed xp twice on her system. One is a clean copy, one is her old copy with all her settings, pictures, etc... I need to remove the new copy but:

#1. I don't know how to remove one instance of an OS without risking the other. I've always formatted the HD when installing a new OS.
#2. I'm not sure which to remove since they are both XP Home Edition. How will I know which is the one I want to keep?
#3. Is there a way to simply default load the old XP since it gives me a choice of which copy to load when the computer booted (#2 is the one I want to keep)

Any help out there?
M.

 

[Guest]

While you are booted into the OS that you want to keep, right click on My computer and then manage. After that go down to Disk management, find the partition with the new installation on it and format it or delete it.

If you still have to choose which OS to boot after you restart, go to Start/control panel/system. Open the advanced tab and click on settings under Startup and recovery. Uncheck Time to display a list of OS's, and set the default OS in the box at the top to the OS that you want to keep.

_________________________
Your arrogance is boring!

 

[MJGoodson]

Awesome! Thanks.

 

[jmwpom3]

I had a friend who's dad did that w/ an old 286. It took so much space he couldn't load any software. He loaded it once, left the disk in, and did it again. Great stuff.

<font color=green> AMD- Intel's choice for Best CPU manufacturer </font color=green>

 

[marclar1104]

Well I have a similiar problem and i just want to know if it will work in my instance. I reinstalled my OS awhile back. Now when my comp starts up I have a choice of 2 OS but only 1 works. Can I fix it through the disk management? Thanks!

 

[riser]

The one doesn't work because it doesn't exist.. remove it off the system start up..

edit your Boot.ini to remove the 2nd OS so it doesn't appear there anymore.

 

[Guest]

Or, just set the time to display available O/S's to zero.

_________________________
Your arrogance is boring!

 

[riser]

Yeah, you could do that but it's a bandaid fix..

Wouldn't you want to just fix it right the first time?

 

[TheCh0s3n1]

Just to elaborate on Riser's suggestion...

MSCONFIG is what you use to accomplish this task.
1. Click Start, then Run
2. Type MSCONFIG
3. Click the boot.ini tab
4. Click Check All Boot Paths

You should be prompted with a message that tells you about the invalid boot path, and asked if you want to remove it. Click Yes or OK. This will leave you with the other, valid boot path.

 

[marclar1104]

cool, thanks a lot for the help! Would that free up disk space by doing that? I think since I reinstalled windows wrong I have had less and I figured that the extra partition was taking up space. Thanks again for the help!

<P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1><EM>Edited by marclar1104 on 05/26/05 12:44 PM.</EM></FONT></P>

 

[riser]

That would just remove the option to boot to that other windows installation.

If you have a 2nd partition.. it'll show up most likely as D: in Explorer/My Computer.

Or go into Disk Management and format your 2nd partition, which will give you more space.
To ge to Disk Management (Right click My Computer - Manage)

Make sure you don't have needed files on your extra partition if it exists though.

 

[RichPLS]

BUT YOU GOT TWO FOR ONE, A BARGAIN BY ANY TERMS!!!

<pre><font color=red>°¤o,¸¸¸,o¤°`°¤o \\// o¤°`°¤o,¸¸¸,o¤°
And the sign says "You got to have a membership card to get inside" Huh
So I got me a pen and paper And I made up my own little sign</pre><p></font color=red>

 

[riser]

hahaha