[jc29ems]

Hello, I had a lot of viruses on a computer I was trying to fix for a family member. There was so much on there, I just reinstalled the operating system, Windows XP. I am not sure if I did something wrong or if this is normal, but now when I startup the computer, it asks me to choose an operating system. There is two listed with the same name. The computer is running Windows XP Professional. How can I remove one of them or avoid this screen at startup. What do I need to do?

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Hello jc29ems...

There are a couple of ways to accomplish what you are after.

If you don't mind loosing the space on the HDD:

Go to Control Panel and double-click the "System" icon. Under the "Advanced" tab, in the "Startup and Recovery" section, click on the "Settings" button. In the "Default Operating System" drop down menu, choose the operating system you wish to start. Then to the right of "Time to display list of operating systems:", ajust the time to 0 and then untick the checkbox on the left. "Apply" the change and click "Ok".

Reboot and let me know if this helped.

If you want to remove the unwanted operating system entirely:

Start the Windows operating system that you want to keep.

To determine the Windows folder that you want to keep...click Start then Run and type %windir%...then click "OK". Remember the folder that is opened. For example, the folder may be C:\Windows.

Note This is your "working" Windows folder. Do not delete or remove this folder from the partition.

In Windows Explorer, find the Windows folder that you want to remove.

Important Make sure that this folder is NOT the folder that you identified as your "working" Windows folder in the above step.

Right click the Windows folder that you want to remove, and then click "Delete".
Click "Yes" to confirm the deletion of the folder.
Click Start, right-click My Computer, and then click Properties.
On the Advanced tab, under Startup and Recovery, click Settings. The "Startup and Recovery" dialog box appears.
Under System startup, click Edit to modify the Boot.ini file.

The Boot.ini file opens in Notepad and looks similar to the following:

[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"
/fastdetect
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS.0="Microsoft Windows XP Home"
/fastdetect

On the File menu in Notepad, click Save As, and then save a backup copy of the Boot.ini file that is named Boot.old.
On the File menu, click Exit to close the backup copy of the Boot.ini file.

In the Startup and Recovery dialog box, under System startup, click Edit to reopen the Boot.ini file.
In the [boot loader] section of the Boot.ini file, identify and then delete the line of text for the Windows operating system that you want to remove. For example, if the Windows folder that you removed in earlier was for the Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition operating system, remove the following line of text from the Boot.ini file:

multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS.0="Microsoft Windows XP Home"
/fastdetect

On the "File" menu, click "Save" to save your changes to the Boot.ini file.
On the "File" menu, click "Exit" to close the Boot.ini file.
Click "Ok" to close the "Startup and Recovery" dialog box.
Restart your computer.

Let me know how it goes...

wannabe1

[wannabe1]

Hello jc29ems...

There are a couple of ways to accomplish what you are after.

If you don't mind loosing the space on the HDD:

Go to Control Panel and double-click the "System" icon. Under the "Advanced" tab, in the "Startup and Recovery" section, click on the "Settings" button. In the "Default Operating System" drop down menu, choose the operating system you wish to start. Then to the right of "Time to display list of operating systems:", ajust the time to 0 and then untick the checkbox on the left. "Apply" the change and click "Ok".

Reboot and let me know if this helped.

If you want to remove the unwanted operating system entirely:

Start the Windows operating system that you want to keep.

To determine the Windows folder that you want to keep...click Start then Run and type %windir%...then click "OK". Remember the folder that is opened. For example, the folder may be C:\Windows.

Note This is your "working" Windows folder. Do not delete or remove this folder from the partition.

In Windows Explorer, find the Windows folder that you want to remove.

Important Make sure that this folder is NOT the folder that you identified as your "working" Windows folder in the above step.

Right click the Windows folder that you want to remove, and then click "Delete".
Click "Yes" to confirm the deletion of the folder.
Click Start, right-click My Computer, and then click Properties.
On the Advanced tab, under Startup and Recovery, click Settings. The "Startup and Recovery" dialog box appears.
Under System startup, click Edit to modify the Boot.ini file.

