System recovery screen at startup

My new pc shows a black screen with a choice to continue to Windows XP Home or go to system restore. It just stays on for three or four seconds and then my pc (compaq) starts up normally. I have another pc (hp) with XP on it also, but it starts up without the extra screen. Any ideas on what the problem could be?

 

At a guess, you have the recovery console files installed on your hard drive and a line added to the c:\boot.ini startup file that offers you the option to start there rather than the normal operating system.

I couldn't find an example for XP but the additional boot.ini line for a typical W2K PC with the recovery console available on the hard disk would be something like
C:\CMDCONS\BOOTSECT.DAT= "MS Win2000 Recovery Console" /cmdcons

Since getting to the recovery console in the event of major system problems is much faster from the Hd than from the install CD, you might want to keep the option and just put up with a short delay.

If not, you have several other options for making the choices not show up again.

Assuming that XP is the default (what boots if you just ignore the menu) you can set the delay for picking an option to zero seconds and not see it again. Or set it to 2 or 3 seconds so you can still take your pick if you are fast.

You can remove the line from your boot.ini file.

Boot.ini will be on your C: drive but hidden and read-only so a search won't show it unless you have your system set to show all files. And a direct edit of the file will fail as long as it is read-only.

To set the time to zero, right-click the My Computer icon then properties~advanced~startup & recovery settings button~ and set the Time to display list of operating systems to zero seconds. I think if you leave the Time to display list of recovery options set to 30 you may still see the choice in the event of a crash and reboot problems. But haven't researched that so not positive.

 

Thanks a lot Newt. I will leave it alone in case it is needed some day. Your explination makes since. I made recovery CD's using the Compaq Recoverey CD Creator when I got this thing, it just never occured to me that there would be screen showing up. I am not too bright on these matters, but with the luck I have with crashes, any recovery programs would be welcomed. One again, Newt, thanks for the good word.