[dnaghitorabi]

Hello everyone. I recently formatted my hard drive and now every time I start my computer, I have to choose which operating system to use, windows xp media center edition and professional. I only wanted to use media center edition (because that is what my CD is) so how do I delete the windows professional option?

I look forward to your thoughts.

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Hello dnaghitorabi .... Welcome to GeeksToGo,

Please do the following.

Please do the following in the exact steps. Failure to do so could make the boot.ini damaged and cause unstable or unusable results with your system.:



1. Click Start, click Run, type sysdm.cpl and then click OK.
2. Click on the Advanced tab, and then click Settings
3. In the Startup and Recovery area at the bottom click Settings.
4. Under System Startup click Edit. This opens the Boot.ini file in Notepad ready for editing.
5. Please copy and paste all the lines from your Boot.ini file in your next reply.


Wait for my reply before doing anything else as changing this file without instructions could render your system unbootable.

[rshaffer61]

Hello dnaghitorabi .... Welcome to GeeksToGo,

Please do the following.

Please do the following in the exact steps. Failure to do so could make the boot.ini damaged and cause unstable or unusable results with your system.:



1. Click Start, click Run, type sysdm.cpl and then click OK.
2. Click on the Advanced tab, and then click Settings
3. In the Startup and Recovery area at the bottom click Settings.
4. Under System Startup click Edit. This opens the Boot.ini file in Notepad ready for editing.
5. Please copy and paste all the lines from your Boot.ini file in your next reply.


Wait for my reply before doing anything else as changing this file without instructions could render your system unbootable.

[dnaghitorabi]

[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS.0
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS.0="Windows XP Media Center Edition" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect /usepmtimer
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Professional" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect /usepmtimer

Also, if this can be fixed, there is one more small issue. Before I formatted, if I didn't press any key during bootup, the pc would just display a blank screen instead of going to the Windows XP loading bar. If I (for example) pressed Enter right after POST then it would go to the XP loading bar. If you could tell me how to get it to go straight to the XP loading bar that would be fantastic.

[rshaffer61]

OK are you sure you did a format and fresh install? The reason I ask is because according to your boot.ini file you did what is called a Parallel Installation.
This is when you install windows to a different folder when asked do you want to keep your existing installation during setup.
When you boot up have you been able to boot into Windows Media Center Edition?
Also I notice there is a entry named usepmtimer.... Is that something you installed for limiting time on at night?

[dnaghitorabi]

Thanks for the fast reply. I put my CD in then restarted my computer. It came up with a thing that showed a partition that was clearly the one I had been using, and one that said "empty space". I deleted the one that took over 200gb and then installed the OS on the now 230gb empty space. I don't think I chose to do a parallel installation, but I guess I managed to somehow. And yes, my CD is for Windows Media Center Edition. I have no idea how the usepmtimer got there. It is definitely not something I installed to limit on-time at night. But may I ask what the usepmtimer does?

Edited by dnaghitorabi, 27 November 2009 - 09:55 PM.

[rshaffer61]

usepmtimer is explained HERE in Microsoft's Knowledge Base
Make sure to save a copy of your old boot,ini before doing the repair steps.

Save a Backup Copy of Boot.ini

1. Click Start, click Run, type sysdm.cpl and then click OK.
2. Click on the Advanced tab, and then click Settings
3. In the Startup and Recovery area at the bottom click Settings.
4. Under System Startup click Edit. This opens the Boot.ini file in Notepad ready for editing.
5. In Notepad, click File on the Menu bar, and then click Save As.
6. First in here change the location in the top white drop down box to Desktop. Then in the file name change to Boot.old and save as Text Document(*.txt) and save it to your Desktop and then click Save
Now you can repeat the steps to get back to step Number 4
Once the fix has been applied then Save and Close the file.
Reboot and let me know if this takes care of your problem




Ok, so lets repair it.

• Right click on My Computer and choose Properties
• In the Properties window, click on the Advanced tab.
• In the Startup and Recovery section, click on the Settings button.
• In the window that opens, click on the Edit button...a notepad window will open (boot.ini)
• copy the contents of the quotebox below and replace the old information in boot.ini

[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS.0
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS.0="Windows XP Media Center Edition" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect /usepmtimer

[dnaghitorabi]

Okay I first started by saving my boot.ini as boot.old on the Desktop. According to your steps I was a little unclear as to if I was supposed to reboot BEFORE the "Ok, so lets repair it" section, or not. I went ahead and overrode my old boot.ini with your quotebox and rebooted. Unfortunately, it still came up with the two available operating systems.

And strangely, I just checked my boot.ini and it was as if I never copied the quotebox into it. Maybe I forgot to save the new boot.ini. I'll try again.

Edited by dnaghitorabi, 27 November 2009 - 10:28 PM.

[dnaghitorabi]

Okay. That new boot code fixed the issue, thanks. Now, as stated earlier, there is one other problem which no one I have talked to has been able to figure out. When I boot my computer, and leave it alone, right after post it just displays a blank screen. If right at the end of post I press any key, then it will go into the OS loading screen. It is bizarre so I don't blame you if you don't know why it happens, but I'm just throwing it out there in case.

[rshaffer61]

Great to hear the multi boot has been resolved.
Now for the other issue, what happens if you just leave it without clicking a key? Does it eventually go into windows?

[dnaghitorabi]

No, it does not. It just stays on a blank screen.

[rshaffer61]

OK that is probably a log on issue or a messed up boot.ini entry. I'm still wondering about that pmtimer entry.

[dnaghitorabi]

Okay well do you have any ideas on the solution? I suppose I could go on with it happening, but it would be nice to be able to press my Power button and then leave the room knowing the PC would boot.

[rshaffer61]

You could redo the boot.ini instructions and save the now working boot.ini file as instructed. Then modify the boot.ini by taking out the pmtimer part and save it. Reboot and see if it works now. If not then replace it with the saved version and everthing is back to where we are now.