I tried to do a fresh install of windows XP pro yesterday, but instead of formatting the partition I wanted to put it on, it simply did a second install, so now I have 2 installations.

I am trying to do it another time, hoping I will be given the option to format the C: drive, which it didn't let me do after the faulty install because the installation files were on there. Running it from CD now, but i have to start it up from the old installation since for some reason I cannot get into my bios anymore either to adjust the startup settings. This is fun...I am starting to get fed up with windows actually.

I have 3 partitions, i am contemplating erasing another one and installing windows there and then formatting the former C partition and getting it installed on there again afterwards, however i fear that i will get bullshit from the pc again since i'm going to try and wipe out an operating system, and that of course, windows will not allow since i'm stupid and windows knows what is best for me, right?

And here we go again, i've told the program to run the installation exclusively from the disk, but there's old installation files from the other install it sees, hence: i cannot format it because of those files, while I don't even need them. Fuck windows!

HELP

Re: trying to undo a double win install

do u even get the boot up menu after u restart your pc?

i have done this few weeks ago, when window alerted me that my license is not activated, and what do you know, it is legal copy.....

so i tried to install a new one over it, and ended up with two win xp pro installations on one hard drive, for the first thing you could edit your boot.ini file for configuring to auto start your first win xp instalation.

Re: trying to undo a double win install

Umkay, but how do i do that, and how the hell do i get rid of the second install?

Re: trying to undo a double win install

can someone please shoot bill gates ni the knee cap so he knows what it feels like to deal with his products when you arent computer literate.

Re: trying to undo a double win install

start in dos and use the fdisc command to delete all partitions, or find someone with the boot up disc for win98 and run fdisc from the disc

[URL="http://www.bootdisk.com/"]http://www.bootdisk.com/[/URL]

Re: trying to undo a double win install

[URL="http://support.microsoft.com/kb/255867/EN-US/"]http://support.microsoft.com/kb/255867/EN-US/[/URL]

as for the above all my spelling of fdisc is INCORRECT it should be spelled fdisk

Re: trying to undo a double win install

When you boot up with the disk one of the first stage (blue background with text and no graphics) options is to use existing partition or delete and recreate it. I think its right after you press F8 for the license agreement. I'm assuming you are using an actual install disk as opposed to a recovery disk provided by a vendor. Delete the partition and recreate it that will wipe everything and give you a clean install.

Re: trying to undo a double win install

yeah, but if he does this, he will lose all the data from the system disk, for the first thing, he can try to just disable the other instalation, and if it works, then can delete its folders.

from the system properties, advanced tab, edit the boot app., the first button from top, for manually editing the file, and delete all except something like this [boot loader] timeout=30 default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS [operating systems] multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Professional" /fastdetect /NoExecute=OptIn

the number of the partition will be probably 0 for you, and i think you will have two win xp items listed, the second one is WINDOWS.000 (or similar). restart,

this worked for me, at least

Re: trying to undo a double win install

i have a bootable edition, but for some reason it just won't let me erase the partitions because the other install is 'newer'. Then when trying to change the boot config so it boots from the CD itself, I cannot get into my bios for some reason. I'll try some of the options, also the latter one. Hopefully I can undo this shit...

Thanks for the advice guys, kepp you posted ;)

Re: trying to undo a double win install

I just cannot get into my bios, i press ESC all the time in the srartup screen. Is this common with a double install? I'm going to try and adjust the boot file, and see if this also helps solving this problem. If only I can set the sequence to booting from cd i can get this shit done...

Re: trying to undo a double win install

Looking at that file, I bet I can manually change the boot sequence from harddisk to cd-rom, how do I go about that?

Re: trying to undo a double win install

Fuck me, i got into the bios....let's see if this works now!

Re: trying to undo a double win install

[quote=FlashLight]yeah, but if he does this, he will lose all the data from the system disk[/quote]

Your right, but I got the impression thats what he wanted to do anyways.

Re: trying to undo a double win install

I solved it. Somehow I did. Fresh install...now it's installing all the damn software again.

Re: trying to undo a double win install

hehehe, congrats....