Hi guys,

I recently formatted my hard drive which had Win XP Home Ed. on it and installed Win XP Pro Ed. I've done this twice in 2 weeks and both times I have exactly the same problem. After I've installed it, I keep getting a selection screen of which windows to load. When i select home it tells me it can't be found, and when i choose pro it loads like theres nothing wrong. Is there anything i can do to fix this problem???

Are you certain that you are formatting the drive during the install process, and not just installing to a new directory while perserving the existing file system?

It's been a while since I've performed a parallel install, but you may be able to edit the boot.ini file to remove the invalid selections. As an alternate you could just select the installation in the 'startup and recovery' tab and deselect 'time to display list of operating systems'. That should force XP to boot automatically.

You can just edit boot.ini with notepad to look like this:-

[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Professional" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect


From multi(0) to fastdetect is just on one line in case it shows as wrap round.

i'm sorry but i'm not really that technical. But yes I'm sure i'm formatting the drive and not installing an extra windows. And i'm not really sure what i should actually do to my boot,ini file. I also can't FIND the boot.ini file. I've tried searching for it and everything.

Boot.ini is in the root of your C drive. You'll probably need to go into Folder Options -> View & check "Show hidden file & folders" & uncheck "Hide extensions etc.." & "Hide protected operating etc ". It'll then be visible.

Another alternative is: Start > Control Panel > System > Advanced > Startup and Recovery - Settings.

In the "Default operating system" drop down menu, select your XP Pro.
If you don't want to get the selection screen, untick the "Time to display list of operating systems".

That of course is the easier & safer way of doing it. I tend to forget that as I'm happy editing boot.ini.

As I tend to forget that a picture is soo much easier than words.

start -> run -> "msconfig" -> boot options works too - just shows you the boot.ini

wow thanks a lot you guys!!!

I just tried wiping all traces of home and dell off a computer, the hidden partition went with the xp pro cd boot but got the same damn screen, it must be stored in the 8 meg
space!

just backspace thru the home line in boot.ini