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Remove multiple boot screen

Discussion in 'PC hardware help' started by Jalathole, Nov 30, 2007.

  1. Jalathole

    Jalathole Guest

    I just tried to reformat my brother's laptop by taking out the hard drive and putting it in a case.
    i booted windows from disc as usual when formatting, and deleted all the current partitions on his hdd. i then proceeded to install a clean version of windows on the external hdd.

    when i start up my computer now it always asks where i want to boot from even though i only want to boot from my internal primary partition. i want to get rid of this and go back to the way it was b4.

    btw when my brother re installed his laptop hdd in his laptop it didn't work. is there anything anyone can do to help to get his windows working as his dvd drive is broken and he needs to reformat.

    also how to get rid of the multiple boot prompt.

    i have reset all my boot settings in the bios and i don't know what to do now
     
  2. nownthen

    nownthen Regular member

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    I don't know what I was thinking that is not how you change the OS boot selection. Sorry.

    You could try formatting the drive. Copy all the windows files onto the hard drive. Install the hard drive to the computer and then run the install.

     
    Last edited: Dec 1, 2007
  3. jony218

    jony218 Guest

    are you using windows xp? just go to control panel/system/advanced/startup and recovery/system startup/ edit
    Next just remove the entry to the second operating system in the boot.ini file (make sure you make a note of how it is before you edit it). Or to play it safe, set the time to display operating systems to "0".

    As far as your brothers hard drive, if he is using windows xp, he might have a drive letter change problem. When you remove hard drives/move them around, sometimes the drive letter gets changed from c: to something else. This will cause a non-boot. Only programs that can change drive letters back to there original positions are "avanquest partition commander version 10" and "paragon justboot corrector". Both of these programs have boot cd's that can make registry changes on hard drive that won't boot.
     
  4. Jalathole

    Jalathole Guest

    cool i fixed the boot screen by editing the boot.ini file.

    i've just made a custom install cd for windows using this guide:
    http://www.ngine.de/index.jsp?pageid=4176

    im about to install it on his hard drive through my computer, so he can run windows straight from the external hdd. im wondering will if he swaps it back in will it work internally...

    i don't understand why i just can't install clean windows on his hard drive. i know the drive letter is different, is that the only thing stopping it from working? if i change the drive letter like you said using that program it will work?
     
  5. jony218

    jony218 Guest

    If you verified that the drive letter is wrong, then theres a good chance that might fix it. In my expierence of moving partitions to different hard drives, when it wouldn't boot, I got it to boot by simply changing the drive letter back to "c".

    Usually you need need to change the drive letter on the hard drive that is inside the computer, if you change it on a hard drive that is outside then install it in the computer, the drive letters might change again. Drive letter change during first boot, if windows doesn't recognize the hard drive it's on, it will change drive letters. But sometimes it might not change so it might be worth a try. But any changes done while the hard drive is install in the computer are permanent.

    If the drive letter change doesn't fix it, next look at the boot.ini file and make sure that the hard drive is properly referenced in it. If that checks good, you'll need to check the slotting of the partitions (if you have multiple partitions including hidden recovery partitions). You might have to move them to different slots.
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Dec 1, 2007
  6. Jalathole

    Jalathole Guest

    i made sure that there is only one partition on the drive. so you are saying to use my computer to change my brothers hard drive name to c and temporarily change my internal one to something else?
     
  7. jony218

    jony218 Guest

    I would leave your hard drive alone. The only thing to make a note about is that your brothers hard drive has to be installed in his computer when you change the drive letters.

    If the hard drive is in an external drive or installed in another computer when you change the drive letters on that hard drive, when you install that hard drive back on your brothers computer (because of different configurations) it might change drive letters again. If you will do it that way, just make sure you release all the drive letters on your brother hard drive and just change the system drive letter to "c". During bootup the hard drive will automatically assign drive letters to the rest of the dvdroms etc.
     
  8. Jalathole

    Jalathole Guest

    how do i change the drive letter?
     

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