2 Operating Systems after Windows Update?

[Static EMP]

Hi, I just reformatted an old laptop to get it starting from scratch again. I installed XP Home on it, and then after I ran through a couple of Windows Updates, whenever I would reboot, it would ask me to make a choice of Operating systems, both of which were "Windows XP Home Edition". This is odd, and I was wondering how it came up with two, and how I could get rid of one, since I obviously only installed Windows XP once. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks!

 

[Navid]

Open windows explorer and see how many drives you have. What are the drive letters?

Open the boot.ini file, which is on the C drive, and tell us what the content is. If you cannot see the boot.ini file, open windows explorer, clickon "Tools" and "Folder Options". Select the "View" tab. Check "Show hidden files and folders". Uncheck "Hide extensions for known file types". Uncheck "Hide protected operating system files".

When you reboot, can you use both options to boot, or does only one of them work?

 

[Static EMP]

I can start up the first one in the list, but not the second. The second one gives me an error that says <Windows root>\system32\hal.dll is corrupted.

This is the contents of my boot.ini file.

[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" /fastdetect /NoExecute=OptIn
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition" /fastdetect

Thanks!

 

[Navid]

I am not sure how/why this happend. But, the two lines you can see in boot.ini starting with "multi" each corresponds to an XP on a different partition.

Now, find out how many partitions there are on the hard drive.

Right-click on "My Computer" and click on "Manage". In the window that opens up, click on "Disk Management".
What do you see on the row that contains the desscription of your hard drive?
How many partitions?

I need this to know which one of the two lines in boot.ini you need to get rid of to get rid of the option you get everytime you boot.

Alternatively, you can modify boot.ini and change the name of one of the two OS to something else so that you can tell which is which. So, lets' say you change "Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition" on the line that contains "partition(2)" statement in it to "OS on the second partition".
WARNING: Don't change anything else outside the quotes or we both may be very sorry!

Then, reboot and find out which one of the two boots and which one does not.

Hopefully, there is no second partition and it is the first line (partition(1)) that boots.
If not, we have to talk more!

Anotehr thing that I am not familiar with is the "NoExecute ..." statement.

But, let's move one step at a time.

 

[bacillus]

this is what my boot.ini looks like with 1 partition:

[boot loader]
timeout=10
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

 

[Static EMP]

I have two partitions, I made them when I reinstalled Windows... I haven't formatted the second partition yet, and this may be why this is happening. I'm not sure yet. I am planning to install Linux on the second partition, but I want to get rid of any trace of Windows on it if it is still there.

 

[Navid]

Why don't you answer my questions?
I wanted to tell you how to get rid of the options that you get when you boot up.