Choosing bootup option

Whn this pc boots up it comes up to the black screen tht gives u options on how you want ur pc to boot up whr usually is listed "safe mode" and thngs of that sort, but the only options it has on this screen are 2 for "Windows XP" and thy both say the exact same thing. But it comes up to that screen every time even though both options are the same.

 

What you are seeing is the boot manager screen for if you had two or more operating systems on the computer. Sometimes there is a glitch that causes this when installing XP, or a failed install/repair install can also cause it.

The easiest way for you to try and remove the false entry is to use the msconfig utility. Click the Start button and then click Run… then type msconfig in the box and click OK. In the window that opens click on the BOOT.INI tab and then click the button ‘Check All Boot Paths’. If it finds an invalid path and asks if you want to remove it, click Yes.

If it does not offer to remove an entry then please copy and paste the contents of your boot.ini file into your next post. To open the boot.ini file right click on the My Computer icon and go Properties>Advanced>Startup and Recovery-Settings and then click the Edit button.

 

Thanks

Thanks McTavish, all seems to workng good now. however in the msconfig
window under the general tab, it has to be on "selective startup" if i put it back to "normal startup" it goes back to original problem. But everythng seems to be working right w/ it the way it is, so I just left it. Should i run n2
any problems?

 

Won’t cause any problems running on Selective Startup Galaxytec. All my machines are always set like this and I’ll think you’ll find the majority of people here are the same, because using the msconfig utility is a useful way of stopping start-up items from loading with Windows.

If you want to revert to normal startup, then find the boot.ini file on your machine while you are running on Selective Startup and make a copy of it. Then revert to normal startup and look again for the boot.ini file and replace it with the copy. Job done.

The boot.ini is a hidden system file so you will need to show all files to see it. The .ini part of the file is the extension, so you will also have to show extensions to see it as boot.ini "“ otherwise it will just appear as "˜boot’.

As a safety measure you should make an XP boot floppy before you try the above, so if you make a mistake you will be able to boot into XP from the floppy and try again. I always recommend everyone to make a boot floppy as a matter of course, because it can get you into XP over many common operating system errors that can stop XP from booting. http://www.theeldergeek.com/create_xp_boot_disk.htm

Or you could make it this way if you prefer:
Type cmd in the Run box and press Enter - a Command Prompt window will open.
Put a floppy disk in the drive and type
format a:
When done just press Enter to skip the question about Volume Label. Then when asked "˜Format another? (Y/N)’ type n and press enter.
Then type the following lines "“ pressing Enter after each one.

xcopy c:\boot.ini a: /h
xcopy c:\ntldr a: /h
xcopy c:\ntdetect.com a: /h

Type exit and press Enter and remove the disk.

Make this disk while you are still running in Selective Startup, and test it by booting the computer from it and see if you boot ok to XP.

 

McTavish,

Can I ask you what the /h does?

xcopy c:\boot.ini a: /h
xcopy c:\ntldr a: /h
xcopy c:\ntdetect.com a: /h

 

Hi Alicia
All of those files are hidden system files and the /h switch allows xcopy in a DOS box to copy them.

I just had to look that up myself. I'm no DOS expert.
http://www.ameriwebs.net/groupworks/bob/dos4com.htm

 

Thanks for the explanation McTavish.

 

thanks

appreciate all the help. Ill probably leave it alone.