Dual boot

Okay, I originally had 2 partitions. One for general use, one for Gaming. I just reformatted the general use partition, and when I boot up, I don't get a choice of which XP Partition I'd like to boot.

How do I fix this?

 

Yeah, when you reformatted your general drive, it destroyed the boot.ini settings. Right now if you check your boot.ini file, it probably looks a lot like this:

It could also show "XP Professional" or something else, depending on what OS you're running. You need to edit it so it reads more like this:

To see the boot.ini file, you need to set Windows to show hidden files & folders. It will be located right on your 'C' drive. Once you find it, you can edit it directly with notepad. Please back-up a copy of the original before you mess with it, just in case.

 

Also, you may install any OS loader like lilo or grub. Or if you have an Acronis partition software or smth., it's also got an OS Selector utility that can help you to manage your system loading.

 

I've used GRUB before and didn't really like that - thanks though.

I went into my Windows directory, and there's no boot.ini file. I ran a search and there is no boot.ini file on my computer - there's a backup located at Windows/pss though.

 

To edit boot.ini try:

Windows key + pause/break key
Advanced tab
Startup and Recovery Settings button
Edit

*****************
Just a question after formatting general use partition you reinstalled windows, correct?
Just want to make sure you actually have two working Windows versions for a boot menu to choose from.

 

You can't find it because it's hidden.
Besides, the boot.ini file is located in the root of your C partition. in order to be able to see it you need to unhide hidden files and folders. You may do it in Control panel - folder options - view tab - untick hide system files, select show hidden files and folders.

 

Or you can do it with a command line.

Start Command Prompt ("Dos command prompt" on older versions of windows)

go to c:\

dir /ah

 

I have hidden files showing, thanks Sach - I'm about to find out whether it worked or not.

 

It worked! Thank you all so much.