Possibly running 2 versions of Windows XP on same computer?

['Stein]

When I reformatted and reinstalled all of Windows XP (last year or so), I feel I might have screwed up and somehow kept the other version on it. The reason I think this is because now, whenever I start up, it comes up with a black screen that asks which operating system I want to run. The options are 'Microsoft Windows XP Professional,' and "Microsoft Windows.'
Because of this, it's been running slower then normal.

Thanks a lot.

[gemini4]

Do you remember to actually format the hard drive at some point? Also do you remember if any of the programs and documents from the former installation got transferred in the new one?

I've seen cases where the hard drive was formatted but because of partitioning configuration the setup program belived that there are two operating systems available that especially on Dells that have a bootable diagnostics partition.

If there were no files that remained after formattting and if you remember clearly getting through a formatting process you can get rid of that annoying message by doing the following process:

1. Click Start, choose Run and execute msconfig. The System COnfiguration Utility will pop-up
2. Click Boot.ini on the top and click Check all boot paths.
3. Click ok to any messages that come up and then restart the computer.

['Stein]

Heh, knowing me, I prly forgot to format. Is there a way to check if I did? And, I don't THINK I had files from the past OS, but I guess its possible I did....

(sry Ive taken so long to respond)

['Stein]

In addition to that, whenever I try to click on "Microsoft Windows" (not the XP Professional one), it tells me Invalid disc drive. Does this mean I can delete this using the method ya mentioned above?

[gemini4]

Yes. The extra boot entry is invalid.

['Stein]

wait, it didnt work,, 'Check All Boot Paths' said that all the lines for Microsoft seem to be operational. However, I still see 2 entries under Boot.ini inside msconfig.

Under [operating systems], 2 are listed,

1) multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Professional "/fastdetect/NoExecute=OptIn

and
2) C:\="Microsoft Windows"

Note: The first 1 is set as the default,, and the 2 entries are vertically in the order they were given (ie 1 is above 2)

[gemini4]

The second one looks like a windows 98 entry. However as is not pointing to anything you can erase that line completely.

[ultra vires]

Yup its a windows 98 entry , i had also messed up like this before , and its safe to remove that entry , but i doubt that your windows Xp copy might be running slow due to this.

['Stein]

Alrite, stupid mistake by me, BUT, how would I go about deleting it?....I've tried checking boot paths and all, but that doesnt do anything.

[gemini4]

Righ click on My Computer, go to Advanced, under STartup and Recovery click on Settings and then on this screen click Edit.

That will open the Boot.Ini file for you. Remove the line from there.

['Stein]

Hey, thanks a TON gemini4, I appreciate it greatly.

[roh420]

Hey i think i run two windows on my computer .. because first i had vista and then i installed windows 7 ... so now that i check my hard drive 150GB of it is gone and i think its because of the files (eg.movie,games..etc )that i had in my windows vista.. so can anyone please tell me how to go back and use my vista cuz i had some important files there. thanks

[gerbil]

Aw, heck.. the detail you don't give. Uninstalling an OS should NOT remove any of your other [data] files. Installing another one afterward with a quick format will likely overwrite them. It depends.... if they exist on the hdd but are lost then it is possible to sometimes recover some of them. Reinstalling Vista on the same partition will just compound your problem. Anything that Vista could see should be visible to W7, other stuff may need special recovery tools. Ask if you need help with that.