How do you get rid of WinXP installation?

[piano632]

WinXP seems to keep track of every installation of itself even if the installations were done on different drives no longer inside the computer! On the startup screen, it asks which OS to run (2 versions of XP). One version no longer even exists. So how do I remove that one version of XP from the startup screen so it will automatically load the other without asking which one?

[lumis]

there should be a file on the root of your c: drive called "boot.ini"

just copy and paste this in there.

[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" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect

[InXess]

I think that your interpretation is not entirely correct. Can you say a bit more about your "dual" XP config? Are you talking about boot menu only or second (residual) installation you suspect?

If it's about boot only (may be due to incomplete setup) you can edit/remove the 2nd option from Boot.ini (root on boot drive) so it looks like below.

Example:
[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOW S
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Micro soft Windows XP Professional" /fastdetect

Go to Start menu then click Run, enter: msconfig.exe.
Click Booti.ini TAB and then "Check All Boot Paths" Windows should correct this error for you automatically.

To edit boot.ini right click My Computer, Properties, Advanced, Startup and Recovery Settings, Edit.

[piano632]

Well, that was easy. Wish all computer problems could be fixed so simply.