Partition help! Thank you in advance :)

[smirnoff]

Hello all,

 

Firstly, thank you for browsing this thread, and if you do reply/help in any way, your help is greatly appreciated :D

 

So, I have a hard drive split into 6 partitions. 1 (c:\) has my XP which I am going to upgrade to 7 very shortly. 2 (e:\ and d:\) used to have vista and an older xp on them which I removed ages ago but some files were left and couldn't be deleted, and the other 3 i use to backup/storage.

 

So I chucked in a windows xp disk and formatted them both (e:\ and d:\ to remove the files I couldn't delete) thinking that I could get rid of those files - which I did. Of course, being a noob I completely forgot that now these drives had windows XP ready to install on them and now evertime I boot up my PC i have three choices to choose - all drives have XP on it. So, i deleted the partitions, and set them up again, this time NOT installing XP on them - so that they were raw. Formatted them once again so they are fresh, no problem and I can use them how I want to store files with no OS on them - fantastic.

 

HOWEVER. I still have this problem now when I boot up my PC that 3 OS all XP pop up (the top two choices being the deleted and now non existent XP's and the last the current XP that I am about to upgrade). I have about 1 second to choose which one to boot up, which is very annoying, and if I miss it or walk out the room while the PC boots, it will select the top one automatically, try and boot, and then say that the XP files are missing/corrupted (DUH I deleted them...) and then restart the PC.

 

So I guess, what I am asking for, is how the hell do I now stop the BIOS thinking that those two drives still have XP on them - when they don't. Or at least move the current OS I use (the bottom of the selection of three) to the top so that I don't have to frantically bash the down arrow when the menu appears.

 

I hope this all makes sense, if not, i will try and explain again.

 

Once again, thank you so much.

 

Operating System: Windows XP Professional (5.1, Build 2600) Service Pack 3

BIOS: Phoenix - AwardBIOS v6.00PG - M2n-SLI Deluxe

Processor: AMD Athlon™ 64 X2 Dual Core Processor 5200+, MMX, 3DNow (2 CPUs), ~2.7GHz

Memory: 3582MB RAM

Page File: 641MB used, 4822MB available

DirectX Version: DirectX 9.0c (4.09.0000.0904)

[snow]

Hi smirnoff,

 

Right click on My Computer, and select Properties.

Now click on the Advanced tab.

In a section labeled Startup and Recovery click on the button labeled Settings.

Now click the Edit button.

 

You should see something like this:

[boot loader]

timeout=5

default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS

[operating systems]

multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Professional" /fastdetect /NoExecute=OptOut

C:\CMDCONS\BOOTSECT.DAT="Microsoft Windows Recovery Console" /cmdcons

Along with the entries for your deleted XP installs.

 

(ONLY if you are certain you know which ones to remove!) Simply delete these to remove the option for them at startup.

[smirnoff]

Thank you so much for your help!

 

I installed windows 7 (which works like a dream now) however when I start up, there is a selection process yet again for either windows 7 or my old XP (which doesn't exist anymore...again lol)

 

If I want to speed up the wait (I think it's about 30 seconds to choose the OS) or remove XP from the list again, do I have to follow these instructions you gave me again?

 

Remember I am using windows 7 now, so it might be different.

 

 

Thanks so much for your help

[snow]

No problem,

 

There is actually an easier way that you can do this that will work in Windows 7 as well:

 

1. Click the start button
   
2. type msconfig
   
3. Hit Enter
   
4. Go to the 'boot' tab in the msconfig window.
   
5. Delete all of the entries that you don't want.
   

You can also set the timeout from here. Changing it to 0 will make the computer skip this stage entirely, and load the default OS.

[smirnoff]

Thanks again

 

I tried this but the lowest number I can select is 3 - it won't let me do 0 seconds. Damn it! XD