[sam.hutchinson07]

Hi,

I had a problem with my operating system and was going to reboot the system to factory settings. I installed xp onto the second hard drive on the machine so that I could back up all the data from my first hard drive. After doing all that, I then found that for some reason, I could boot up the machine from what I thought was the corrupted windows. I basically now have XP on my second hard drive and would like to remove it. My boot.ini is below. What is the best way of removing XP off the second drive without causing any damage?

Many thanks,
Sam


[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 Professional" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect

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Hello sam.hutchinson07...

The boot.ini shows only the installation on the first partition. Are you being offered a choice of which operating system to start when you boot the machine?

wannabe1

[wannabe1]

Hello sam.hutchinson07...

The boot.ini shows only the installation on the first partition. Are you being offered a choice of which operating system to start when you boot the machine?

wannabe1

[sam.hutchinson07]

Hi,
I actually have to press F11 on the start up to go to the boot menu and then select the second hard drive on the list, otherwise it will boot the other hard drive which I installed xp onto, which i just want to uninstall now and just have the pc boot straight away to the hard drive wich i was using before.

Cheers,
Sam

[happyrock]

I have windows installed twice on my set up...so if you have windows installed twice on yours it will look like my boot.ini screenshot...
if you have more than 1 click on check all boot paths
if you don't you do not have 2 installs..

[sam.hutchinson07]

I only have it once. But i definatly can boot up windows from either hard drive, i've installed it on both. One is my normal configuration and the other is like a completely new user, which I will boot up to unless i choose other wise. I also have the Windows folder in both C:/ and D:/. I basically just want to make sure I boot up into my main drive and delete windows from the other.

Thanks

[happyrock]

post a screenshot like mine...
where exactly in the boot process are you given the option of which drive to boot to...

[sam.hutchinson07]

Ok, I dont get the option at start up to choose which drive i want to boot up. When i restart the pc, i have to immediatly press F11 to manually go into a boot menu which gives me a list of all the drives. From here I choose which drive i want to boot from. Other wise i have no choice and it will automatically boot into my recently installed OS on my second hard drive.

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[happyrock]

click on start...control panel...administrative tools...computer management..storage....disk management...
drag the window open high and wide enough so you can see it all and get a screenshot for me...
I need to be sure of exactly what you have before we proceed to wipe windows number 2 off..

[sam.hutchinson07]

Here we go, hope this helps....

Thank for your help.
Sam

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[rshaffer61]

Just wondering, Is the "D" drive on the end of the ribbon inside the system?
If you look and there are 2 drives on the main controller then make sure the "C" drive is at the end of the ribbon and the "D" drive is in the middle. Also make sure they are configured correctly for master and slave.

[sam.hutchinson07]

C: and D: are inside the system, F: is an external hard drive. I have no idea how to check or configure which is the master drive and which is the slave. Also I dont know if the D drive is on the end of the ribbon, sorry not acutally sure what that means.

Sam

[hawklord]

my guess is you have ntldr on both drives - basically dual booting via F11 but without a single ntldr,

which is the hdd you want to keep xp on - the 60gb or the 200gb ?

what you could try is disconecting the molex connector (the white connector with 4 coloured wires at the back of each hard drive - if they are ide drives) from one drive, then boot your system,

check disk management for the size of the drive and make a note (for example - get rid, 200 or keep, 200)

plug the connector in and remove the other, boot the system

if you can boot into xp both times then it will be an easy matter of just making sure the jumpers are right, the drives are positioned correctly and erasing the operating system off the correct drive,

[happyrock]

you may also have to edit the boot.ini file...did you notice his screenshot..neither says (boot)...

[hawklord]

yes, i noticed but there are 2 boot loaders so boot won't be listed,

i checked on my w2k - no boot listed,
i checked in my xp - boot is listed but as default boot (as indicated in boot.ini),

checked on a single version of xp - no boot listed,

if it was a 'true' dual boot, using one loader, then the boot would have to be listed because the system would not know which to boot into,
as it is whichever one is booted into will recognize the other as storage

so we need to know which hdd the o/p wants to keep as xp

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Edited by hawklord, 28 April 2009 - 06:55 AM.

[sam.hutchinson07]

Ok, so at startup i pressed F2 and got to the set up menu where I changed the order of my boot system to boot into the correct hard drive. Does this mean that I can now just delete the Windows folder in the other hard drive or use an uninstaller to get rid of it?
Cheers,
Sam