The Boot.ini file opens in Notepad and looks similar to the following:

[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"
/fastdetect
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS.0="Microsoft Windows XP Home"
/fastdetect

On the File menu in Notepad, click Save As, and then save a backup copy of the Boot.ini file that is named Boot.old.
On the File menu, click Exit to close the backup copy of the Boot.ini file.

In the Startup and Recovery dialog box, under System startup, click Edit to reopen the Boot.ini file.
In the [boot loader] section of the Boot.ini file, identify and then delete the line of text for the Windows operating system that you want to remove. For example, if the Windows folder that you removed in earlier was for the Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition operating system, remove the following line of text from the Boot.ini file:

multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS.0="Microsoft Windows XP Home"
/fastdetect

On the "File" menu, click "Save" to save your changes to the Boot.ini file.
On the "File" menu, click "Exit" to close the Boot.ini file.
Click "Ok" to close the "Startup and Recovery" dialog box.
Restart your computer.

Let me know how it goes...

wannabe1

[jc29ems]

How do I know what folder to delete when removing the entire unwanted operating system? The folder I want to keep is C:\Windows

There is one folder in windows explorer, not sure if this has anything to do with it but it looks funny, it is $win NT$.~BT any idea what this is while I'm at it? There is a system32 file in this one.

[wannabe1]

jc29ems...

$win NT$.~BT is usually associated with a MyDoom infection. More Information Here. (I would suggest a trip through the Malware Forum as this infection will let other infections in by lowering the security settings on your machine).

To determine the Windows folder that you want to keep, boot to the OS you want to continue using...click Start then Run and type %windir%...then click "OK". Remember the folder that is opened. For example, the folder may be C:\Windows...this is the OS you want to keep. Any other Windows folder in the Root Directory (C:) is the one to remove. It may be named C:Windows1 or something on that order...OR...if you choose to keep the second installation, you may be wanting to remove C:Windows.

It might be a good idea to back up your important data to removable media before doing this procedure...better safe than sorry.

wannabe1

Edited by wannabe1, 07 January 2006 - 12:07 PM.

[jc29ems]

jc29ems...

$win NT$.~BT is usually associated with a MyDoom infection. More Information Here. (I would suggest a trip through the Malware Forum as this infection will let other infections in by lowering the security settings on your machine).

I've ran Syantic Antivirus, Ad-Aware, Spybot and Microsoft Antispyware over the past few days. I have fixed all the problems they have found so maybe this could be something left over? I was able to delete it.


Back on our first issue... selecting a default operating system, there are two choices. What the difference? When starting up the computer, I've always used the first choice it gives, maybe this isn't the right one to use???

There was no other windows folders besides C:\windows listed

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

[wannabe1]

If there are no other "Windows" folders in the Root Directory, then it may be only written to the boot.ini. This doesn't take up any space on the drive so you can use the first option in my first post. This will just "skip over" the extra entry and boot to the chosen default OS.

You could also edit the boot.ini file, but I would recommend this only for an advanced user...

wannabe1

[jc29ems]

OK thanks, which should I set the default too? Is one of them like a dead link or will both work? Here are the choices I get

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

[wannabe1]

The default OS is:
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS.0="Microsoft Windows XP Professional"/fastdetect/NoExecute=optin

That's the one I would choose. Set the "time to choose" value to 0 on the other one and confirm the change.

wannabe1

[innerview]

Hello wannabe1. Wow@! this is a great site and your instructions are very clear. However... I have the same issue... 2 windows 7 os. I would like to delete one of them but keep getting message ... not allowed to delete. Even when I sign in as admin it won't delete windows.
Is there a way I can completely delete the second os? I want to wipe that partition.

thanks for your assistance.
Mark

Hello jc29ems...

