two windoes install folders on C drive.. Which to delete?

[velvta]

What basically happened is way back when, i used the c drive that has the 2 windows installs as the main OS drive. I now have another drive (E) as the OS drive. When I boot up I have to choose between 3 windows installs to load from.. the 2 on the C drive (which is now just storage really) or the main one on E. The Windows folders on C havent been modified in almost 2 years at the latest. Can/should I delete either or both of these?

[TonyT]

What's the 3rd operating system? If all are XP, edit the boot.ini of the main system and then remove the old installs.

If main system Vista or Win7 you will have to "repair" after removing the old installs because both of these place boot references & files on the other drive(s).

[velvta]

Originally Posted by TonyT

What's the 3rd operating system? If all are XP, edit the boot.ini of the main system and then remove the old installs.

If main system Vista or Win7 you will have to "repair" after removing the old installs because both of these place boot references & files on the other drive(s).

yep theyre all xp. What should my boot.ini look like? I can't tell which the ini is referring to as being the main OS on drive E so I know which other 2 to delete.

looks like so:

[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(2)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(2)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Professional" /fastdetect /usepmtimer /NoExecute=OptIn
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS.0="Microsoft Windows XP Professional" /usepmtimer
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Professional" /fastdetect /usepmtimer=AlwaysOff

[Faust]

Originally Posted by velvta

[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(2)\WINDOWS

as you can probably guess, this is the default choice for the bootloader. rdisk(1) means the second drive on the controller. rdisk(0) would be your primary. in addition, its pointing to the 2nd partition on that drive (partition(2)). if you dont press any key to select one of the other installs, this one starts up. even if you only have 1 OS installed this section will still be present.

[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(2)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Professional" /fastdetect /usepmtimer /NoExecute=OptIn

same pertition/install as above. /fastdetect passes device detection off to PnP. not 100% sure if its only serial devices or not. in fact, heres a link to the msdn page describing the different boot.ini parameters. use the menu tree on the left to select which parameter to define. much easier than reading my futile attempts to define them http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms791480.aspx

multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS.0="Microsoft Windows XP Professional" /usepmtimer

rdisk(0)partition(1) = first partition on primary disk.

multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Professional" /fastdetect /usepmtimer=AlwaysOff

this is a redundancy, not sure why. as you can see its pointing to the same drive/partition as the previous entry, only with different parameters.


as far as what you are after.... if i understand correctly, you just want to boot straight to the most recent windows install, yes? the one on the new drive? its kind of hard to tell which disk is which, so i am assuming the old drive was connected to the primary controller as master (if IDE), or the primary SATA channel, and you added the new drive after that (thus being assigned rdisk(1)).

if so, edit the boot.ini read:

[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(2)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(2)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Professional" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect

dont forget to move the window slider above to the right to see the parameters.

you can delete the other entries. only thing i am unsure about is why it is partition(2). did you create a partition on that drive before you installed windows on the drive (in a second partition)? i ask, as typically it should read partition(1) if its the 1st partition on the drive.

anyways, with the above as your boot.ini it should skip the boot menu alltogether and boot straight to the install your pointing it to. you can switch what install by modifying rdisk(*) and partition(*).

[Faust]

oh, one other thing...

technically this isnt a clean way to do it (imho). i say this as the proper functioning on the system when it comes to startup is relying on the 1st hard drive to bounce you over to the 2nd drive (after POST, the BIOS looks to the first drive's MBR, then the startup process follows the instruction from that point).

if you were to disconnect the 1st drive, the boot process will probably fail.

were i in your shoes, i would disconnect the old drive, connect the new drive as the 1st/primary drive, boot to recovery console (XP install CD), run FIXMBR, then run FIXBOOT, then connect the old hdd (now as the 2nd drive). you can then delete the old partitions or whatever.

[velvta]

Originally Posted by Faust

oh, one other thing...

technically this isnt a clean way to do it (imho). i say this as the proper functioning on the system when it comes to startup is relying on the 1st hard drive to bounce you over to the 2nd drive (after POST, the BIOS looks to the first drive's MBR, then the startup process follows the instruction from that point).

if you were to disconnect the 1st drive, the boot process will probably fail.

were i in your shoes, i would disconnect the old drive, connect the new drive as the 1st/primary drive, boot to recovery console (XP install CD), run FIXMBR, then run FIXBOOT, then connect the old hdd (now as the 2nd drive). you can then delete the old partitions or whatever.

gotcha thanks ill do that seems like less risk and hassle.

[Faust]

Originally Posted by velvta

gotcha thanks ill do that seems like less risk and hassle.

no worries, bud. tbh the percieved risk is a non-issue. yes, the boot.ini (or BCD in Vista and newer) file if improperly edited can result in a system not booting, but there are tools to fix this easily.

once the idea behind it and the syntax is understood, you now have full command of the machine (within the scope of booting the OS, of course) rather than being at the mercy of it.

[The Dude]

msconfig has a "Check All Boot Paths" option under its Boot.ini tab. Once you get your boot drive setup correctly and you have deleted the other windows folders you could use that option to clean out some of the bogus boot path entries. It should be safer than manually picking them and deleting them. You may still have to do that but it might save you some head scratching.

[Faust]

Originally Posted by The Dude

msconfig has a "Check All Boot Paths" option under its Boot.ini tab. Once you get your boot drive setup correctly and you have deleted the other windows folders you could use that option to clean out some of the bogus boot path entries. It should be safer than manually picking them and deleting them. You may still have to do that but it might save you some head scratching.

nice! ya know thats been right under my nose and ive never used it. great tip there. i love it when i learn somethin'!

i do agree it would be easier to use than manually deleting unneeded entries. last night i was thinking over the possible oddball outcomes of the recovery console commands and theres still a chance the bogus entries will be there (i cant remember if fixboot writes a fresh one, or just inserts/adds entries), in addition to the newly added (correct) one. thats when i would go in and just manually delete all entries except rdisk(0)partition(1) (or partition(2). still unclear if theres already a partition before the system one on that drive), but i like the msconfig option you pointed out. without that i would probably go back to recovery console, delete the boot.ini, then run bootcfg to write a whole new one. why it is i gravitate towards the more difficult routes ill never know.

[The Dude]

It's handy when someone ends up with an accidental dual boot and the extra WINDOWS.0 folder. Once you delete the WINDOWS.0 folder and run it, it can't find it and removes the entry for it. For people that end up in that situation it's easier than walking them though trying to manually edit the boot.ini.
In this case I'm not sure how effective it will be. If the boot.ini is on the drive he takes out a new one will be written anyway. If the OS of choice is on the second partition of that second drive I'd be inclined just to start over and nuke them all so I have windows on the primary partition of my boot drive. That is after I backup and save all the files I need or want to keep.

[Faust]

Originally Posted by The Dude

...If the OS of choice is on the second partition of that second drive I'd be inclined just to start over and nuke them all so I have windows on the primary partition of my boot drive. That is after I backup and save all the files I need or want to keep.

or ideally image the system partition, blow out that drive, and remount that partition image as the 1st/primary if the whole reinstall thing isnt appealing.