A quickie (I hope)
 

Recently reinstalled Windows XP on B2's lappy. Everything is OK except that in the boot process a screen asks me which O/S I want to use, XP or XP, waits 30 seconds if you don't do anything then goes ahead with a normal boot up. I can only assume this has something to do with not formatting the hard drive and removing the previous XP installation but I basicaly just did what I was told. (This was prior to my thread on formatting a HDD with XP on it).

This is a minor annoyance only, but does anybody have any ideas about how to remove this step? I have about six hours from time of posting to do something about it before B2 goes to Sydney, then I'll have to rely on doing it long distance. I'm aware it is the wee small hours of the morning in the upside down Antipodes, but any thoughts would be appreciated.

Further to this, having later gone into places I rarely venture, the BOOT.INI sequence is as follows (I'll have to type it manually, can't see any way of C&P):

[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
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition"/fastdetect

There doesn't seem to be any option on that page for deleting any of those commands and right clicking does nothing. Any suggestions?

P.S. Further investigations on the General tab of msconfig identify a choice at the bottom to either "use Original BOOT.INI or Use Modified BOOT.INI. The second choice is currently ticked. Could it be as simple as selecting the other choice? I'm not game to do it myself without expert advice.

That looks like you have two partitions, or Windows thinks it does.

Right click on My Computer then select Properties. From there go to the Advanced tab and then Startup and Recovery. In there you can set the time delay and default OS to select. If you click on edit you can manually edit the text file, but I am not sure what you need to add to comment out the second line. I think you just add REM to the beginning of the line, but it's been a while.

goates

Presumably, if you set the timeout delay to something very small, like zero, it will go straight into option 1 - if that's the one you want. Or just press return as soon as the screen appears.

I can barely believe I'm typing this, but I've fixed it. Goates, by using the help facility on partitions I managed to get to the advanced link you quoted. Windows Explorer showed only one drive, so I edited the boot file. I had been told that a colon in front of the line serves the same purpose as rem used to in earlier OS's but that didn't work, so I held my breath and simply deleted the line involving Partion 2, and whaddya know? It worked!

As Mr Draper might say, one is extremely chuffed! :ok:

I had exactly the same thing on my kids pc! I don't anymore, nice one. :D

spannersatcx, Please tell me that means you did what I described and it worked for you? I would LOVE to think that I've actually helped somebody on this forum instead of just being a sponge; go on, let me have a slightly swollen head for five minutes! :O

Binoculars, I did exactly what you described and it worked for me too! Thanks for sharing your knowledge with us, t
you are a star! :ok:

Aww, shucks. :O :O Tweren't nothing really.....

I'd like to thank my parents, and my primary school teacher, and..... :uhoh:

Well done Binos, even tho you live in the State thats 20 yrs behind, you have not only learned something, but actualy manage to pass the knowledge along.

You should now have a beer and a good rest. Perhaps you should pop up to JB and join the Spa party in Trbat house (Mk4)

Well done Binos. Keep it up and you will be up there with E-Liam et all shortly.
Regards
willby