How do I delete a partial install? details inside..

[GratefullySaved]

Hey gang,

I just used my mom's Win XP Pro install disk to format my slave drive 120GB Western Digital HD. After formatting it as NTFS (it didn't even give me the option for FAT 32..that's another story I guess), the installer program went the "preparing install" process, then rebooted, and then went into the install itself which it said would take 39 minutes. Remember, all of this data was going to my slave drive (F, whereas my master already has XP Home on the C: partition, and just games and digital pics (I'm a photographer) on the other partition (D.

I pulled the plug out of the computer when I saw "39 minutes" to go, and only needed my slave drive formatted, which had been done already just a couple of minutes earlier, and so I thought no harm would be done. Bottom line is the computer got stuck in a constant loop of trying to resume the install, but then would crash according to some error. The computer then wouldn't even restart to my C drive, until I figured out it was zipping through to XP Pro (which had only the partial install to the F drive), and was not booting XP Home from the C drive. The program obviously wrote SOMETHING to the C drive, as now I have to choose either "XP Professional" or "XP Home" at the boot up menu. I can still select XP HOme and everything works fine (thankfully), but I want that XP Pro install option removed from my C drive...

How do I remove all of the components of a partial XP Pro install to the point that my computer goes back to booting straight to XP Home WITHOUT forcing me to birddog it and select XP Home?

Thanks to anyone that can help...this is really getting aggravating..

Pixel Pete

 

[mikecel79]

You need to edit the boot.ini file on the root of your CD drive. Remove the XP Pro line from the boot.ini file.

Just curious why did you boot into the XP Pro CD to format a drive? Why not just do it in Windows?

 

[EeyoreX]

Boot. Select your Home install. Right click My Computer. Go to Properties -> Advanced -> Startup and Recovery (Windows XP may have this labeled differently, I am sitting in front of a Windows 2000 machine and don't remember). Once there, select the Home install as the default boot option and select how long you want it to wait. You could also boot, open and edit the Boot.ini file (you need to reset the hidden and system attributes first) and delete the line with the Windows install you don't want to use.

Incidentally, I am not sure why you didn't just boot into Windows you already had installed and format the drive from within Windows, since WIndows can handle this without the need to boot from the install disk and start an install. Also, a FAT32 partition can not be lager than 64GB (maybe 32GB, I don't remember at the moment) so you wouldn't have the option in format a 120GB partition with FAT32. This is by design, and there is no "stiry" to it, other than FAT32 can't be that large under Windows XP.

\Dan

 

[GratefullySaved]

Ok, I'll try that today and thanks for the tips.

I couldn't format from XP because the drive wouldn't even show up in My Computer. I guess this is because it wasn't partitioned? I'm a mac guy mostly (professional photographer and graphic designer), but am loving my XP PC more and more. I still need to learn further though how to troubleshoot and maintain it. I've never had to edit an .ini file before...so this will be a learning process for sure.

I'll keep ya posted, and please check back?..as I may need your help once more if I don't get this right the first time. Just a little cautious as I don't have a mental grasp of XP like I do of OS 9.

OK, thanks again and I'll post back wihtin 6 hours (I have client work to do before I tweak my PC).

Sincerely,

Pixel Pete