getting rid of dual boot help

[bigbadgreen]

Hi, I'm still a noob when it comes to OS management. here's the deal, I used the winxp boot disk to create partitions because for some reason my backup program (drive image 02) wasn't recognizing them when i created them in windows on my new hard drive. To make a long story short, after formatting the first partition windows started to install, I cancelled as soon as I caught it, I had left the room to grab a bite to eat. Now my problem is that my system had one complete xp and one incomplete install.

This effectivly changed my machine to a dual boot machine, with two xp's. I have the option of choosing which one. My question is how do I get rid of the new xp. I've gone under "startup and recovery" and can see that I can edit the startup options file and also select which OS I want to boot from by default. I just want to get rid of it on startup becuase it's just annoying. It's not a complete install anyways.

My dilemma is that I don't know which one to edit out of the startup options file. Here is the listing now.

[boot loader]
timeout=1
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(1)\WINDOW S
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Professional" /fastdetect
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Professional" /fastdetect

By going under disk managment I know that the correct bootable xp is on disk 0, and that the non-bootable is on disk 1. Both are installed on the first partition of each drive. So I'm assuming that means my bootable version is on rdisk 0 partition 1, but i'm not sure.

I've reformatted the partition with the non-bootable XP, in my lame attempt to get rid of the thing but now it says it can't find files, which I knew would happen I just didn't think about it. I've also used this partition to hold my current image as a backup until i get a chance to burn it to DVD's.

So if anybody can help me out, I'd just like to know how to make my machine a single boot once again. thanks for any help.

 

[nessus]

Edit boot.ini. Make sure that it is not set to hidden or read only.

Remove the line:

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

If you want to test to make absolutely sure you've done it right beforehand, and if your floppy drive is in the boot sequence before your hard drive, you can make the edit to a boot.ini on a boot floppy first.

Format a floppy in XP. (Quickformat is fine). Copy the following files to the floppy. (They should all be in the root of your c: drive, you will have to show hidden and protected operating system files in your folder options in Explorer).

boot.ini
ntldr
ntdetect.com

Edit the boot.ini on the floppy. Boot with it in the drive and make sure you get the behavior you want. If it works the way you want, copy the boot.ini file from the floppy over the copy on the c: drive.

You're done.

 

[bigbadgreen]

thanks a lot for the help. It worked perfectly. Now I guess it's time for me to really start learning about OS management and software things.