OS boot options issue

[negdcom]

So I was trying to remove an old instal of windows that never fully completed. At startup each time I got an option of the two OS that were available, the one I used was windows vista. The other one that never completed is windows xp professional. Even though win vista is set as my default under startup and recovery it still will try to boot the unfinished install of win xp professional at startup if I dont choose vista instead. So I was attempting to finx this problem tonight and deleted the windows.old folder and then rebooted, forgetting to edit the boot.ini file. I also stupidly unchecked the box in startup and recovery that gave you 30 sec at startup to choose which os you want. Now when it boots it automatically goes to the win xp professional setup and then bluescreens. it doesnt give me an option at all to choose the vista OS. Is there anything I can do to get to the vista OS at startup?

so to clarify:
A. at startup pc usually boots to choose OS screen and I choose vista
b. if I do nothing at this screen it automatically tries to load an unfinished install of win xp professional which automatically bluescreens.
c. I unchecked the box in startup and recovery that would have given me 30 sec at boot to choose which OS i wanted
d. now it automatically goes straight to unfinished install of win xp professional and bluescreens

is there any way to get it to allow me to choose the OS at this point?

thanks guys you're help is really appreciated

 

[starzty]

If you deleted windows.old you're pretty much toast. I recommend reinstalling vista or disabling AHCI(BIOS) and installing windows XP