When I boot up my computer it comes to this screen where I have to select windows 98SE or Winxp Pro, now this came about a while ago when I first "half" isntalled winxp. But I thought by fully installing it this would go away. Obviously not. So how do I get rid of it? Its basically this screen that gives you 5 seconds to choose either one, and will auto load xp after that time, however I would definately prefer if it wasnt there.

Odds are that you have a boot.ini file in c:\. I'd edit it in notepad or something and set it to timeout=0 (instead'a timeout=5 or whatever it says).

[ 05-11-2004, 05:14 AM: Message edited by: Gnarf ]

I shouldnt since I have deleted my whole win98SE folder and also the registry should be clean since I installed winXP on a full install.

Shouldve reformatted. just because you deleted win98, doesnt mean its completely gone. :(

to get rid of the option, do this. go to:

My computer -> tools -> folder options -> view

change the 'do not show hidden files...' to 'show hidden files...' and then untick 'Hide protected operating system files'

go to:

c:\boot.ini

mine looks like this:

[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOW S
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Micro soft Windows XP Professional" /fastdetect

you want to remove any lines about win98 from the [operating systems] section. also, should you ever want to change the timeout period on the count down (in case you need a dual boot), changing the 'timeout' changes the time of countdown. you can have a lot of fun here though, as my brother does dual boot XP and 98. except on the boot screen his 98 is called 'Markrosoft Porndows' :D . all you have to do is change the name in the quotes " "

dont forget to hide protected operating system files when your done :D

Ok il try it. I did try and format, but it wouldnt let me for some reason, it just kept throwing out some error saying I couldnt although I formatted the other HDD no problem

What you need to do is to erase the partition first.

This will remove EVERYTHING on your hard drive, so back up everything first. I'd also suggest disconnecting any other hard drives first as well.

Boot from the XP CD, and when prompted to install, delete the partition, then reboot. It's important that you reboot at this point before creating another partition. Boot from CD again, create a partition and do a full format, not a quick format.

Once installed, make sure before you do anything install a full time AV program, such as norton and a firewall.

well thanks Zero Alpha, that worked fine. Animal, would it be possible to manually delete all the system files now they are shown or is that not advised?

no. just no. deleting the system files is a baaad idea. when you installed windows xp, was that when you tried to format? i know this sounds odd, but you didnt just try right clicking and choosing format on C drive in windows did you? ive heard that one before! you dont need to remove the partition, only do a proper format. i often either use a win98 disk if i want the drive to be fat32 or just let winxp do it during setup if its ntfs. [img]smile.gif[/img]

When doing a quick format or an upgrade install, the system just erases the file table, not the files itself or the boot sector. Although MS claims that an upgrade can be done, it's not the most reliable install since the upgrade leaves a fair bit of system files, that are not compatibable with XP.

In short if things are working fine now, then leave it. If you're having problems then do yourself a favour, save the time and do a complete and full clean install.

thats what I did first time, but I didnt format the C: when installing xp as I installed it on a different drive and on a different partition. Everything is fine just now though so I will leave it as it is.