Boot strangeness on my T30

[cparker]

When I got my t30 used a year or so ago it booted up with one choice: windows xp pro. At the time I was ignorant about backups with the IBM software so I thought I'd do it the old fashioned way that had worked for me over the years using Drive image, which worked just fine with win 2000. No luck there. So I used partition magic 8 to just copy the partition to unused space on the drive, shrinking it down to 8gigs or so and keeping it "hidden", while expanding the first partition, the one I used to make the copy so as to have plenty of disk space left to run my system. So far so good. But when I booted up I now showed 2 choices. Windows xp pro and windows xp pro[1]. Didn't pay any attention to it, just booted with the first choice and all was fine. I also installed the IBM software and made a full backup. After a while I noticed that the second choice xp pro[1] also booted up and also showed the same amount of disk space available on c drive as the first. This seemed strange. So I created a new directory on the c drive in partition [1], then booted to xp pro (not [1]) and found the same directory was there as well. Hmmmm... but if I changed user account settings on one it didn't apply to the other. All this I could live with, but I found I needed to remove the ms office suite because I have office 2007 which I want to instal. Then I noticed a problem. I removed in from partition [1] but it only partially removed itself in partition xp pro (not [1]). I realized, then, that I have to get rid of one of these two windows xps. But where are they? If I go to the administrator tools I can see the hidden partition that contains a copy of the partition containing the original xp pro in it I see this from either the xp pro or the xp pro[1]. I thought I might just delete that hidden partition and create a "d" drive in the space. But I don't want to do anything until I understand just what is happening here. I'm totally puzzled by this. If I do a system restore from the cds I created I get a nice fresh image, but it's on BOTH xp pro and xp pro[1], the software is the same on both, the only seeming difference is that the previous "user" list on bootup (which I changed using the system administrator's tools) is the same as before the restore. So the two OSs are different. Any help explaining what is happening and how to get rid of one of these two win xp pro bootup choices would be appreciated. I want to have one OS and then install my office 2007.

Thanks,

[truk]

With hidden and system files shown, please paste the boot.ini (it's a text file.) I have a feeling you don't actually have two installs.

[cparker]

Here is what's on the file:

[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Professional" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Professional (#1)" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect

What do you think?

[RealBlackStuff]

By default it boots to partition(1) in your boot.ini

You can delete the second line with partition(2) and (#1) in it.
If you then also change to 'timeout=0' it will boot straight into the correct XP.

[cparker]

Thanks!

Can I then just remove the XP that's in the hidden partition at the far end of the disk without causing problems? I would think that it's that I should be able to do this but just thought I'd mention this concern before "pulling the trigger".

Thanks,

[RealBlackStuff]

In your OP you say you just copied the (then) C-partition to a hidden partition as backup.
So you can just as easy delete that now, and use PM to join the now free space to your first partition.
Or, make it into a normal partition and put a current image of your C-drive in there, which you then replace on a regular basis, to have an internal backup. If the whole HD goes, you still have nothing though, so perhaps also burn an image onto a DVD.

[cparker]

Thanks. I'll delete the partition, resize the original partition, and just use the cd backups. The cds are working fine, and I've been able to restore the system without any problems. Thanks for all the help!

[cparker]

I used partition magic to delete the hidden partition, then resized the first partition to cover the empty space. Everything seems to work fine now. No boot choices at all, justs boots into XP. Am making backup cds of the image. Done! Thanks everyone.