How to get rid of second copy of XP?

Hello everybody,
Some how I managed to install 2 copies of XP Home--one on the C drive and one on the D drive. So now when I boot the machine it asks which one to use. How do I get rid of the copy on the D drive?
Thanks for any help with this
Gene

 

2 things you need to do.

1. On D: you need to delete the Windows partition. The 2nd copy will then be gone.

2. On C: you need to edit c:\boot.ini and remove the reference to the 2nd copy or else it will annoy you with a choice screen every time you start up. Boot.ini is hidden and read-only so you'll need to change those long enough to make the edit (notepad is fine for that) and then change them back.

 

Newt,
Here is a copy of my "boot.ini" file. What should I remove?

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

I am a little paranoid about removing anything, afraid it might not boot again? And on the "D" drive you say delete the Windows partition--do I just delete the Windows folder?
Gene

Edit--I fixed the boot.ini file by removing the last line--still need to know how to remove the Windows from the D drive? Thanks

 

You did it the safe way to edit boot.ini while you still had an OS in both places. And you did get the one that points to rdisk1 (rdisk0 is C: ).

Now you can just do like you thought and delete the entire windows folder. That will effectively make it go away.

Do you also have "Documents & Settings" on the 2nd drive? There may be some clutter the OS load placed on the D drive in addition to the Windows folder.

 

Newt,
Yes it placed Documents and Settings, Program Files, and the Windows directory. I have changed all the folder names and added a "1" just to see if everything else booted and ran fine and it did, so nothing is using these files now. Thought I would just delete them? What do you think? I really don't want to format the whole D drive as I have stuff on there.
Gene

 

Just deleting should be fine. No need to format the drive that I can see.

 

Thanks Newt--that is what I will do. So glad to get rid of the double boot screen!
Thanks again--Gene