PCTech Forums

Hello, bought a barebone and a hard drive which i thought was new or at least formated then installed it, both were bought separately. Then i started it up and was running around a bit as I had two computers i was building. Also, the reason i didnt startup with the os disc the first time was cause the barebone came with a DOA power supply and i borrowed one from a pc i was repairing, so it was like a test startup thinking the hhd was empty. So when I came back to it I saw it had Windows Server 2003 started up. I then re-started with my XP disc in and installed it. From what Ive seen, when you go through the formating stage it will delete anything on the drive, right? including an OS. Also before hand, I deleted all the partitions. The guy before split the drive into 3. So I started fresh with a newly created partition. But then, it started up asking which os, XP or Server. How do I get that off, ive tried going through the bios setup but cant find it, if thats the way I need some help. Also, please point out if i did anything wrong that caused this. Like say, I shouldnt have deleted the partitions before formatting.

If someone needs more info on my system to help me, ill post that if requested.

Thanks a lot

Sorry if this is the wrong place to post this but i didnt really see a thread for this type of problem since its kind of not hardware or specific software related. Please move to the right place if this is wrong.

theres 2 possibilities to fix this, we'll start with the easiest first.

Click Start>Run and type msconfig, click ok. Go to the Boot.ini tab and click the "check all boot paths" button. If the server 2003 boot path is no longer valid it will tell you and ask if you want to remove it. This will be the easier, safer fix.

If that doesnt do it

Right click on your My Computer Icon and select properties. Click the Advanced Tab and under "startup and recovery" click the settings button. A startup and recovery window will open, click the edit button and notepad will open your boot.ini file. Be careful what you do here as this can cause you some serious problems if its not done right.

You can copy the contents of that file and post it here and i'll reduce it down to what it should be for you.

Deleting the partitions was the right thing to do, for some reason your Master boot record wasnt built properly during the install but we can straighten it out.

thanks, ill let you know as soon as I can try that. Busy with work.