How do I delete a failed XP installation from booting up?

[gonzo90017]

I have 2 hard drives with Windows XP installed in both drives one for use and one as a backup. I was having some trouble with my newly built pc. It kept rebooting. So I decided to do a clean install. Problem is the setup failed and it keeps rebooting. And since I got the problem fixed on the original installation, How do I prevent setup from starting every time I start my computer. You know in the beginning when it gives you a chance to choose the OS? Can I delete it.

[northcat_8]

Hopefully the drive you do not want to boot is a slave on the cable and the one you want to boot is the master.

Go to your BIOS and goto the "Boot" menu and select the HD with the working OS on it. If they are similar HD's and you don't know which one is which, then just unplug the bad drive, go to your BIOS and see what the numbers are for that HD and then plug the other one back in and set the good one as the boot drive. It should boot to the good drive and show the bad OS drive as a secondary drive which you can then reformat.

You could also take out the good drive, plug in the drive with the bad OS, let the system post, hit F8 and select command prompt and just reformat it.

[808smokey]

Right click "my computer"
Properties
Advanced tab
"startup & recovery" settings button at bottom
click "default OS button"
select the "Good Install"