How do I remove 'dead' operating systems....

numalaser

numalaser

New Member
...from the black screen on start up?

I had a bit of (stupid) hassle installing Windows XP 3 times (I had the HD jumper round the wrong way so setup wouldn't go through right).

So when I finally got it up and running there were two extra XP installs half finished in the HD too.....
I deleted them and emptied the wastebasket but they still appear on teh black startup screen asking me which OS I wasnt to use!

If I choose the second or the third XP, I get a load of error messages telling me that various files can't be found.
The first XP in the list works fine, but I don't really want the hassle of this screen everytime I start up!

Any ideas guys? :confused:
 
Last edited:
Start --> Setting --> Control Panel --> System --> Click on the advanced tab --> click on settings tab under Startup and Recovery.

select your default OS there.
if you don't want the OS menu to appear then uncheck "Time to display list of Operating Systems:".

Another way to do this:

You can edit the boot.ini file in the root drive that your o/s is installed on. i.e. C:\boot.ini.

You won't be able to see it unless you change your folder options to display system files. You will see the list of operating systems in there such as:

multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINNT="Microsoft Windows XP" /fastdetect
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINNT="Microsoft Windows XP" /fastdetect

Just delete the ones you don't want to show up. Better make a back up copy of the file first though.
 
This is a guess here, But i think that following boot.ini would be there for you

multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINNT="Linux" /fastdetect
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINNT="Microsoft Windows XP" /fastdetect

I don't know for sure, because i'm a newbie in linux. But if the above is the case then following will probably will do.

multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINNT="Microsoft Windows XP" /fastdetect
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINNT="Linux" /fastdetect

Or Change it through Mircosoft :
Start --> Setting --> Control Panel --> System --> Click on the advanced tab --> click on settings tab under Startup and Recovery.

select your default OS there.
 
Linux doesn't install itself in the boot.ini file. Only MS OS's do that. Linux has it's own boot loader it installs in the MBR.

You do have to change this option in linux. how you do I'm not sure. I know you can google it though because i've seen it while I was trying to google something else.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top