[ilovemy13f]

I have no idea how, but I seem to have two different operating systems on my laptop. When rebooting or starting up it asks to choose which one to use, Windows XP Home Addition or Windows XP Professional.

Is there a way to remove the Professional one?

thanks. (and I apologize if this is not in the right section.)

Lenore

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Does the laptop actually have two partitions with windows folder in each? Which one do you choose by default? Try choosing the other and if it's saying os not found then you can delete that line.
When in windows go to my computer, then c drive. once there go to tool->folder options then hit the view tab. scroll down and check the "show hidden files mark". then click ok. In C drive you should see a file called boot.ini. right click on it and select properties. Then uncheck the read only mark. Click ok and open the file
It will be something like this:

[boot loader]
timeout=5
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="XP Home/noexecute=optin /fastdetect
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS="XP Proffesional

delete the line for the os that doesn't exist
then save the file and restart. Post the content of the file in here before editing tho just to be safe. And we can double check on what to delete.

Edited by yevgenievich, 18 December 2008 - 09:47 PM.

[yevgenievich]

Does the laptop actually have two partitions with windows folder in each? Which one do you choose by default? Try choosing the other and if it's saying os not found then you can delete that line.
When in windows go to my computer, then c drive. once there go to tool->folder options then hit the view tab. scroll down and check the "show hidden files mark". then click ok. In C drive you should see a file called boot.ini. right click on it and select properties. Then uncheck the read only mark. Click ok and open the file
It will be something like this:

[boot loader]
timeout=5
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="XP Home/noexecute=optin /fastdetect
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS="XP Proffesional

delete the line for the os that doesn't exist
then save the file and restart. Post the content of the file in here before editing tho just to be safe. And we can double check on what to delete.

Edited by yevgenievich, 18 December 2008 - 09:47 PM.

[ilovemy13f]

Hello! thanks for replying! I have no idea if the laptop has two partitions (as I have no clue what that means. sorry. ) When I rebooted and selected Windows XP Pro it started up and worked. I use the Home Edition though.

I did try to do what you instructed above, but could not find the boot.ini file.

[Bonzai82]

To find boot.ini try like this go to Control panel>System>Advance>under Startup and recovery click on settings and under system startup click on edit.When you click on edit you'll open boot.ini file

[yevgenievich]

EDIT: Bonzai82 beat me to it
post up the content of the file in here as it is interesting that it boots in either option

Edited by yevgenievich, 18 December 2008 - 09:46 PM.

[ilovemy13f]

Ok, I found it. My problem wasnt what you told me to make sure was checked (show hidden files) it was the HIDE PROTECTED OPERATING SYSTEMS FILES line that WAS checked.

this is what the file said:

[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" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS1="Microsoft Windows XP Professional" /fastdetect

[vaan]

ok dude what u should do is try to get bart pb bulider, its a free software used for creating custom bioses and boot cdz, herez the link "http://www.nu2.nu/pebuilder/". although ul hav to hav a windows cd in order to build the boot cd.burn it to a cd and boot your system from it, it overrides your system and runs itself from the cd, and you can the delete the other os, if need be format the whole drive, for me i think dats the only way to get rid of a corrupt os, work lyk a charm.

[123Runner]

You do not need to reformat nor do you need the programs recommended by Vaan.

Vaan, ilovemy13f can boot from and use both XP home and XP pro. All he wants to do is get rid of XP pro.

ilovemy13f,
I believe all you need to do is edit out the last line of the boot.ini file and then save it.

PLEASE WAIT FOR yevgenievich OR Bonzai82 TO VERIFY BEFORE CHANGING THE FILE.

[yevgenievich]

ok, for some reason just by making sure hidden files thing was checked made boot.ini show up on my system. Anyway, you have two versions of windows installed on one partition, just in different folders. You can safely delete the last line so boot.ini file looks like this:

[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" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect

Once you delete it you can save it and every time you start the computer it will load into windows XP home. Now if you check there is a folder called Windows1 in your C drive. That is where XP pro is stored. If you have no problems operating in windows xp home you can delete the folder called WINDOWS1,however, it will more than likely fail to delete some certain files. You can get them using file Assassin located here

Edited by yevgenievich, 19 December 2008 - 09:47 PM.

[vaan]

ahh nice, so where exactly do u punch in these codes, notepad??