Two Windows Boot Choices

[Guest]

A couple of times, I've received a preconfigured laptop with XP SP2 that I
have to format because of company policy. After performing a clean install of
XP and the system finally boots into the OS, I restart. Upon restart after
the 'Dell boot screen' comes and goes, two "Windows XP Professional" choices
appear. The system counts down from 30 seconds and boots to the first
"Windows XP Professional" option by default. It's acting as if its dual
booting but I only installed one OS on one partition. It boots into the OS
normally but the choices are a bother. In the past I've tweaked the boot.ini
file and deleted one of the WinXP Pro entries, but ended up hosing the
computer and it no longer booted...not even into Safe Mode. For visual
effect, I've also tweaked the 30 second count into zero or 1 second. But this
is still annoying each time I build a PCs OS from scratch and somehow I feel
that there should only be one entry of "Windows XP Professional" appearing.
Just to let you know, when performing a clean install of XP, I'm choosing to
delete the partition and create a new one. Then I install the OS onto the
'one' partition. Afterwards, I choose a 'Quick' Install. With that said, what
am I doing wrong? I've built the OS on primary hard drives that are
partitioned and on primary hard drives that are not-partitioned. But end up
with the same results! Does anyone know why the two "Windows XP Professional"
titles appear after boot?

 

[DL]

Providing you've done a clean install correctly I can think of no reason for
getting two boot choices
You can use msconfig / boot.ini tab / check all boot paths to clear any
eronious entries

 

[Vlad Katkov]

Well, I get three Windows XP choices, although I have only one
installed right now. Frankly it doesn't bother me. Think of it as if
it asks you "Are you sure you want to start your XP?". Just like when
your computer loads and you have the option to go into BIOS or view the
POST message, this is the same thing.