Here's hoping I don't have to reformat

[BouncingSoul]

So the other night something in Windows got corrupted and I had to reinstall. Since I didn't have anything backed up and I couldn't get into safe mode I just tried to reinstall without formatting the hd. Now when my system boots it prompts me to "Select Operating System". This wouldn't be so bad except its on the screen for 30 seconds and I'm never there to actually select one so its just extra boot time. What I want is to either lower the amount of time shown or just delete one of the options. I was thinking I could to a fixmbr but I don't know which of the operating system options would be removed and like I said ... I don't want to reformat. Anyone know what I should do?

 

[kcnychief]

All you have to do is edit the boot.ini

Hit the Windows Key + Pause Break - this will bring up System Properties

Go to Advanced tab - Startup and Recovery - Settings

In the top - where it says default Operating system, there is an "edit" button

If you are unsure which is which, change the text to be something easier to recognize. Call it BOOT 1 and BOOT 2, or something similar. Then, when your PC starts up again, choose the correct one. Once you are able to boot into Windows, go back to this file and delete the one you don't need

 

[BouncingSoul]

Sweet!

When it reinstalled it created a windows.0 and a windows.1 folder in addition to the regular old windows folder. I'm assuming I can delete the extras as well?

***EDIT***

Looks like the WINDOWS folder is the old one and the windows.0 is the new one. Thanks again for the help.

Reps!

 

[kcnychief]

No problem

 

[jan]

Hey guys, I was just lookin at this boot.ini thing. Under boot options I see a box I could check that says minimal. If I check that will it increase boot speed much? There is also a /noguiboot option. Does that eliminate the bios readout on boot up?

 

[Admiral Michael]

/noguiboot means don't show the XP boot screen.

 

[jan]

Cool, thank you sir.

 

[BouncingSoul]

If anyone is still curious .... I reformatted anyways. Those reinstalls are crap, I had so many issues it was just easier to start over.

 

[Admiral Michael]

The only reason I would suggest a reinstall or repair is just to get your important data off your drive then ro format and start fresh.

I tried a repair once and it can create problems with drivers and such.