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re: windows doesnt automatically start Monday, October 6, 2008 at 10:49 am Posted by alex (2250 messages posted) Change the timeout =0 but I would keep at least 2sec. [boot loader] timeout=10 default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS [operating systems] multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="WD250" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(1)\WINDOWS="WD120" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect On Monday, October 6, 2008 at 10:32 am, jason wrote: >having had a recent problem with my laptop i have re installed windows and it works >ok but when i first turn the dell laptop on i get a black screen and a message " >please select the operating system to start" and gives me 2 choices which are the >same "windows xp home edition" and it counts down from 30 and then it starts automatically...how >can i get it to just automatically start without this screen coming up like it used >to do? [Reply or follow-up to this message] re: windows doesnt automatically start Monday, October 6, 2008 at 2:15 pm Posted by Ricer46 (20470 messages posted) Alex's answer is incomplete as there is little reason to keep a version that doesn't work. You can remove the line that refers to the "bad" install. And delete the files from the bad install. But you must take care to delete the right one. IMO, you would be better off doing a full clean re-install. On Monday, October 6, 2008 at 10:32 am, jason wrote: >having had a recent problem with my laptop i have re installed windows and it works >ok but when i first turn the dell laptop on i get a black screen and a message " >please select the operating system to start" and gives me 2 choices which are the >same "windows xp home edition" and it counts down from 30 and then it starts automatically...how >can i get it to just automatically start without this screen coming up like it used >to do? [Reply or follow-up to this message] re: windows doesnt automatically start Monday, October 6, 2008 at 7:47 pm Posted by appleoddity (2280 messages posted) I'm not sure for the reasoning why this happens, but it is likely that the OP did do a clean reinstall. I would say that the majority of times when I reinstall a windows XP home edition system it does this. I always delete all partitions and recreate a single partition and format it, yet windows creates two entries in the boot.ini, and only the first one works. My reasoning is that windows must read the boot.ini before doing anything with the partitions, and then after creating new partitions (that are numbered differently than the originals) it re-creates the boot.ini with a second entry. If I chose to keep all existing partitions, it is my assumption, that this would not happen. It is probably because windows XP is designed to install along side other operating systems, and therefore maintains the state of the boot.ini even between clean installs. An interesting problem, and certainly an annoyance. [Reply or follow-up to this message] Tip: Use one of the [Reply or follow-up to this message] links above to add a message to this thread Search this forum Start a new thread on a different subject Report abuse of the forum Return to the Windows XP Discussion Forum