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Mar 30th, 2008
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Changing Preferred Operating System in Boot.ini

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I recently had Windows Vista on my 2nd partition and I uninstalled that hard drive that had Vista on it and formated it.

When I boot my computer it still shows 2 Operating Systems to choose from, Windows XP Home Edition and Windows Vista. I want my computer to only choose Windows XP and not vista.

When I press ENTER on the Windows Vista option it says something like Could not read from the selected boot disk... So obviously it is not there so why does it still let me select it?

I went around googling my problem and it is as simple as deleting the Windows Vista line from my boot.ini file. But here is where my problem is...my boot.ini file ONLY contains Windows XP Home Edition, and thats it, no Vista...

Here is my boot.ini file:

Quote ...
;
;Warning: Boot.ini is used on Windows XP and earlier operating systems.
;Warning: Use BCDEDIT.exe to modify Windows Vista boot options.
;
[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" /FASTDETECT /NOEXECUTE=OPTIN
So I cannot fix it by deleting the Vista line from my boot.ini, but yet it is still there when I start the computer somehow? Is there anyway to get Vista off my operating systems list even though it is not there?

Thanks.
Last edited by DarkMaster21; Mar 30th, 2008 at 3:20 pm.
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Re: Changing Preferred Operating System in Boot.ini

Boot from the XP cd and choose repair console. Once you are at the command prompt enter fixmbr and enter; once that's done type fixboot and enter; then restart. Vista is history.
Last edited by Laser; Mar 30th, 2008 at 3:39 pm.
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Re: Changing Preferred Operating System in Boot.ini

Should I create a system restore point before doing this? Is there anyway doing this could mess a system file up?
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Re: Changing Preferred Operating System in Boot.ini

It doesn't ever hurt to backup.

fixmbr will break the tie to vista(from the 1st partition) and fixboot will fix your boot.ini. Should be painless.
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Re: Changing Preferred Operating System in Boot.ini

here are 2 ways you can try to fix this. one is going to start, run, type msconfig, then go to the boot ini tab then click the button to check the boot ini file.

then restart. if you still see the invalid entry, get your XP cd and repair the MBR if you need help with that let us know
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bobbyraw is offline Offline
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Re: Changing Preferred Operating System in Boot.ini

Yeah I will try that but I need to know if I need to create a restore point before I do that repairing thing?
Last edited by DarkMaster21; Mar 30th, 2008 at 4:00 pm.
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Re: Changing Preferred Operating System in Boot.ini

yes create a restore point, never hurt
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Re: Changing Preferred Operating System in Boot.ini

Sure, create a restore point. See post #4
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Re: Changing Preferred Operating System in Boot.ini

Thanks for the replies!
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Re: Changing Preferred Operating System in Boot.ini

I did the steps and it worked perfectly, thanks again guys.
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This thread is more than three months old

No one has posted to this discussion for at least three months. Please let old threads die and do not reply to them unless you feel you have something new and valuable to contribute that absolutely must be added to make the discussion complete. Otherwise, please start a new thread in this forum instead.
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