False Dual Boot Option During POST

I formatted the HD on a Dell Latitude D600 laptop which had an installation of Win XP PRO. I then installed my own Win XP pro, but now, after the Dell BIOS post, but before the Win XP LOGO, I get two lines of "Microsoft Windows XP Professional" with the option of using the up and down arrow keys to move the highlight to my choice and pressing enter to choose. There is a timer that counts down from 25 or 30 seconds, I think, which will automatically boot into my installation. If I choose the second instance of windows XP pro, I get a message that states: "Windows could not start because of a computer disk hardware configuration problem. Could not read from the selected boot disk. Check boot path and disk hardware. Please check the Windows documentation......for additional information ".
I know there is only one instance of Windows on the drive.
How can I get rid of this intervening page? By pressing enter, I can avoid the 25 second ,or so, wait, but I would like to get rid of this unnecessary step altogether.
Thanks.

 

False MultiBoot on POST

Thanks PeteC and Christer. I'll probably go with PeteC's suggestion and set the display time to a second or two.
A question about the DELPART utility. Is it able to just delete the MBR and leave the operating system intact, or will I have to start the installation from scratch again, format, install, etc.?
Thanks again,
Vic

 

I have to agree in part with both of you; although christers suggestion more deals with doing a clean install and while deleting and creating new partitions does not wipe the MBR, installing windows XP will rebuild it based on the detected operating systems and will be reflected in the boot.ini file created. So if there are other copies of windows still installed, it will find them and include them even if they are non bootable due to prior damage.

But since he has windows installed, apparrantly as a parrallel install PeteC's advice is going to be safest.
Either adjust the time displayed so it does not bother you , or post the boot.ini file so that someone can tell you what to edit. Once we have identified what folder it installed the new copy to and what one the old one is in and appropriate editing of the boot.ini; we can also tell you what folder to delete to clean up space.

 

oshwyn5

Please present your evidence for this astounding statement.

No. The disk was formatted, effectively removing the previous installation. Are you implying that you think there are two disks and the wrong one was formatted?

Strange.

 

Hi PeteC. I think I can live with a one or two second delay, and will do that.
Thanks to one and all for your attention and input.
Vic

 

Christer, PeteC,

Seems that XP install leaves something to be desired. (Read 'you may have found a bug in the NTFS') Assuming it couldn't happen in FAT file system.

The standard for wiping the MBR for as long as I remember is partitioning. Although, when in doubt I'd install a foreign file system like Ext2 to really do the job for certain.

I've used install recently in playing musical disks with my new XP64&2K computer (had ata, then an ata and a sata, then removed the ata, then added a second sata). Great fun . Had to reinstall each time, in spite of many attempts at fixing, including repeated use of restore console! Didn't keep notes, however, and memory of details kinda runs together. No problem like this though; one install, one line in boot.ini, two installs (2k and XP) both in boot.ini; I know 'cause. it was constantly being deleted and restored (all you can do in RS), and once in a while edited. 'Course it was all FAT32 so I could look at what was going on. It wouldn't boot after each modification.

Sorry, meant one OS in boot.ini, not one line .

 

One other thing to mention: was using ghost to see what that would accomplish and found that in all these situations it was useless. Tried imaging the disk and also the partitions (at separate times).

 

PeteC

Thought a clean install should include deleting and remaking partitions to eliminate possibility of carrying over malware that can hide in the system areas. Have seen that happen in FAT32 with format alone. However, NTFS may differ; have insufficient experience. But some info was carried over even with partitioning in your cases. Think that's bad. Then only installing a foreign OS (or a low level format) would completely clean the disk.

 

PeteC

Thanks for the reference. Points out that we're talking about more than the mbr; the partition tables, not the mbr, are the likely culprits to carry false information foreword. They're both included in "system area ", which is unaffected by format..

Edit:

That's different from what I learned, that the partition table(s) were in the next sectors, separate from the mbr. If they're part of the mbr, it must always be written to by fdisk. Is somebody besides me confused?

At the least, or most, nothing about multiple OSs is done by the mbr, it only points to the one bootable (active?) partition. Suppose the multiboot code on that partition must then redirect the pointer to the desired boot partition.

 

Interesting discussion.

I certainly don't delete and remake partitions to reinstall unless something bad is suspected. I didn't at any time on my new box; it hasn't been on the web, yet. Suppose 'clean install' may be a relative term.

Certainly true if it includes partition info; it's that that XP found, wherever it was. But wonder what modified it; thought you just formated and reinstalled? Maybe the install program didn't see the old entry and added another? That would be a bug, too, but in a more likely place.