There are a couple of ways to accomplish what you are after.

If you don't mind loosing the space on the HDD:

Go to Control Panel and double-click the "System" icon. Under the "Advanced" tab, in the "Startup and Recovery" section, click on the "Settings" button. In the "Default Operating System" drop down menu, choose the operating system you wish to start. Then to the right of "Time to display list of operating systems:", ajust the time to 0 and then untick the checkbox on the left. "Apply" the change and click "Ok".

Reboot and let me know if this helped.

If you want to remove the unwanted operating system entirely:

Start the Windows operating system that you want to keep.

To determine the Windows folder that you want to keep...click Start then Run and type %windir%...then click "OK". Remember the folder that is opened. For example, the folder may be C:\Windows.

Note This is your "working" Windows folder. Do not delete or remove this folder from the partition.

In Windows Explorer, find the Windows folder that you want to remove.

Important Make sure that this folder is NOT the folder that you identified as your "working" Windows folder in the above step.

Right click the Windows folder that you want to remove, and then click "Delete".
Click "Yes" to confirm the deletion of the folder.
Click Start, right-click My Computer, and then click Properties.
On the Advanced tab, under Startup and Recovery, click Settings. The "Startup and Recovery" dialog box appears.
Under System startup, click Edit to modify the Boot.ini file.

The Boot.ini file opens in Notepad and looks similar to the following:

[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"
/fastdetect
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS.0="Microsoft Windows XP Home"
/fastdetect

On the File menu in Notepad, click Save As, and then save a backup copy of the Boot.ini file that is named Boot.old.
On the File menu, click Exit to close the backup copy of the Boot.ini file.

In the Startup and Recovery dialog box, under System startup, click Edit to reopen the Boot.ini file.
In the [boot loader] section of the Boot.ini file, identify and then delete the line of text for the Windows operating system that you want to remove. For example, if the Windows folder that you removed in earlier was for the Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition operating system, remove the following line of text from the Boot.ini file:

multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS.0="Microsoft Windows XP Home"
/fastdetect

On the "File" menu, click "Save" to save your changes to the Boot.ini file.
On the "File" menu, click "Exit" to close the Boot.ini file.
Click "Ok" to close the "Startup and Recovery" dialog box.
Restart your computer.

Let me know how it goes...

wannabe1

[rshaffer61]

Let me ask is it possible you are trying to delete the OS you are signed in on?
Please do the following and I will try to assist you here. I am going to delete your other topic since it is a duplicate of this.

Right click the Windows folder that you want to remove, and then click "Delete".
Click "Yes" to confirm the deletion of the folder.
Click Start, right-click My Computer, and then click Properties.
On the Advanced tab, under Startup and Recovery, click Settings. The "Startup and Recovery" dialog box appears.
Under System startup, click Edit to modify the Boot.ini file.

The Boot.ini file opens in Notepad and looks similar to the following:

[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"
/fastdetect
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS.0="Microsoft Windows XP Home"
/fastdetect

On the File menu in Notepad, click Save As, and then save a backup copy of the Boot.ini file that is named Boot.old.
On the File menu, click Exit to close the backup copy of the Boot.ini file.

[innerview]

thank you.

I checked which system was running by entering run and typing %windir%
so I tried to delete windows from the other partition.

ok so, should I follow all of the boot.ini steps even if the windows file doesn't delete?



tried to delete and got this message...

you need permission from TrustedInstaller to make changes to this folder.

Edited by innerview, 20 December 2012 - 11:23 AM.

[rshaffer61]

Yes please post your boot.ini file as instructed in my previous post. I can then figure out the issue.
Is the other windows on another partition or is it on the same partition as what you are booting to?

[innerview]

I got to the Startup and Recovery, Settings,
but there is no Edit option in that window.
Could it (boot.ini) be in the Environment Variables?

[innerview]

the other windows is in a different partition.

[rshaffer61]

Is there anything on that partition you are trying to save?