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Phantom dual-boot

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5 replies

by ranthony2

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This has been answered. For a special project I sequentially installed several different OS on a particular machine -- install W98, then wipe it during install of W2000, then wipe during install of Vista, etc. We had a power outage during one install. Now, the machine always tries to dual-boot -- offers the choice of W2000 or the most recently installed OS. The W2000 choice, however, is not really there (lead only to a message that ntosldr.exe is missing -- of course). QUESTION: How do I get rid of the erroneous dual-boot choice?
NOTE (added 6/27): The Phantom and the present OS are both Windows 2000, hence no boot.ini file is present in the OS.

5 replies

by bart777

In this hidden file is a line that points to the Win2k install.

All you need to do is delete that line and you won't see that screen again until you add another OS.

by ranthony2

Bart, your answer is completely correct for Windows pre-2000. And, when I re-read my post I see I failed to state the Phantom OS and the presently installed OS are both Windows 2000: there is no boot.ini file, since it is not built on MS-DOS. When the machine comes up I am given two choices, both claiming to be a Windows 2000 OS, but only one of which has a real OS on it. The other, when selected, just delivers the message that it cannot find the OS kernel/loader file.
Have you got a different answer for me?

by ic-it

it IS Hidden. Turn on hidden files etc in the folders options.
Then open it with Notepad and edit out the old one.
To verify which OS is valid type this at a cmd prompt;
echo %windir%

This should return the current path/winnt or windows folder that is in use.

by ranthony2

Thanks to both of you. I am sending points. This was my own clumsiness (I usually run with hidden files exposed, but had turned it off for some reason, and did not notice!). I then followed up by knowing just enough (obviously) to be dangerous. Thanks again.

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