Help with a reinstall of xp on a dell computer...?

Question

I have done this twice on two different dell computers. They origionally had windows xp home as the OS. When I re-partitioned, formated, and then reinstalled a copy of windows xp professional onto it, everything worked perfect.......except, when I turn on the computer, I come to a black screen where I have to choose if I want to run windows xp professional or windows xp home. Now, the home edition is gone. Did dell somehow work the os edition into the bios? Where else would that be hidden on the computer? This happened to 2 seperate dell computers. I would like to remove this so that when I start the computers, it automatically loads windows xp pro. Please input!! Thanks!

Answer 1

Start, control panel, system , advance go down to those boxes I believe first box or second box click then UN check the little two boxes at the left and restart computer, you're done.

Answer 2

Do search for a file named "boot.ini". Make sure you search for hidden files and folders, as it's hidden, and I think it's right in the C: drive.

It's probably a good idea to make a copy of this file, just in case the changes you're about to make don't work out. Copy it and name it boot.old, or boot.ini.old, something like that.


Open the boot.ini file in notepad.

Look for the section heading [operating systems]. You'll see a line similar to this one:
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition" /fastdetect /NoExecute=OptIn

This basically says that I have 1 partition (my C:drive). load Windows XP Home from there.

You will most likely see 2 of these lines. Delete the line for the operating you DON'T want to see at boot up.

Also, look at the top of the file for "Timeout=30" (or whatever number is there). This is how long the options display at boot-up. Shorten this number to whatever you want.

Save the file and restart.

NOTE: This just eliminates the extra operating system listed at boot-up. If that's your goal, then you're done. But if you want to get rid of XP Home altogether, then this won't help--a format and clean install is what you need to do.

Answer 3

You installed the Professional OS without deleting and re-creating the partition. When doing this the XP CD automatically sets up a dual boot situation. That is why its easiest to install your native OS before installing XP, because XP sets up the dual OS registration on the hard disk.

What your seeing is loading from the disk, its not from bois.

You will need to do a clean install, and be certain that you remove the C Partition, and then recreate it, then FORMAT it, that will get rid of the home edition.

The other way to successfully upgrade to XP is to use the professional CD while logged into the home edition and install it as an upgrade.

Answer 4

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Answer 5

It may not be there, if you cannot find 2 copies on your C drive, it is probably just a bad boot.ini Modify yours to look something like this

NOTE The last complete line starts with multi(0). Also, the file is read system and hidden in the c:\root, you need to change that before you can edit it

[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 /NoExecute=OptIn

Answer 6

Somehow during the win xp pro installation the boot file still has the old win xp on it. To boot into win xp pro you need to edit the boot.ini file to remove the win xp line. For intruction, go here http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;289022