Hi Linda,
What has happened is that the boot.ini file has been changed (?) and an
entry for a second copy of Windows has been added. It's easy to fix and
Microsoft has a knowledge base article on it here:
HOW TO: Edit the Boot.ini File in Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;q289022
Open System Properties in Control Panel, or press and hold the Windows key
and press the Pause/Break key. Click the Advanced tab, then click the
"Settings" button for Startup and Recovery. Next click the "Edit" button and
the boot.ini file will open in Notepad. At the bottom you should see two
entries similar to these except for the Home Edition of XP:
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP
Professional" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP
Professional" /fastdetect
Before you do anything further, go to File\Save As... and save a copy to My
Documents.
Delete the entire second entry with the "rdisk(1)" in the first line. Go
back to the File menu and click "Save". Then exit Notepad and click "OK"
twice. Restart the computer and it should start normally.
There isn't a problem with it showing twice. It will simply pause at that
point waiting for someone to tell it which operating system to start. The
top entry is selected by default and pressing the "Enter" key will tell it
to continue loading Windows. If the second entry is selected, nothing will
happen because there isn't a second operating system and it will stop with
an error message. At that point the computer will have to be restarted and
the process started again.
Sven Swanson, Sr.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Linda Aldridge" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Saturday, September 18, 2004 6:53 PM
Subject: [PCSOFT] Dual boot
A friend is running a Dell computer with Windows XP. When she turns it on
or reboots a black screen comes up and it has Windows XP listed twice. You
have to hit the enter key to get it to finish the boot sequence. At the
bottom of that first page it has instructions to press F8 for
troubleshooting and that takes you to a screen where you have choices about
Safe Mode, etc. One of the choices is Boot Normally and then it does.
With what I can find she's getting a dual boot screen. How do I get it to
just continue booting without stopping at that page and waiting for her to
pick the top (default) Windows XP.
I guess I also need to know if there is a problem with Windows XP showing
there twice. She says the dual boot screen just appeared when she turned it
on one day, that she hadn't done anything different in starting the
computer. Basically all she uses it for is email and the internet.
Thanks for any help anyone can give me.
God's Blessings
Linda Aldridge
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