Prev: Help with Windows Media Player "compact mode" skin
Next: How do I fix/remove the bootloader after accidently installinginto second drive/partition?
From: Ant on 1 Aug 2010 01:20
Hello.

I think I screwed up my old HDD's bootup setup on an old Dell Optiplex
GX280 test PC. I was trying to install three different 32-bit Windows
onto this machine for testing purposes. It is a single boot setup and
not dual/triple boots as well.

IIRC, this is what happened... I had slipstreamed Windows XP Pro. SP2/3
(forgot which one) installed in C: drive and made a Symantec Ghost image
(use its boot CD-R) of it D: drive. Then, I accidently installed either
Vista or Windows 7 into D: drive (was supposed to be in C: drive!) so my
PC thinks I am dual booting which I did not want to do! I need to
undo/fix this, but I think I made it worse as I tried to fix this!

I tried to restore XP back to C: with my Ghost image backup, but the
dual boot was still there! I tried restoring Vista/W7, but that didn't
help either. I also tried clean reinstalling XP form its setup CD
(booted from PC's bootup) into C: from scratch, but it didn't fix the
problem. I tried booting up XP Pro. SP2 CD's recovery console to use
fixmbr.exe \Device\HardDisk0 on the drive based on
http://www.microsoft.com/resources/documentation/windows/xp/all/proddocs/en-us/bootcons_fixmbr.mspx
instructions and rebooted, but that didn't work either (same problem).
Maybe I did it wrong? I have never used it before, but then I never had
to fix/undo multi-boot setup before.

What am I missing and how do I have PC just boot to pure Windows that is
installed on the current C: drive? I knew I should had been more careful
with installation (C: and not D:). Do I have to do a full clean format
on the computer? I don't want to lose Dell recovery partition/drive
(don't have its original recovery discs for it either) too. :(

Thank you in advance. :)
--
"I'm not afraid of insects taking over the world, and you know why? It
would take about a million ants just to aim a gun at me, let alone fire
it. And you know what I'm doing while they're aiming it at me? I just
sort of slip off to the side, and then suddenly run up and kick the gun
out of their hands." --Jack Handy from Saturday Night Live
/\___/\ Phil./Ant @ http://antfarm.ma.cx (Personal Web Site)
/ /\ /\ \ Ant's Quality Foraged Links: http://aqfl.net
| |o o| |
\ _ / If crediting, then use Ant nickname and AQFL URL/link.
( ) If e-mailing, then axe ANT from its address if needed.
Ant is currently not listening to any songs on this computer.
 | 
Pages: 1
Prev: Help with Windows Media Player "compact mode" skin
Next: How do I fix/remove the bootloader after accidently installinginto second drive/partition?