After format and install, bootup showing two copies of Windows

cw42

Diamond Member
Jan 15, 2004
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I did a quick format of my PC, installed WinXP, and now on bootup it asks me which version of Windows do I want to run. One is the one i just installed, the other is the one i just deleted. Is there a way to get rid of this without completely formatting?
 

Navid

Diamond Member
Jul 26, 2004
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Did you delete the previous installation or not?
What happens if you chose the old installatoin?
If you deleted the old installation and selecting the old inatallation does not work, you can modify the boot.ini file to remove the old one from the boot choice.

To modify the boot.ini
Control panel/Performance and maintenance/System/Advanced/Startup and Recovery Settings
 

daveshel

Diamond Member
Oct 10, 1999
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That's coming from the boot.ini file. You may be able to edit that in system properties > advanced > startup and recovery/
 

cw42

Diamond Member
Jan 15, 2004
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Originally posted by: daveshel
That's coming from the boot.ini file. You may be able to edit that in system properties > advanced > startup and recovery/

how do i get to sys properties?
 

techwanabe

Diamond Member
May 24, 2000
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I've experienced this a number of times when working tech support at a University for students. The boot.ini has two instances but the 2nd one is invalid... it asks you if you want to delete the 2nd invalid instance and you select yes to delete it. That gets rid of the double instance at boot up. I don't know what causes it in the first place.
 

nikunjg

Junior Member
Oct 24, 2004
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run --> msconfig --> BOOT.ini --> Check All Boot Paths

it will show your your previous installtion wich doesn't exist anymore, remove it.

hope this helps.
 

cw42

Diamond Member
Jan 15, 2004
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Originally posted by: nikunjg
run --> msconfig --> BOOT.ini --> Check All Boot Paths

it will show your your previous installtion wich doesn't exist anymore, remove it.

hope this helps.

wow... that was by far the easiest solution.

before i tried fixing it by going into the file manually and editing it. then i tried changing one of the numbers around, and when i rebooted... windows would not load at all and it'd give me an error. So i had to pop in my WinXP cdkey, goto recovery, and did a /rebuild of the boot.ini file. That managed to fix it.