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http://radified.com/cgi-bin/yabb2/YaBB.pl Rad Community Technical Discussion Boards (Computer Hardware + PC Software) >> PC Hardware + Software (except Cloning programs) >> XP Pro Clean install http://radified.com/cgi-bin/yabb2/YaBB.pl?num=1215338453 Message started by William on Jul 6^th, 2008 at 5:00am

Title: XP Pro Clean install
Post by William on Jul 6^th, 2008 at 5:00am

Hi All,

am using the rad clean install windows guide to clean install XP Pro on my sister's sony vaio vgn-fs215b laptop. This is going reasonably well. I used my XP Pro disk (licensed) to partition and reformmat her HD. I then installed XP. I am in the process of doing all the windows updates, and have to restart quite a lot. Each time I restart the system I get to an O/S choice screen that asks me if I want to boot HOME or PRO. If I choose home it tells me it can't.

Does anyone have any ideas about what is going on and what I should do about it?

Will.

Title: Re: XP Pro Clean install
Post by William on Jul 6^th, 2008 at 5:02am

To clarify - why am I seeing this boot screen at all and what do I do to get rid of it so that when my sister boots her system she isn't faced with this annoying non choice every time?

Will

Title: Re: XP Pro Clean install
Post by Brian on Jul 6^th, 2008 at 5:13am

Will,

Could you post your boot.ini here?

Title: Re: XP Pro Clean install
Post by William on Jul 6^th, 2008 at 6:36am

Yes,

if you tell me how!

Will

Title: Re: XP Pro Clean install
Post by Brian on Jul 6^th, 2008 at 6:42am

Right click My Computer, Properties, Advanced tab, Startup and Recovery section, Settings, Edit.

Copy and Paste the contents of boot.ini so we can see what's there.

Title: Re: XP Pro Clean install
Post by William on Jul 6^th, 2008 at 7:48am

Hi Brian,

I think that I have made a hash of the whole thing. The plan at the moment is to start from scratch again. My sister has been very forgiving. I am leaving her my working laptop and taking her's home.

If I do as I did last time and boot from the XP CD and delete all the partitions, recreate a primary partition, format (not quick) it and install XP Pro to it, and then create an extended partition with a logical drive using the disk manager in XP will I be in a situation where the laptop won't ask me if I want to boot HOME or PRO, or is the boot.ini stored 'deeper' in the hardware?

Thanks again for the help.

On a personal note I feel like a bloody idiot - i'd planned to get her system running like a well oiled machine - at the moment she has an expensive doorstop :-[

Will

Title: Re: XP Pro Clean install
Post by Brian on Jul 6^th, 2008 at 8:10am

Will,

I'll be out of town for a week. All you need to do is make a small change to your boot.ini.

Title: Re: XP Pro Clean install
Post by William on Jul 6^th, 2008 at 8:30am

Brian,

Thank you again.

I'll look into it when I get home. I've done these reinstalls on my own machines a few times now. I am sure that with some patience and research i'll find the answers. You've pointed me in the right direction.

Will

Enjoy your week off!

Title: Re: XP Pro Clean install
Post by TheShadow on Jul 14^th, 2008 at 9:38am

Windows XP can do some weird things when installing on a hard drive that already had/has an OS on it.

I tried to do an upgrade to a Windows ME install and wound up with ME on the first partition and XP on the second one. That's not at all what I wanted, but that's what the XP installer decided to do.

After getting the boot menu on the first boot after the install, I accepted it as "not so bad" and just went on from there.

In the boot menu, XP took the top spot, so I just went into the boot.ini file and edited it for zero ( "0" ) time delay, so the PC just boots right into XP without prompting.
I still have Windows ME in case I need to reference it.

You can also 'flip' the boot.ini sequence to change the default OS that you're going to boot into.
You can do a LOT with the boot.ini file.

Cheers Mate!
The Shadow 8-)