75. How Do I Edit My Boot.ini File
Sometimes when reinstalling Windows XP people
have been known to actually install a second copy of
the operating system rather than overwrite the
original one. When this happens a menu appears upon
boot up asking which operating system you wish to
boot to.
After successfully deleting the 'other'
operating system the menu can still appear causing a
slight delay in booting your system. This is because
the system (or boot.ini file) still thinks the
operating system is available for use. In order to
remove this extraneous addition to the boot. ini file
you will need to do a bit of editing. To edit the
boot. ini file proceed as follows.
PLEASE NOTE: Before editing the
boot. ini file make sure you make a copy of it first
and store it on a floppy disk. Should any problems
occur after you have edited the file you can then
always copy the original boot. ini file back to the
C: drive, thus restoring your system back to normal.
- Click Start button.
- From the Start Menu select
Control Panel.
- In Control panel click the System
icon.
- In the System Properties Window click the
Advanced tab.
- If you now look towards the bottom of the
Advanced window you will see a
section marked Startup and Recovery.
- Click the settings button.
- The Startup and Recovery
window now opens.
- At the top of this window you will see a
section marked System Startup.
- Click the Edit button.
- This will open the Boot.Ini
file in Notepad.
- Edit the boot.ini file so
that it looks like the example below.
PLEASE
NOTE: If you are using XP Home edition then
change the second line of the boot.ini file
accordingly.
[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 Professional" /fastdetect
- After making the alterations go to
File on the main notepad toolbar and select
Save to save the new boot ini file.
- Exit notepad, system
properties and control panel and then reboot
your machine. You should boot straight into windows
xp.