Computer asks for uninstalled operating system

Hello all ... a long time ago I installed a second version of Windows XP on my computer. If memory serves, I installed it on the same directory as my original operating system. I uninstalled it shortly thereafter ... however, every time I boot up, the computer asks me which copy of XP I want to use. This despite the fact that I have since totally reinstalled windows and even replaced the physical hard drive! How can I get it to stop asking for an operating system that no longer exists?
Currently I am running XP Pro on an AMD Athlon 64 3000+ with 2 Gigs of RAM and 750 Gigs on 3 hard drives.
Many Thanks!!

 

What was the original OS?

What is the exact message you see?

Windows will never successfully install different versions in the same directory, and even if it appeared to succeed, it would never work properly.

You said "..even replaced the physical hard drive!.."

The only way that you could be getting a message like the one you describe is if you installed the OS on the new drive from an image made with the old drive, *OR* if there's a second drive in the system that was the target of a previous OS install. You said you have 3 drives - make sure none of them had an OS installed on them.

Does the machine have a floppy drive, and if so, is the drive empty?

Possible simple fix: go into BIOS setup, and make sure that the boot order has your desired Windows drive (probably drive C) specified as the first one to look for during the boot sequence.
The down-side of that is, if you wanted to boot from a CD or some other device, you would have to change the BIOS config again.

 

Changing the boot.ini file worked -- problem resolved!!
Many thanks!!
:wave