Member Avatar for '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.

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  • Latest Post Latest Post by gerbil

Dani AI

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Short diagnosis and safe fix summary — the boot-choice menu is coming from the NT loader reading the Boot.ini file; the extra "Microsoft Windows" entry is an invalid/legacy entry and can be removed permanently. correctly pointed to the System Configuration check as a first pass, and was right that removing the bogus entry is normally safe. (learn.microsoft.com)

Recommended safe workflow (do this before changing anything): make a backup of the boot file, edit it offline, and restore protections afterward. From an elevated command prompt the common sequence is to unhide/unprotect and copy Boot.ini, edit it, then re-protect it:

attrib -s -h -r C:\boot.ini
copy C:\boot.ini C:\boot.ini.bak
notepad C:\boot.ini
attrib +s +h +r C:\boot.ini

If uncomfortable editing the file directly, rebuilding boot entries via the XP Recovery Console (bootcfg /rebuild) is an alternative. Keep a copy of the original Boot.ini so it can be restored if anything goes wrong; Microsoft documents both manual editing and recovery-console repair options. (learn.microsoft.com)

On performance: the presence of an extra, invalid boot menu entry normally only adds a few seconds at startup — it does not make the running OS slow. Common real causes of sluggish XP systems are low free disk space, excessive startup programs/services, failing disks, out-of-date drivers, antivirus scanning or malware. Use the System Configuration utility and Task Manager to narrow startup load, and run disk/system checks (chkdsk, SFC) as part of standard troubleshooting. (learn.microsoft.com)

About the later Vista→Win7 posts and missing files: if a later install was done on the same partition the chance of full recovery drops as sectors get overwritten. Avoid writing to that disk, boot from separate media, and try a dedicated recovery tool (TestDisk/PhotoRec are widely used) — success depends on how much of the original data was overwritten. (en.wikipedia.org)

(Notes: editing Boot.ini is permanent and can render an XP install unbootable if wrong; keep backups and the XP CD/Recovery Console available before making changes.)

Recommended Answers

All 12 Replies

Member Avatar for 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.

Member Avatar for '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)

Member Avatar for '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?

Member Avatar for gemini4

Yes. The extra boot entry is invalid.

Member Avatar for '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)

Member Avatar for gemini4

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

Member Avatar for 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.

Member Avatar for '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.

Member Avatar for 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.

Member Avatar for 'Stein

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

Member Avatar for 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

Member Avatar for 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.

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