How to reset dual os boot? (XP and XP)?

Question

I had two HDD's, one with Windows XP Professional 32 bit, and another that was blank and that has just been reformatted with a NTFS file structure.

I was using the latter as a slave, but my older brother was building a computer from twine and pocket lint, and needed a hard drive. So I was going to let him use my spare HDD.

I rebooted, and in bios selected a windows install disk to boot, and then installed this on the partition on my slave. Well the install went fine, and he ended up using it quite well.

However I made the mistake of keeping my hard drive 'attached' during the installation. So my BIOS now thinks I have two OS's.

Is there anyway I can reset this (Keep in mind this slave is no longer attached, so if its OS is selected my computer doesn't boot for obvious reasons) SO that it thinks I only have one? It works fine, but it is rather annoying that I have to select my OS, (as it selects the slave by default) within 10 or so seconds of the OS loading.

Any help would be appreciated :) And if any other information is needed for evaluation, please ask.

Answer 1

edit the file in C:\boot.ini.

In Start->Run , type



attrib -r -s -h c:\boot.ini



It will unset the attributes of boot.ini.

Now goto C:\ drive, there will be a file boot.ini

edit it as below.



It looks like, if windows installed in C:\ drive



[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



timeout=30, indicates the seconds to wait.



[operating system] indicate the OS installed.



see the partition(1), if windows is installed on d: drive then use 2 instead of 1. delete the line containing info about unwanted OS.

Answer 2

This is super easy.



Go to the System Control Panel (or right-clcik My Computer and choose Properties) and Click on the Advanced Tab.



Once there click on the Startup and Recovery -> Setting button

Then click edit.



It opens a text file where you see the partitions and disks that you can boot from.



Remove the extra entry from the file.

Answer 3

If I'm understanding you correctly, the easiest way is to go to the BOOT.INI file, and you will see under [operating systems] the various OS's it believes are installed - you can then delete the wrong one (but see below first)



To check which is which - goto msconfig (start-run-"msconfig") then the BOOT.INI tab, then click "Check all boot paths" - i haven't ever had an error there, so I don't know what it does when one is incorrect - I would assume it asks you if you want to delete it, if not you just need to goto the boot.ini file yourself and remove the incorrect one.

Answer 4

There is a way to pass the 10 seconds quickly so you don't really have to select.



Go to 'system registration information'(you can enter it by pushing your right mouse button on my computer).



Then to to the fourth tab and push 't' and you'll find option of controlling time of showing your OS.



Set it to 1second.