Multiple start up options after wiping hard drive and reinstalling windows

I recently wiped my hard drive, repartitoned it and reinstalled windows.
Now when the machine starts, there is an option to choose which installation
of windows to start with. Two options are shown, but there is only one copy
of windows on the PC. How does this happen?

Darrell

Darrell Eddy wrote:
> I recently wiped my hard drive, repartitoned it and reinstalled
> windows.
>
> Now when the machine starts, there is an option to choose which
> installation of windows to start with. Two options are shown, but
> there is only one copy of windows on the PC. How does this happen?

Sounds like you didn't do everything as cleanly as you lead yourself to
believe.
You could just edit the BOOT.INI to get rid of the extra installation.

--
Shenan Stanley
MS-MVP
--
How To Ask Questions The Smart Way
http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html

Darrell Eddy wrote:

> I recently wiped my hard drive, repartitoned it and reinstalled windows.
> Now when the machine starts, there is an option to choose which installation
> of windows to start with. Two options are shown, but there is only one copy
> of windows on the PC. How does this happen?
>
> Darrell

There is a known bug with this where under certain circumstances the
boot.ini file can survive a repartitioning and a format. Just edit the
file and remove the invalid entry.

John

Darrell Eddy wrote:
> I recently wiped my hard drive, repartitoned it and reinstalled
> windows. Now when the machine starts, there is an option to choose
> which installation of windows to start with. Two options are
> shown, but there is only one copy of windows on the PC. How does
> this happen?

John John wrote:
> There is a known bug with this where under certain circumstances the
> boot.ini file can survive a repartitioning and a format. Just edit
> the file and remove the invalid entry.

....?

You have to let me in on this one... After all - if you ACTUALLY change the
partitioning and you ACTUALLY format - I don't see it happening. Especially
just *one* file?

I know that you can - without rebooting - destroy the partitioning, recreate
the partitioning and possibly lose nothing. However - if you throw a format
in there - you have at least killed the indexing to all the files.
Everything is gone relative to the new partition.

What is this 'known bug' and where can I read more about it?

--
Shenan Stanley
MS-MVP
--
How To Ask Questions The Smart Way
http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html

Shenan Stanley wrote:

> Darrell Eddy wrote:
>
>>I recently wiped my hard drive, repartitoned it and reinstalled
>>windows. Now when the machine starts, there is an option to choose
>>which installation of windows to start with. Two options are
>>shown, but there is only one copy of windows on the PC. How does
>>this happen?
>
>
> John John wrote:
>
>>There is a known bug with this where under certain circumstances the
>>boot.ini file can survive a repartitioning and a format. Just edit
>>the file and remove the invalid entry.
>
>
> ...?
>
> You have to let me in on this one... After all - if you ACTUALLY change the
> partitioning and you ACTUALLY format - I don't see it happening. Especially
> just *one* file?
>
> I know that you can - without rebooting - destroy the partitioning, recreate
> the partitioning and possibly lose nothing. However - if you throw a format
> in there - you have at least killed the indexing to all the files.
> Everything is gone relative to the new partition.
>
> What is this 'known bug' and where can I read more about it?

If you delete and create/recreate the partition(s) it only stands to
reason that the partition must also be formated before the operating
system can be installed.

It isn't something that happens often but it has been reported since the
early NT days and I have seen reports of it in NT, 2000 and XP groups.
The first impulse is to dismiss the post as an installation error by
novice users who didn't format the drive, but every now and then there
are experienced users who definitely know how to format drives and they
report this peculiarity.

BOOT.INI Not Cleaned Up After Repartitioning
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?kbid=141188

http://groups.google.com/group/micro...d6edc2abc9ba34
http://groups.google.com/group/micro...757168e30abb82
http://groups.google.com/group/micro...bcb1c0d32caee1

John

Thaks for your replies,

I have installed and reinstalled MS operating systems on many systems
throughout my career asnan I.T professional and have encountered this
several times. As mentioned in one of the post, I just edit the boot.ini
file and go on with the the process. But I was just curious as to whay this
happens. As I suspected, it is jsut one of many things happens to Windows
systems. And since this is not a systemic problem, the answer can be
illusive.

