Johnnie_A

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Aug 17, 2006
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Hi! I'm having the following problem:

I booted from a windows XP cd just to partition a disk drive that I have (in the phase where it gives you the option to delete a partition etc) and then I restarted the pc. The problem now is that when I restart, I get the message "Invalid boot device.. reboot and select proper boot device or insert boot media" and I have to insert the windows cd and continue with a windows setup something I don't want to do!!! So, what can I do in order to cancel this windows installation?? Because now I have to press F8 when the pc boots up and select the hard disk where I have my normal windows xp installation in order to start the windows normally!
 

Johnnie_A

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Aug 17, 2006
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Go into the BIOS and change your boot order to hard drive first.

Ok, I'll try that but is there any way to actualy cancel the installation; I found something about modifying the boot.ini but I didn't understand excactly what to do.
 

Johnnie_A

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Aug 17, 2006
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So this message comes up in windows?

No, it comes up before the windows loads! I changed the 1st boot device to the hard drive where I have my windows installed so I don't get that message now, but the problem will remains... I have to find a way to cancel that installation... or, I can wait until my pc needs formating again :p
 
Edit the boot.ini to remove the entry for booting to setup. When adding a new hard drive, use Disk Management in Windows to partition and format... never boot from the CD and do it there unless you intend to reload Windows.
 

Johnnie_A

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Aug 17, 2006
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18,510
Edit the boot.ini to remove the entry for booting to setup. When adding a new hard drive, use Disk Management in Windows to partition and format... never boot from the CD and do it there unless you intend to reload Windows.

That was my boot.ini file before I changed the boot device priority. What do I have to delete;

[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