Member Avatar for Jabani

I just reformatted the hard drive (Windows XP Pro both before and after), and I get that message to Please select an operating system. The thing is, I don't think I have any partitions (when I reformatted, it looked like there was a second partition with 8 MB on it, but I figured that to be normal. Moreover, the main partition said it was using the max space).

I also tried to boot from the other "operating system," but it gave an error saying that it couldn't. I've read a few posts in various forums saying to either reformat or to mess with the boot.ini file; I don't mind doing the latter, but I want to make sure that there are no other partitions or old chunks of data lying about.

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  • Latest Post Latest Post by StandardsDT
Member Avatar for StandardsDT

I had this problem on my laptop once I reinstalled XP. It gave me two options. Just boot into XP and make a back up of the boot.ini file. Then remove the line that doesn't work. For me it was the second one so it should be for you as well. In fact here's directions from Microsoft's knowledge base in how to do this.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/289022

Remember to make sure you make a back up of your boot.ini file.

Member Avatar for Dark_Archon

It sounds like you have multiple os in your hd. That could cause a problem sometimes. First of all, partition alone can't delete everything. YOu need special software to do that. Windows Washer, HD Nuker, etc.

Well, delete all partitions in your hd. Usually its c: and D: and then create a new parttition. Then reinstall xp.
I have done this countless times and its no problems at all.

Good luck

Member Avatar for StandardsDT

It sounds like you have multiple os in your hd. That could cause a problem sometimes. First of all, partition alone can't delete everything. YOu need special software to do that. Windows Washer, HD Nuker, etc.

Well, delete all partitions in your hd. Usually its c: and D: and then create a new parttition. Then reinstall xp.
I have done this countless times and its no problems at all.

Good luck

He said he reformatted the drive. For whatever reason the Boot.ini file held on to old info.

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