Darrell Eddy

"John John" <audetweld@nbnet.nb.ca> wrote in message
news:uwY1TE9HIHA.3916@TK2MSFTNGP02.phx.gbl...
> Shenan Stanley wrote:
>
>> Darrell Eddy wrote:
>>
>>>I recently wiped my hard drive, repartitoned it and reinstalled
>>>windows. Now when the machine starts, there is an option to choose
>>>which installation of windows to start with. Two options are
>>>shown, but there is only one copy of windows on the PC. How does
>>>this happen?
>>
>>
>> John John wrote:
>>
>>>There is a known bug with this where under certain circumstances the
>>>boot.ini file can survive a repartitioning and a format. Just edit
>>>the file and remove the invalid entry.
>>
>>
>> ...?
>>
>> You have to let me in on this one... After all - if you ACTUALLY change
>> the partitioning and you ACTUALLY format - I don't see it happening.
>> Especially just *one* file?
>>
>> I know that you can - without rebooting - destroy the partitioning,
>> recreate the partitioning and possibly lose nothing. However - if you
>> throw a format in there - you have at least killed the indexing to all
>> the files. Everything is gone relative to the new partition.
>>
>> What is this 'known bug' and where can I read more about it?
>
> If you delete and create/recreate the partition(s) it only stands to
> reason that the partition must also be formated before the operating
> system can be installed.
>
> It isn't something that happens often but it has been reported since the
> early NT days and I have seen reports of it in NT, 2000 and XP groups. The
> first impulse is to dismiss the post as an installation error by novice
> users who didn't format the drive, but every now and then there are
> experienced users who definitely know how to format drives and they report
> this peculiarity.
>
> BOOT.INI Not Cleaned Up After Repartitioning
> http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?kbid=141188
>
> http://groups.google.com/group/micro...d6edc2abc9ba34
> http://groups.google.com/group/micro...757168e30abb82
> http://groups.google.com/group/micro...bcb1c0d32caee1
>
> John
>

You're welcome.

John

Darrell Eddy wrote:

> Thaks for your replies,
>
> I have installed and reinstalled MS operating systems on many systems
> throughout my career asnan I.T professional and have encountered this
> several times. As mentioned in one of the post, I just edit the boot.ini
> file and go on with the the process. But I was just curious as to whay this
> happens. As I suspected, it is jsut one of many things happens to Windows
> systems. And since this is not a systemic problem, the answer can be
> illusive.
>
> Darrell Eddy
>
> "John John" <audetweld@nbnet.nb.ca> wrote in message
> news:uwY1TE9HIHA.3916@TK2MSFTNGP02.phx.gbl...
>
>>Shenan Stanley wrote:
>>
>>
>>>Darrell Eddy wrote:
>>>
>>>
>>>>I recently wiped my hard drive, repartitoned it and reinstalled
>>>>windows. Now when the machine starts, there is an option to choose
>>>>which installation of windows to start with. Two options are
>>>>shown, but there is only one copy of windows on the PC. How does
>>>>this happen?
>>>
>>>
>>>John John wrote:
>>>
>>>
>>>>There is a known bug with this where under certain circumstances the
>>>>boot.ini file can survive a repartitioning and a format. Just edit
>>>>the file and remove the invalid entry.
>>>
>>>
>>>...?
>>>
>>>You have to let me in on this one... After all - if you ACTUALLY change
>>>the partitioning and you ACTUALLY format - I don't see it happening.
>>>Especially just *one* file?
>>>
>>>I know that you can - without rebooting - destroy the partitioning,
>>>recreate the partitioning and possibly lose nothing. However - if you
>>>throw a format in there - you have at least killed the indexing to all
>>>the files. Everything is gone relative to the new partition.
>>>
>>>What is this 'known bug' and where can I read more about it?
>>
>>If you delete and create/recreate the partition(s) it only stands to
>>reason that the partition must also be formated before the operating
>>system can be installed.
>>
>>It isn't something that happens often but it has been reported since the
>>early NT days and I have seen reports of it in NT, 2000 and XP groups. The
>>first impulse is to dismiss the post as an installation error by novice
>>users who didn't format the drive, but every now and then there are
>>experienced users who definitely know how to format drives and they report
>>this peculiarity.
>>
>>BOOT.INI Not Cleaned Up After Repartitioning
>>http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?kbid=141188
>>
>>http://groups.google.com/group/micro...d6edc2abc9ba34
>>http://groups.google.com/group/micro...757168e30abb82
>>http://groups.google.com/group/micro...bcb1c0d32caee1
>>
>>John
>>
>
>
>